Basically what I mean is bikes, like Amsih buggies, tractors, and other slow things are just part of traffic. On one hand I know it can be really frustating if you’re in a hurry but on the other hand raging at bikes is like raging at the rain. Better to try to plan your schedule to accommodate traffic.
Although my usually rageless driving tends to be off putting and weird to some people, so maybe I’m just a freak. However I more then make up my outrage quota on a bike, so go figure.
It is completely irrelevant whether another person or another group does or does not obey the law - the law still applies to you. Are you a pedestrian? You should obey the law. Are you a cyclist? You should obey the law. Are you a motorist? You should obey the law. It is not up to any individual to decide that the law should not apply to them, or to their mode of transportation. If the law should be changed, in your opinion, then start the process with your city council, or traffic wardens, or whoever is appropriate.
I am sick to death of hearing these justifications for illegal behaviour - it’s as bad as a four year old in the back seat of the car.
The times I take up a whole lane is when there’s no shoulder and I precisely don’t want you to try and pass me.
And of course this is different in other places, but here in nyc 20 mph is a pretty decent speed for a car. But it always seems to piss people off that a biker is in front of them. Why can’t they just treat me as a slow car, which they’d tolerate? I’m pedaling hard to keep up at a respectable speed, and what they’ll do is show off and accelerate even faster past me. Why have this disdain.
So…you’ve never speeded in a car? Never walked across a street when you had a red light when there was not a car in sight? You have always come to a complete and full stop at a stop sign when there wasn’t a car for miles around? Always?!
The laws are in place to keep large objects from running into other large objects or small objects. They set an order and work for traffic flow. They are not for mere slavish obedience to authority.*
Note that speeding doesn’t really fall under the last categories.
Mostly shared. I have no problem with sharing; it’s a nice day, get out and enjoy it. If we can all stay out of each other’s way, the more the merrier. I only ask for one lane; it’s the pedestrians who aren’t sharing.
Today I saw something new. On the shared path, a guy found a nice, shady spot to wax his car.
I’m not Robot Arm, but I too get frustrated with pedestrians on our local bike/pedestrian trail. The nearly always take up the entire width of the trail by walking 3-4-5 abreast. They stand in the middle of the trail to converse, rather than moving off to the side. And if there is a downhill stretch of trail followed immediately by an uphill stretch, they will choose the lowest point in the middle to stop and let their leashed dog relieve itself (usually with the leash stretched across the trail) or organize their gaggle of children, or reorganize all the crap in the stroller they’re pushing, forcing any bicyclist who was hoping to use the downhill to build momentum for the uphill to come to a screeching stop or near stop and then attempt to pedal uphill with no momentum. And most of these people are utterly clueless about how to react to an approaching bicycle. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a group of pedestrians taking up the whole trail, seen them all look at me approaching from 50 yards away, and make no attempt to move to one side. Which basically forces me to drive off the trail onto the grass or whatever other unfortunate surface borders the trail, something that is okay if I’m on a mountain bike, but definitely not okay when I’m on a road bike with 1/2"-wide tires.
The only thing worse than pedestrians is rollerbladers who zig-zag back and forth across the trail. They’re next to impossible to pass safely.
I do not break traffic laws deliberately. Yes, I have driven 50 km/h in a 40 zone when I didn’t notice the sign. Yes, I have even run a stop sign in an unfamiliar city.
In my opinion, the traffic laws should be obeyed. Period. Motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. Risking someone else’s safety because you think you know better than the traffic code is the act of a selfish asshole.
I am an habitual cyclist. I do admit I occasionally disobey road rules inasmuch as they sometimes have an overriding purpose that is clearly irrelevant to me (e.g. a stopped right-hand filter for cars that has a pedestrian crossing to my left - me cycling across the intersection to the right during that part of the phase of the lights doesn’t endanger me or the pedestrians). And being also an habitual car driver, when on a bike I’m very aware of car behaviour, and act accordingly for my own safety and their convenience (like not sneaking up on their blind side when they may turn). Call me a selfish asshole if you like, but I promise you I never endanger other road users.
