Why (some) bicyclists piss me off...

The BBQ Pit
41

Well, a lot of this thread covered bases before I got a chance to say anything, but I’ll give it a shot.

Inconvenience: Look, I’m sometimes stunned at how hostile some drivers get at the very thought of having to pass a cyclist. The delay is minimal, usually a few seconds (yes, it actually is just that), and more often the cause of delays is a large number of cars on the road. If you did tha math and realized that if a signifigant percentage of those drivers were on bikes then your drive would be much, much faster. Look at how many cars clear a congested intersection during the green and you see where your delays really are. You’d pass more bikes, but you’d still get to where you are going faster.

Taking the Lane: Yes, I take it. The law allows me to do this when the lane is too small for a car and a bike to share. Also, in urban traffic I (for one)am going as fast as the traffic is from light to light. The law says I must stay to the right to avoid seriously impeding the flow of traffic. Preventing you from racing to the next red light to brake hard is not ‘impeding’. Most lanes I deal with are not big enough to share.

Bike Lanes: Use them, sure. Its little more than a wide lane that has been marked with a designated area. I’d appreciate it if cars stayed out of them (its not going to become car sized anytime soon.) and of course, they are considered ‘free parking’ around here.

Gas Taxes: Don’t make me laugh. My property taxes and other taxes pay for the roads. Gas Taxes are a joke against the budgets roads require and they are not designed with my needs in mind. I don’t really care about that so much but sure as fuck don’t tell me to get off the road.

Stop Signs: Yes, sometimes, I pace to avoid putting a foot down. Its my sweat at work. If you compare this infraction to the antics of cars (hint: moving closer to the car in front of you does not make you at one with the other car and you get to race through with him). If it is a multi-way intersection I do put my foot down. Very often some drivers jump their turn. This behavior happens when I am a pedestrian as well.

Riding Abreast: Can’t say that I do it. If it is a small lane that cannot field both a car an a bike I really don’t see the problem. The bikes can fit. Laws vary from state to state as to wether you can do this legally. Again it comes down to that subjective ‘impede traffic’ bit).

Critical Mass: I’ve never done one and don’t car to. I have noticed that the ratio of people who complain about them to those who actually encounter one is about 100 to 1. Critical Masses have been going on for over a decade now, and the only incidents with them have happened due to police overzealousness (San Fran. back in the 90’s and the more recent RNC NYC incidents). Yes, they do move as a pack and that means they will end up running lights. If you must, think of them as a funeral procession. I have to grudgingly admit that CM seems to have produced some results in bike awareness, although that might well be causality.

Riding at Night Without Lights: Unforgiveable. I’m with you here.

“Bikes should be glad to be able to use the road at all.” <-- Kindly go fuck yourself if this is your attitude. I have a right to basic transportation. That the roads were designed for cars is an engineering factor and does not give you the right to decide who gets to use them.

Wish Cops would ticket bad cyclists? So do I. But clean your own house first. I see car behavior every day and could fill the pit with the inane actions of drivers. It is much worse with cars. A few months ago I was approaching an intersection where a car facing the other way wanted to turn left. I had the right of way (there is a turn signal, but she had missed her turn at it.) I saw her creeping out and tried to make eye contact (I was moving at a fair clip). I made the contact, but she decided that she couldn’t wait the handful of seconds for me to clear the intersection. So she ducked her head down to the steering wheel and gunned it. Driving blind. I squeezed my brakes but ended up clipping her back panel… I was lucky. The pedestrian who was crossing the street in the same direction as me was struck and hurt. When the police and ambulance came by to sort things out I told them what happened and she stated that by denying eye contact (ducking her head) she gained the right of way. I just stared blankly. I had no answer for such stupidity, and neither did the police. But since it was considered an “accident” she is still allowed to drive. (the girl she hit had a broken leg and rib, but recovered as I understand it) Dirvers are not held accountable for their actions in any serious way. I don’t consider a tiny increase in premiums and a paltry ticket to be accountability.

42

So many misconception on both sides. :frowning:

First we have Absolute insisting that bicyclists are only allowed on the road because motorists deign to allow them. Then we have Mr. Miskatonic claiming he has the right to take up the whole road, and is entitled to play God and decide for the motorist whether he should be allowed to pass.

You guys are both wrong.

43

Mr. Miskatonic is not wrong. He is perfectly justified in taking the entire lane when it’s the safest thing for him to do. The personal safety of a cyclist trumps causing a slight delay for a motorist.

I did the exact same thing. If I’m riding over a one-lane bridge with no shoulders, there’s no way in hell I’m going to ride 3 inches from the side and let cars either buzz me within inches or hit me.

