Why do bicyclists go through stop signs?

Factual Questions
21

this past spring, I was on my way to pick up my wife at work, when I came across a street that had a stop (the other street, not mine.)
as I was coming to it, there was a kid (about 13-15) who ran his stop, cutting me off… I had to hit the brakes HARD, to keep from plowing him. After he was through the intersection, he faced me and laughed as he gave me the finger… I was || <- this close to turning around and chasing him down with my car.
These are the people that I can’t stand.
Personally, I feel that if you can’t keep up to the normal flow of traffic, you don’t belong with said traffic…

Glenoled

22

Good Lord! It sounds like there are a number of people hiding in the shadows, waiting for someone to ride by so they can poke something in their wheel and knock them down. Why? Because they’re on a bike??? WTF???

Let’s leave bike messengers out of this, because most I’ve seen in NYC frankly have very little disregard for anyone but themselves.

What exactly is meant by “going through stopsigns”? Does this mean cutting people off, cutting ahead of cars coming in other directions who have the right-of-way, etc.? If so, than these riders are akin to bad drivers who speed up at yellow lights, change lanes without signaling, and fail to yield the right of way in a variety of situations. They’re bad drivers. These would be bad riders. There’s no avoiding either kind.

What about pedestrians who cross against the red light? Are they assholes too? Should attempts be made to knock them down? Trip them? Of course not. They can clearly see when it’s safe to cross.

As njk8 and Anachronism have pointed out, a cyclist’s field of vision is much better than a driver. They, too, can see when it’s safe to cross.

When you’re out riding, part of what you’re trying to do is maintain a certain cadence and speed over an extended distance. Believe it or not, we do not go through stop signs to piss you off. We do so, when it’s safe, to maintain momentum. If you’re cutoff by a cyclist and you have the right of way, you have the right to be pissed. But if anyone is offended because a cyclist just went through a stop sign or red light while you were standing idly on the side of the road, then I suspect you may have a bigger issue to deal with.

23

San Francisco is the worst for bikers. They complain to high heaven about having equal rights on the street but I have yet to see any biker stop for a stop sign unless a car was directly in the way.

I don’t care really, they need their momentum around these hills and I always look out for them. HOWEVER, I don’t like the idea that they can sue the operator of a car for their own mistakes.

24

Not to pick on Fretburner, or challenge what he says, but I think a lot of people feel more threatened by cyclists than they should. Warning: Rant ahead.

If I’m biking down an empty street, and several people are crossing the street in both directions, am I going to plow right through unaware? No, if I plow through it’s because I’m paying attention, and can see that there will be a clear path for me to travel through. But it never fails that someone will look up and freeze like a deer in headlights, as I come bearing down on them. I’m forced to slam on the brakes, or swerve precariously. If only they had continued walking normally, I would have been bearing down not on them, but on where they had been three steps earlier.

People, I don’t care if you’re in a car, on a bike, on rollerblades, or a pedestrian, MAINTAIN YOUR SPEED AND DIRECTION. Sudden changes put you at risk.

Any bicyclist that suddenly swerves in front of a car or other vehicle has earned that trip to the hospital. Any pedestrian who suddenly stops before reaching the sidewalk, is just asking for trouble from the taxi planning to use that lane at that instant to turn the corner. On the other hand, if you are slowly and clearly showing a change of motion, it’s the responsibility of other vehicles to compensate.

25

Slanted view nonwithstanding…

In San Fransisco, you can kill a bicyclist and get away with it without any punishment whatsoever. Even when you showed obvious malice towards said bicyclist. Its close to the perfect crime. I’ve never lived there, but the bicyclists have had more problems per square mile than most other cities.

Intersting, gotta cite for that?

I am a frequent bicyclist and pedestrian. As a pedestrian I have had zero problems with bikes, wheras several idiots have come close to running me down becuase I started walking when the light turned green for me, or while they were turning right on red without looking at their own crosswalk.

As a biker I have had folks jaywalk right in my path. Fortuantely there was enough time for me to react in al of these cases. I accept jaywalking as a part of urban travel.

I could fill the pit with tales the actions of stupid drivers around me as a pedestrian and biker.

I confess I play by “Oregon Rules” in the state I am in. Named for the rules bicyclists could operate under in Oregon (which may no longer apply). The rules are as such:

1)A four way stop sign may be treated as a Yield sign…at the bicyclists own risk

  1. A red light may be treated as a full Stop sign at the bicyclists own risk.

Any car, hint of car, pedestrian, other bicyclist, motorcyclist, moped, skateboarder, scooter, or hint of such and I come to a full stop. I have a much better field of vision than any car or SUV, plus I can hear things much better as well. So I consider my judgement to be proper as to when it is proper to apply “Oregon Rules”.

I’ve never caused a problem. Plenty of problems have been caused for me. I can see a folks in this thread seem to feel causing such problems is their civic duty. That frightens me.

26

So is a dictionary, thread search or a good memory, Chris. Enlightenment can be such a transitory thing.

To the OP (cyclist here):
Because they are asshole pricks. Not knowing is no excuse. Yes, it’s a hassle. But it’s the law and it’s the safe thing (for you and others) to do. If you can’t obey the laws, either drive, mountain bike or find a track.
We who ride bikes are tired of taking pot shots from drivers due to your arrogance or laziness.

Sorry. End of rant.

