I run stops. I know it’s illegal. I’ll accept the consequences.
The mere presence of these threads is what gets me. You think I’m a whiner? Dig this.
A few months ago, I was in a group of 5, single file up a hill.
A car sat behind us honking. When he could safely pass, he instead buzzed us, honking the whole time. He then pulled over in front of us, slammed the car into reverse, and started back at us. I went around him on the right onto someone’s lawn. The other cyclists went around him on the left, and he opened his door right in front of them.
As far as I’m concerned, that’s assault. It might as well be a gu shooting a gun over my head. That one single incident – and I’ve been witness to several other almost as egregious and life-threatening – is a million times more fucking evil than the sum total of all bicycle complaints in every pit thread there’s even been.
Have you heard one word about it from me? (till now)
You fucking tell me who’s whining!
Forgive me for not getting too fucking worked up because a guy on a bike went by someone too fast on a multi-use path.
(ftr: the driver in the above scenario claimed that front rider of us spit on his car as he drove by. Whether you think that justifies trying to run over 4 people who didn’t spit on the car is up to you.)
I agree with you on one thing, Trunk. That driver was an asshole. So are you when you do the same damn thing to pedestrians by not signaling adequately, or when you risk your life and the long-term sanity of a driver by running a stop–it only takes one damn mistake and you’re bumper paste attached to a driver who was likely not doing anything wrong.
You’d come across as less of a total whiner jerk if you maybe confined your posting to UNjustified pits of cyclists. Running a stop sign in front of a car, LIKE THIS GODDAMN THREAD IS ABOUT, is justifiably pittable.
You know, I was thinking something like “I can’t remember who else it is who shows up in these threads with a biiiiiig fucking chip on his shoulder, with his hammer and nails at the ready and all set to go ‘Hey, I can see your house from up here!’,” and now I remember.
While we’re on the subject of bike v ped, can I just add a hearty “FUCK YOU!” to the little sweeties on their bikes who get volubly pissed off because they don’t like me walking on the left side of an undivided multi-use path? The reason I walk on the left is primarily because I have my dog with me, and dogs heel to the left. Even when he isn’t heeling, he’s on the left because that’s the way he’s trained. So I walk to the left because that gives him the verge to roam around and sniff and pee without getting in the way of the rest of the traffic on the path. Sure as shit, some snippy little cyclist in Spandex will throw a hissy fit because I’m on the “wrong” side. Look, shithead, if I walk on the righthand side of the path, my dog is going to be right in the MIDDLE of the path and a LOT harder to dodge, not to mention what the leash is going to do to you if it gets tangled in your wheel–especially if the dog in question is the hundred plus pound Malemute. Good luck pulling HER off her feet! Additionally, the path has no divider line in the middle which means there IS no “right” and “wrong” side–it’s open territory. And thirdly, fucknugget, unless the rules have changed substantially since I learned which side to stay on, pedestrians walk FACING traffic, which means that on a path where the bicyclists are the ONLY vehicles, I should walk FACING them, which means I walk on the left. Entitled stupid fucktards. My SO hates them too, and he’s never had a driver’s license, been a bicyclist all his life.
See, that’s a legitimate complaint! Hey, let’s all denounce that shitty thing the driver did: that driver is an asshole and should be placed on a slow ship to Mars with Rachel Ray and Jack Chick. Worthy of a pit thread even! Jesus, if everyone waited to start a pit thread until they had found the most objectionable thing in the universe to pit, there’d be no fucking threads here.
But some jerkass on a bike still cut me off, I don’t hate all bicyclists, and I’m not responsible for the people who want to drop a tactical nuke on Critical Mass.
Yeah, we get it. We got it by the fifteenth post about “Some – not all – cyclists”. . .just those who ride two wide, run stop signs, ride on the sidewalk.
Why doesn’t one of you just ask a mod to make it a sticky? You can all go in there and yank each other’s me-too dongs every time you see a cyclist doing something you don’t like.
Seriously? I doubt this would bother you so much if you didn’t run stop signs.
The reason people “me-too” these things is because IT BOTHERS THEM. It’s also illegal.
My guess is, if you started a pit thread about the situation you described, you’d get a ton of people me-tooing that one. Because the actions you described were illegal, and wrong, and would bother most right-thinking adults.
Endure swearing and glares and honks from onlookers wondering what the fuck this asshole cyclist is doing now. There are intersections where the sensor is not tripped by cars turning right, so it is entirely possible that you will have to cross over a lane of right-turning traffic to do this.
The only reason I harp on this particular issue (which is indeed quite rare) is because it is a great example of the way in which cyclists are totally forgotten in traffic planning, and thus end up at risk. We often have to choose between the legal thing and the safe thing. I have spoken before of the intersection I must manage regularly, which offers three options for cyclists:
Do the clearly legal thing, which requires you to (a) go south on Queen’s Park Crescent, whether you want to or not, or (b) quickly stop (in traffic), dismount, and turn 60 degrees to your left - note there are NO signs indicating that this choice is going to be necessary, or infrastructure (e.g. extra sidewalk, signs for drivers) to make it safer. Doing this also causes the cyclist to be delayed for at least one light cycle, and causes great inconvenience to pedestrians (who wonder why you’re trying to maneuver your bike around a 60 degree left turn).