44

In my neck of the woods the everyday cyclists are not the problem at all. It’s the weekend warriors out en masse that don’t have to obey any laws because, dammit, they are in training. Stop signs/lights and common courtesy are ignored because they want to see if they can shave another 5 seconds off their 4 hour ride. It’s taken me a long time but I finally got so fed up with them that I just accept them and worry about other things now (like why do cyclists treat us runners with such contempt?).

45

Ok now I get it. The club I am in is the “Don’t swallow a camel and strain at a gnat” club. Asshole motorists don’t excuse asshole cyclists, but the worst a cyclist will do is inconvinience a self-centered motorist like yourself. Asshole motorists take thousands of lives, cause millions of dollars of property damage, and tear families apart. What club are you in?

46

I don’t have time tonight to rebutt, respond or concede to the latest arguments, but I do have a funny story to tell.

I posted this rant this morning, and have been answering it during downtime at work. This evening I left my office and went to the parking lot as usual, to get into my car. I’m very anal about it - I park it away from other cars, wash it by hand when I can, and so forth. So what do I find when reach it tonight? No less than eight separate enormous blobs of bird shit. All over the hood, roof, windshield, and driver’s side door.

It took me at least twenty minutes to clean it off to my satisfaction.

Talk about irony.

47

I actually got hit in that crosswalk once…

But my biggest peeve is the stealth cyclists. The ones who bike at night, while wearing dark clothing, without lights or reflectors. It’s like they’re begging you to hit them.

48

I’d also like to add that there are generally two types of cyclists that arouse the ire of drivers, in two different ways.

One has been mentioned above: the Weekend Warrior. The second type of cyclist feels towards these as much as automobile drivers do: they get in our bike lanes, we too know that they are always on the verge of doing stupid and therefore are always on the lookout for them, they put everyone in danger, etc.

The other type is the Serious Cyclist, commuters or racers or couriers or whatever. This latter type has one thing at the very forefront of their minds: not getting hit by cars. Trust me, we are very good at this. And part of this task is understanding that drivers are not always law-abiding (and please remember, a dangerous driver poses much more danger to the cyclist than to the driver).

So a lot of things we do that may startle or annoy you, are things we do because we have learned from our experience are necessary to avoid getting hit by cars. Please remember the difference between startling you and putting you in danger. Many of these things have to do with the fact that we are usually invisible to drivers (no matter what the lighting, clothing or weather conditions) so we pretty much have to assume that random drivers don’t see us. More than once I have had to manouver to evade likely death and, in so doing, startled (but otherwise caused no danger whatsoever to) passing motorists who quite simply didn’t see me, even though I was exactly where I was supposed to be. And more than once I’ve stared directly into the eyes of drivers as they proceed straight at me, oblivious to my presence.

“Oh, sorry [I nearly killed you], I didn’t see you!” they always say. Pretty obvious, because they clearly didn’t look.

These are the conditions we’re working under. Please don’t make it any more difficult.

49

Well thanks ever so fucking much. You’re really too kind.

You betcher ass I do. And in addition to my beliefs, I’m backed up by the police and legislators. Who do you have that backs up your asinine and fucked up beliefs?

And you know this. . .how? I know it’s been said already, but fuck off.

Funny you should mention that. See, there’s a little pissant burg near me that banned bicycles on the lone road that goes through. This was done not in response to Critical Mass, but just because the cousin fucking hillbillies that live in this incestuous little shithole pissed and moaned that they were being inconvenienced by those bicyclists. And it’s entirely unreasonable.

Again, fuck right the hell off.

That’s simple. Runners suck.

Plus, they can’t hold their liquor.

50

I’m about to quote the section which dealt with “taking up the road” and we can see if your summary was accurate.

Now I’m going to quote the Texas statutes dealing with bicycle operation on public roads.Chapter 7 TRANSPORTATION CODE

Looks like section 551.101(a) is the source of the “entitlement” he feels. As far as “hogging the whole road” it seems perfectly fine when the “whole road” is a single lane 551.103 4(B). Chalk it up to the same things as slow moving road crews or farmers driving tractors down the country lane and move on.

Enjoy,
Steven

51

A note to the bicyclists and to the people walking and jogging on the street:

I understand that you can’t always use the sidewalk. It’s bumpy and stuff, whereas the road is smooth. I’m OK with that. Just, please do the following:

  1. Do not wear all black at night. This is stupid. Especially when you wear no reflectors. I would like to be able to see you when I’m driving and you’re in my path.
  2. If you’re on a bike, follow the damn traffic rules! You cannot ride in the opposite direction of traffic on a major road. Those stoplights are there for a reason. And it’s really not fair to cut ahead in line simply because you’re small and can fit.
  3. Don’t hog the road. I’d like to be able to pass you, and although I don’t mind sharing the road, I do mind when you’re riding 10 miles an hour right in front of me. Just stay to the side, so I can get around you, please.
52

Most people I knew in England who were cyclists (as in, for example, cycling to work every morning) were also car drivers. Is it the same in the States, outside of the big cities?

