I bey traffic laws on my bike when cars are present. i may roll thru a stop sign after slowing down , if i have the right of way and its safe to do so, but you really have to yield to cars most of the time, unless you make eye contact you can t be sure that the other driver will yield to you, or even see you.
when i m alone on the road i just try to go as fast and easy as i can. if i can cut off a corner, or avoid a busy intersection i ll cut thru ab empty parking lot.
its usually safer and easier to go the long way and avoid traffic
Wow! I sympathize with all my favorite posters. This last Wednesday I was as usual early to pick up my Grandson from kindergarten. I went out for a short walk on the SIDEWALK. Someone behind me shouted HEY! It was a cyclist going full speed! I jumped out of their way while shouting HEY AZZHOLE! After the idiot passed I walked to the curb and looked down to ensure the well marked BICYLE LANE was still there! The pedestrians, joggers, and cyclists wearing dark clothing with no lights or even reflectors are known to me as Ninjas. I don’t think they are suicidal just incredibly stupid. In the Summer we have cycling clubs who seem to prefer 2 lane rural roads with no shoulder and many blind curves plus many blind elevation changes. They tend to ride 2 or more abreast. My only defense is to be careful and be ready.
We have a new law in CA that we have to give cyclists 3 ft of space. Well intended but sometimes on local streets the lane itself is around 5 ft wide, then add the cyclist and my car, I have to go to the opposite side traffic lane.
So? Why is this such a big deal? You wait until the opposite lane is clear and then go around.
You aren’t one of those people that proceeds forward without regard for oncoming traffic I hope. See that all the time around here. An obstruction on your side? Then slow down or stop if you have to and wait for the opposite lane to be clear before proceeding around. Some people act like it’s the oncoming car’s responsibility to give way or they can’t be bothered to wait a few seconds so they squeeze between the biker (or whatever is obstructing their lane) and the oncoming car.
@wesw when i m alone on the road i just try to go as fast and easy as i can.
I have been pull over by the police more times for speeding on a bicycle (twice) then in a car. ;-()
Laws need to be enforced and created more for cyclist and walkers/joggers. to walk down the road in the way of vehicles is unacceptable. People here think its ok to walk 5 wide and take up a whole street on a side road. also going the wrong direction, walkers should walk against traffic as stated before so they can MOVE when they see a car coming, because we cant see them in their ninja suits. call me rude but i usually just downshift so they hear me coming and jump out of the way, although i would never actually endanger anyones life on purpose.
I guess we could all rage about this, or we could just write it off as natural selection of survival of the least stupid?
“However in the meantime, we are still grappling with an “epidemic” of pedestrian deaths - some 47,000 between 2003 and 2012”
I worry about less experienced kid-bicycle riders. I don’t think they are getting adequate training about what it takes, what kind of thinking on their part is needed, to ride their bikes safely in traffic. Here in the San Jose area a high school student was recently killed while riding his bike to school in the morning. He apparently was riding with traffic in the bicycle lane of a one-lane-in-each direction 35 mph road, approaching a fairly busy red-light controlled intersection. His intention was to go straight through the intersection, but he somehow got trapped between the curb and a big truck turning right. Experienced bicycle riders are very aware of this problem and will move temporarily out of the bicycle lane and into the straight ahead car lane to make their intension clear and avoid getting trapped against the curb. I’m wondering if the schools required the students pass a bike safety class before being allowed to ride their bike to the campus would be of any help?
When we were kids, the police always gave us a bike safety class every year. Then we’d all go down and register our bikes and pay the 50 cents for a new license plate. Seemed to work for me. I never got killed.
Years ago I tried a few road rides with the cycling organization I belonged to. While there are good roadies, I found too many display a sense of superiority over drivers, riding two and three abreast on roads that could not accommodate that, and ignoring drivers trying to get around them. I should point out that these same riders showed the same level of superiority and disrespect for the other road riders. Rather than be social, they’d take off on the slower riders and let them ride alone, as if it were a race.
I found most mountain bikers to be exactly the opposite. Nobody wants to get lost in the woods alone, and nobody wants to crash (we all do) out in the woods alone. I co-led many rides (the rides were organized), and we never left slower riders alone. Often one of us would “lead” the slower riders and the other co-leader would lead the more experienced riders. On one ride my son cane, when he was very young, and a friend from the club hung back with me and rode with my young son to be sure he felt like part of the club. His official mileage was duly recorded in the club logs. My son grew to become a hard-core rider, cat 4 on the road and far stronger off road than I ever was. He’s also a career military combat veteran and in excellent physical condition.
When I was out riding, I got as upset about those inconsiderate riders as the drivers that had to avoid them. And when I drive, I still get upset about riders that show that arrogance. I’ll go to extremes to share a road with a rider riding responsibly, but get irritated with those that don’t. I think I get much more intolerant of inconsiderate riders than I did before I started riding, because I understand how much it affects the safety of everyone, riders and drivers alike.
Just curious but I pose this question. If you’re one of those people who get upset over someone in a car doing 30 MPH in a 45 and impeding traffic flow do you get equally upset with a cyclist who is doing 15 MPH in a 45 on that same stretch of roadway?
Not if he/she is doing his/her best to ride safely and share the roadway. In NH, it’s very often impossible to get from point A to point B on a bicycle without traversing narrow roads with poor driver visibility and no shoulders. I always hated riding such roads, but they’re a fact of life for roadies. Realize that a 35 to 50 mile ride was common a Saturday spin, and it’s impossible to go that far on NH roads without riding sections like that. Even riding the coast there’s one stretch north of Rye that’s impossible to avoid that is, IMHO, very dangerous.
My morning commute is often in the dark these days. I see people walking dogs and jogging on the right (incorrect) side of the roads every day. One morning I pulled up alongside a pair of ladies who were wearing very good reflective clothing to compliment them on their high visibility attire. I also noted that they should be walking on the left side, facing traffic. One told me I was wrong, and that was why they had their reflective vests on. The other one corrected her. The next time I saw them, there were walking on the left side. I just smiled and went on down the road.
I am with you @"the same mountainbike"
If I see a cyclist who is following the rules of the road, ( actually looking around and trying to pull closer to the shoulder when a car gets close, stopping at stop signs etc.) I will go out if my way to be courteous. I known to slow down, wait for my turn, use my turn signal and pass the cyclist totally going into the opposite lane, let the cyclist have the whole lane so he or she will not be surprised or scared…