Mr. Miskatonic, since you have accused me of blaming cyclists in the most pedantic fashion possible, I feel like I should respond in kind.
Here in post #113 you opine:
Jesus fucking christ. Surely you don’t expect me or anyone else to say “Some cyclists, but not all of them” every fucking time. My statement was not “All the cyclists around here”. Clearly, my statement was fairly standard phrasing and almost everyone without a chip on their shoulder would interpret it as “some cyclists”.
My town is very bicycling friendly. I’d say Davis and Portland are the only friendlier towns that I’ve visited (I went to school at UCD). It’s the outlier behavior that causes problems, which you are treading dangerously close to, in attitude if not action. Aggressive drivers and asshole bicycle riders are both problematic. Without these behaviors, everything would be much much better.
Note that I was complaining about cyclists blowing past a stop sign turning left into traffic on a major highway challenging oncoming traffic (in both directions) to a rather one-sided game of chicken. This is A Number One Darwin Award behavior. It is not cool, it is idiotic and it makes me think these people have shit for brains. Surely you are not defending this behavior, right?
I ride illegally all the time, and I’m sure someone here will flame me for it. The deal is that people will rarely observe it because I do it without disrupting traffic or causing drivers to panic or even notice. There is a route that I take where I ride on the sidewalk for about 4 blocks. There is never a pedestrian on that sidewalk because there is a 20 foot cliff going up to the backyards of houses. I ride on the sidewalk because there is virtually no shoulder and it is a very busy major thoroughfare. I don’t stop for stop signs where there are clear sightlines in both directions and no traffic.
But on a windy narrow country road, I will slow down for a cyclist but try to pass as soon as possible. I sure as hell will try to do it safely. I expect that rider to be riding as far to the right as possible in order to allow cars to pass.
I was nearly ran over by some asshole in a car who refused to yield to my right of way. I was stopped in the bike lane to the left of the right turn lane. An asshole in a Mustang pulls up in the left lane and insists on turning right in front of me as the light turns green. We were staring each other down and I ended up yielding because he was in a 4000 pound convertible (with a wife and baby in the back seat no less). I came very close to just turning my brake lever into his car and leaving a 2 foot long scratch.
As a light turned green, I started to enter the intersection when a bicycle comes whizzing pass me blowing through the red light. I was in the rightmost lane on a 4 lane street with an island. I never leadfoot it off the line because I know that cars run red lights all the time. I locked up the brakes and missed the guy by inches.
I think Critical Mass brings a lot of visibility to the need for bike lanes. But it is patently assholish behavior and I don’t see it changing anyone’s minds. For as congested a city as it is, San Francisco is a remarkably bicycle friendly city. I would be pretty fucking pissed if I was stuck in an artificially created traffic jam on my commute home from work.
Asshole drivers and asshole cyclists need to start acting more considerately. In nearly every case, the cyclist is going to get the much worse end of the deal. I have little sympathy for cyclists who deliberately put themselves in deadly situations. Drivers need to realize that they have to share the road with cyclists.