Do the thing which is completely legal but which drivers do not expect, which will cause them to honk and yell at you but will in fact leave everybody perfectly safe. This is what I do.
Do the thing which is not legal but which keeps you well out of the way of the drivers in your lane and therefore will not result in any honks or yelling at all. Unfortunately it requires you to ride in the MIDDLE of the road, very close to oncoming traffic which is coming around a blind curve on a lane that was narrowed just last year. This is what most novice cyclists do.
I would like all drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to be more aware of how much danger cyclists face simply due to very poor planning. It is very common for following traffic laws to actually increase my danger, by quite a lot.
It is also very common for drivers and cyclists and pedestrians to have no idea about what is legal or safe, because when I am doing the safe and legal thing I still get honked and hollered at.
This is a good point too. Major streets are usually more dangerous for cyclists. For instance, it is significantly harder to make an unassisted left turn onto or off of a major street if you are a cyclist (every time I see it attempted, I see drivers express annoyance at the cyclist). Even though it is perfectly legal for a cyclist to make a left turn from a left turn lane on a major street, it is massively unsafe, simply because most drivers don’t expect to see you there and when they do, they often don’t like it one bit.
Another danger on major streets is on-street parking. People use those parking spots often without thinking of bikes - they open their driver’s side door, or pull out into traffic, without even a glance to see if there’s a cyclist behind them. Either of these things can, under the “right” circumstances (streetcar tracks, oncoming traffic, etc) can mean serious injury or death for even the most meticulous cyclist. Also, visibility is reduced and pedestrians (also not looking out for cyclists) can step out from between parked cars quite suddenly, putting both ped and cyclist at risk.
So for these reasons I do my best to avoid main roads and stay on side streets. This means that I encounter intersections that don’t change unless there is a car or a pedestrian there. Until I get the hang of moving my bike laterally, this will remain another of those inconveniences of the sort that automobile drivers never have to systematically deal with.
So on the day that you run a stop sign and get creamed will you at least use your last breaths to sign your name in blood so that we can all laugh at your memory every time we pass the spot of your demise.
This isn’t always practical or safe. Consider that a cyclist may be in the left-turn lane, so getting to the pedestrian signal button can require crossing 3 lanes (if there are 2 straight-through lanes and a right-turn lane). During the time it takes to walk back to the left-turn lane and mount the bike again, it’s very possible that a car will approach the intersection from behind, see the green light and speed up.
It’s also very possible that the green light has ended by the time I’m back in position and ready to start moving. On some bikes (like this streamliner I used to own), it takes some time to get on and start moving.
cowgirl, could you please explain #2 for us? You explain the clearly legal and not legal options pretty well but don’t explain the completely legal but unexpection option at all.
I did. You are wrong. We were discussing lights being tripped by sensor, the return was that the ‘pedestrian button should be pressed’. In turn I pointed out that the left turn signal was
a) Not affected by the pedestrian button. Pedestrians aren’t standing in the left-turn lane.
b) Even if it was activated by the pedestrian button it would involve jaywalking through a couple of lanes of traffic to get to said light.
Wrong. The bike is in the left turn lane, which is triggered by a sensor because the road designers decided that there weren’t enough cars turning left a that intersection to justify a regular timed turn light, so they had it activated by sensor. Ergo, I have no way of changing the light, button or not.
When I was studying for my drivers’ license test (about a century ago) in Florida, I learned:
Bikes should follow the same traffic laws as cars, including driving on the right, passing to the left, stopping at stop signs (and they even insisted bikers should walk their bikes across all intersections, which, trust me, isn’t going to happen) signaling turns, and otherwise following the traffic laws.
Pedestrians should walk on the left, facing the oncoming traffic.
So if walkers would stay to the right on the bike path (and not cover the whole damned thing walking 5 abreast), and bikes passed on the left, and walkers on the road stayed to the left, everyone could be happy and safe.
As far as I know, it’s street-legal everywhere in the US. It’s just a tricycle with a fiberglass shell on it, and I can’t find any law against that. I was pulled over once, but I explained (and showed) that it had no engine inside, and that seemed to satisfy the officer. As for safety, yes it can be an issue, but a slight change in riding habits (e.g. not riding too close to the curb, where you can be obscured by shrubs and guardrails) is all it takes to be seen.
I bought that one used, under $3000, but it wasn’t a very good implementation of this concept. I have this one on order now, which is a much better design (monocoque composite construction, full suspension, etc) but more expensive. Probably around $9000 including all import/shipping fees. Which may seem expensive, but I think it’s a reasonable amount to spend on my primary commuting vehicle. People spend that much on cars all the time when they don’t have to - the difference between a luxury SUV and a basic family car can be much more than $9000.
You’re speaking of this light that you have to spend all this time “shivering” at while you’re waiting for it to change, right?
I can’t imagine someone who is riding their bike is going to complain about the weather while they’re waiting for a light to change. I mean, you’re on a BIKE. It’s not like the weather is a shock to you – you’ve been in it for a while already. Yes?