27

…Of course, you might have a big friend named Noone who will protect you in your lawlessness.

:smiley:

28

It’s a well-known fact among bicyclists that a person atop a bicycle is magically rendered invisible to a person inside a car. They’ve been trying for decades to remedy this, wearing bright clothes and carrying lights, but still the old defense of, “I didn’t see him, officer. He came out of nowhere!” will generally draw a sympathetic nod and a, “well, accidents happen” in response.

(This actually happened to a friend of mine after the motorist ran a stop sign. Contrary to popular belief, the cops don’t usually side with the bicyclist.)

There is, however, one surefire way for a cyclist to get noticed, and that is to break the law. Doing so is akin to giving him a neon sign that says, “hey, look at me! I’m breaking the law!” Being that this suddenly makes these bicyclists, and these bicyclists alone, visible, the motorist is quick to assume that all bicyclists break the law.

In response to the OP, i ask: why do motorists run red lights? Or drive in the bike lane? Or simply speed? I see all of these happen just as often (which is to say a lot), they’re far more likely to kill or seriously injure someone other than the guilty party, and the excuses given are inevitably just as lame.

29

I’ll second that. Chris Robertson was a friend of mine.

30

I checked the Oregon laws regarding bicycles at http://www.massbike.org

The laws for other states from this site display weirdly in my browser. However, bicycles in Oregon have to follow the same rules as cars with some exceptions, for example, if you’re on a bike you can coast downhill, but you can’t do that in a car.

There also a lot of provisions for bike lanes in Oregon.

31

FTR, I am a bicyclist who usually stops at stop signs. As slowly as bicycles go, it usually doesn’t cause as many problems as cars that run stop signs. It’s also more effort to start again on a bike than it is in a car. But bicyclists should try to obey traffic laws.

On the whole, though, I think people ought to be lauded for riding bikes instead of driving cars (especially considering how heavily the US relies on oil from the Middle East), and most drivers have a lot of other things they should save their anger for.

[Edited by JillGat on 10-01-2001 at 08:39 PM]

32

Cars have the road and pedestrians have sidewalks. Cyclists don’t get jack. We have to “share” the road with good drives, bad drivers, 18-wheelers, SUV’s, and dualie pick up trucks. I’d be more than happy to start a pit thread about the number of times I’ve almost be clobbered by a car. My friend actually has, 2 weeks before collegiate nationals and wrecked is ~$4,500 Trek 5900 (droool). Luckly he survived, and the accident wasn’t his fault. If I was king of the world, every road would have it’s own bike lane.

I for one stop or rolling stop at all the stop signs, it’s just common sense and a chance to practice the track stand (Great link!) :smiley:

For those of you that wish harm upon cyclists because they’re in your way or whatever, then do me a big favor and write your congressman/woman and ask them to install more bike lanes in your area. Like I said earlier, we have to “share” the road or “share” the sidewalk, so deal with it or do something about it.

as for…

This is the biggest load of crap I’ve seen in GQ in a long time. Please do me a favor a think before you speak.

33

That’s beautiful. Actually, unless they try to run me over (as in your case), I don’t care if they run a stop sign. They have a lot of problems with cars, so I give them a little slack on stop signs. Some of them, of course, are just complete morons.

Just avoid me, give me plenty of room, don’t block the crosswalk, STAY OFF THE SIDEWALK, and we’ll be just fine.

34

quoth cykrider:

Running through lights or rounding blind corners, and nearly mowing down pedestrians in the process, is not “sharing”.

Not many cyclists do this, compared to the overall number of cyclists, but the ones who do practice these reckless road habits are big dumb jerks.

Not many drivers drive recklessly or in violation of laws either, relative to the overall numbers of drivers, but the ones who do are also big dumb jerks.

And pedestrians who impede traffic or otherwise disrupt or make unsafe the movement around them, or their own personal situation, are also jerks.

Most people are not jerks. I don’t think anyone posting here is anti-bike, anti-car, or anti-anything other than big dumb jerks.

35

I think most cyclists tend to prefer getting through an intersection whenever cars aren’t there but against the law to when cars are there but with the law. Basically, intersections are dangerous for cyclists, and they don’t trust laws written for cars to protect them.

In my experience, the police don’t care. I have fairly blatantly broken traffic laws on a bicycle in front of cops with nary a second glance. One time, a cop directing traffic told me that I needn’t have stopped, despite the red light and the throng of people crossing.

36

And we do have lots of bike lanes compared with most places.

Personally, I usually stop at red lights. There is one occasion that I don’t. It involves turning left.

When I want to turn left, I use the left turn lane if there is one. Unfortunately, the sensors that detect traffic in left turn lanes do not work with bikes. So if there’s no car also in that lane, I get no green light. So I will sometimes turn against a left turn red light if the straight ahead traffic has a green and I will not impede oncoming traffic.

37

Why on earth is this in GQ?
For the record, I obey all traffic regs while on my two-wheeler-- which nearly got me run over by a police cruiser running a stop sign.

Cops don’t like it when you tell them to “Keep your *&@!ing eyes on the road!”

38

A lot of the posts above belong in the Pit, some in GD, and quite a few in IMHO. Very few belong in GQ. I think it’s best if I just close this.

Oh, and no sticking anything in the spokes of a bicycle except baseball cards, please.

bibliophage
moderator GQ