And anyway, last week I hopped off my bike after work, then about an hour later walked out of my house and down the street to a restaurant. Some dickpiece on a bike swerved around me on the sidewalk, whacking me with his handlebar, and causing me to twist my back. I shouted after him to get on the f***ing road, and he gave me the finger.
So, you’re saying, as a bike rider, you should always have the right of way, because it’s less convienient for you to stop?
In that case, pedestrians have the right of way over the bicyclist, even when they break the law.
Oh wait, bikes have that right of way too, since they need the momentum to go fast and up hill.
Oh please. This is magnifying the pettiest of petty violations into drama-queen level personality defects.
Today I walked across the street I live on to chat with a neighbor living on the other side. I did not walk 1/2 a block to the intersection, cross there, and walk 1/2 a block back. I simply crossed the utterly empty 1-lane street that at its busiest traffic level gets a car about once every ten minutes.
According to you that makes me a selfish asshole. In my book it is a level of ‘selfishness’ that is maybe slightly above me breathing AIR and eating FOOD.
It is not a matter of me knowing ‘better’ than the vehicle code. It is a matter of knowing what it is FOR.
A couple of weeks ago, I got to help out an accident on our quiet street. A cyclist had fallen over doing an emergency stop for a jaywalking pedestrian who was crossing the street to get in a car that was parked on the wrong side of a two way street. In the ensuing argument, the cyclist was abusive and threw his bike across the hood of the car. All three of them had done something wrong - the car for parking where it was, the pedestrian who had jaywalked and the cyclist for throwing the bike after the accident.
I’m sure the pedestrian didn’t think there was anything going to happen as a result of her jaywalking, and may have even given me some ‘Oh, please!’ argument - she certainly didn’t enjoy it when I told her it was her fault the cyclist had got hurt.
But it bloody well was - selfish asshole. Thing was, she couldn’t hear the bicycle as she stepped into the street between two parked cars.
So, no - I don’t care what happens to you when you break the law and get hurt. Tough cookies. However, when you hurt someone else because you thought you knew better, I think you’re a dick.
Wow. 3 responses to my post, and all of them are cyclists making excuses for other cyclists breaking the law. I have even less respect for the group as a whole than I did when I entered the thread.
No, nothing near 100% of cars run the 4-way stop on my street. No, the bicycles I’ve seen running stop signs are going a hell of a lot faster than the cars I’ve seen who illegally execute a rolling stop. If you are afraid of exerting extra energy at a stop sign, leave the bike at home.
sigh Jaywalking in my hometown in any of the places I walk is pretty much asking to die or at least get seriously injured. So yeah, I’ll walk to the crosswalk and wait for the walk signal.
My problem with bikes are the ones I see downtown, on my daily commute, who are disobeying traffic laws flagrantly, either by running reds and stops, or by riding on the sidewalk, or both. Not only are they endangering pedestrian me, but I would prefer not having it on my conscience when some idiot runs a stop sign without looking and I turn him into a bumper decoration because cars do not stop on a dime.
All the counterexamples have to do with sleepy residential areas or some equivalent area. The OP and myself, at least are talking about downtown areas with buses and traffic, and it is there that we want the freakin’ rules to be obeyed–and for that matter, getting almost anywhere in my former sleepy small town involved a major US highway, so follow the rules there, too.
I’m just imagining the outrage the first time some guy in a car rolls through a stop sign and you almost crash into the side of him on a bike, I can imagine the apoplexy that usually happens here.
I’ve noticed a West Coast/East Coast split on rolling stops and speeding. East Coast, we speed like mad, having 80 MPH+ averages on highways… not individuals, the average speed of the road being that… but we obey the stop signs and traffic lights. West Coast? The speed limit is the law, but rolling stops are juuust fine.