One bloke would rant about asshole drivers after arriving at work in the morning, and rant about asshole cyclists whenever I took a lift with him.

53

Yes, but they also wear this tight, unflattering clothing in horrendous colors. :wink: Some goes for Tri-Geeks. 'Fraid nothing much can be done to help these poor souls.

54

Where, in this thread, did I say I take up the road?! I said I take the lane when it is deemed proper for me to do so. The only time I can take up a road is when the road is a one-laner under the same circumstances as a thin lane.

The law is clear on the cases wher I am allowed to do so. These are circumstances where it is unsafe to share the lane with a motor vehicle. On lanes where it is large enough for sharing I do not take up the lane, and frankly I would feel silly if I tried to do so. I thought I made that pretty clear in my thread. Blowero, you we’re doing well until now, why are you trying to pick a fight with me?

55

Actually, I cannot use the sidewalk at all when I am cycling. It is simply unsafe to do so, as well as often being against the law.

56

Neither am I. I am talking about days of lost time doing the work for jack off’s who live 50 miles from my office and call me every goddamned morning complaining about being stuck in traffic.
Don’t give me this sniveling shit about being inconvienced by a pack of fucking cyclists.

Look out your godamned window and see the fucking traffic.

I drive in fucking hell. Please don’t tell me how hard it is.

57

Traffic laws are designed to prevent motorists running into things. They are largely to solve the problems created by having 2 tonne POS’s moving at high speed in close proximity.

What motorists never account for in making this argument is that the wide roads requiring constant maintenance that we have are largely required because of autos.

Roads may well be paid for to a greater or lesser extent by taxes on motorists(depending on how your particular government works out its budget). But roads would not need to be nearly so big, and would not wear out nearly so fast, if not for autos. You can fit probably 6 bikes in the space taken by one car, and wear on roads is very largely a factor of weight (trucks wear roads very fast, autos slightly less, bikes virtually unmeasurably).

Or to put it in simple terms, I’ll happily concede that a low percentage of road surface is paid for by cyclists, as long as you are prepared to concede that only a low percentage of road surface is necessitated by cyclists.

A-fucking-men.

My experience is that the heavier and slower the traffic jam (consisting, I need hardly mention, of nose-to-tail, curb-to-curb automobiles) the more chance someone will get annoyed at me on my bike.

58

If you get all road-ragy at the thought of being slightly delayed in your race to work, you are not mature enough to hold a driver’s license. It’s that simple. You are a hazard.

59

I don’t think Sec. 4(b) covers his statement:

“The law says I must stay to the right to avoid seriously impeding the flow of traffic. Preventing you from racing to the next red light to brake hard is not ‘impeding’.”

Kindly point me to the subsection that exempts one from staying right in order to prevent cars from “racing to the next red light”. I don’t think it’s in there. He’s misinterpreting the law. It in fact says, “shall ride as near as practicable to the right curb or edge of the roadway”. It doesn’t say anything about “to avoid seriously impeding the flow of traffic”. He just made that up, apparently. In fact, the only criterium is whether you are moving slower, not whether you think the cars shouldn’t be “racing to the light”, or you’re “not really impeding them”, or you don’t think they should be driving that fast, or whatever. Obviously, if a car is trying to pass you, you are by definition going slower than the car.

Besides which, I seriously doubt that the Texas legislature intended Sec. 4(b) to be interpreted as a “right to take the whole lane”. Technically, I guess you could read it that way in one specific circumstance, but it’s certianly not in keeping with the spirit of the law.

60

That is not the reason I do it. The reason I take the lane is a) It is unsafe to stay to the right. or b) I am going as fast as the cars in the lane next to me.

Look Blowero, if I am going as fast as the cars in the lanes next to me, I am going fast as traffic. Now if the lane is empty in front of me and some guy wants to gun it to the next light, that does not make me slower than traffic. If I were in a car it would be the same thing. The difference is that somebody would try to pass me (while speeding) if I stayed to the right of the lane. This is the nature of people driving around bicycles, they see through you and assume you are slowing them down, when in fact you are not. If I were in a car, they would not consider such an action, but since I am on a bike I take the lane so that they do not try to pass me in a manner that will bring me danger.

That is competely and utterly wrong. What is the difference between ‘taking the lane’
and ‘not staying to the right’ when the lane is too small to hold both car an bike?