F***ing cyclist!

[Chromatix]

I'm a cyclist.

I use my lights, ride on the cycle paths (where they exist), and make sensible decisions on whether to use the footpath or the road when there isn't a cycle lane. I obey traffic lights, unless it's very quiet and I can *see* the road is clear and safe.

I don't always wear a helmet. But that's my decision, and I prefer to practice active rather than passive safety.

In short, I'm not an idiot.

But I do see other cyclists ignoring the rules and all common sense. I also encounter the occasional motorist who doesn't see me, despite the lights I'm using (often two headlights and two tail lights, plus various reflectors). These two things are what drive the statistics and make cycling look unattractive.

[eltf177]

We've got the exact same problems where I live; bicylists insist they have the same rights as cars on the roads but think they themselves don't have to obey the rules! I got news for you idiots, with those rights come responsibilities. It's _not_ pick one and ignore the other; its' both or neither!

There was an interesting Letter to the Editor in one of our local papers recently; there was some sort of bike marathon and the police handed out over 200 tickets to bicyclists. The writer was complaining that "this was no way to treat guests to the county", even though he admitted "bicyclists tend to be their own worst enemy"!

[Gerrinson]

A while back there was a cyclist who came flying off the sidewalk into the single lane of traffic right in front of me. I didn't have time to slow down enough to miss him and still be behind him, so I went around him instead.

He caught up to me at a red light, yelled through my window 'Share the f***ing road!' and then proceeds to ride right through the red light.

When I caught up to him down the road I got right behind him, blared my horn and flipped him the bird. If he wanted me to 'share the road' I guess he shouldn't have A) flown into traffic without heeding right of way and B) at least obeyed the traffic laws once he was out in traffic.

Also, I'm not sure why these cyclists* think they can challenge my Two Tons of Rolling Death** and win. I might have to paint a fender, but I'm pretty sure their spine and legs aren't as easily fixed...

*I'm only referring to the morons like the ones detailed in this thread. I've seen plenty of good cyclists obeying the rules and I have zero issues with them.

**aka Big Hunk of Rusty Steel aka my car.

[MattW]

Quite a few cyclists around here think they have the right to cycle on the bloody pavements (sidewalks) around here! Had encountered such an idiot yesterday - AND he was wearing all the correct safety gear!!! There's never a copper when you want one!

[Pagan]

There used to be a common courtesy of alerting pedestrians if coming up from behind, but no more (and then the pedestrian gets made to feel like they're encroaching on the cyclist's sidewalk--that's what the bike lanes are for, but everyone seems to think they're "too dangerous").

You haven't been on the Bosque trail lately, have you? That's sounds exactly like a letter to the editor the other day!

Oh the sidewalk cyclists drive me nuts!
Here if you ride anything with a wheel larger than 24" (so a child's bike) on the sidewalk you can be fined something like $90 on the spot.
IMO if you want to ride you need to be on the road, and if you want to be on the sidewalk you need to walk your bike, not ride it.

I don't know if it's still the same (I'm hoping so), but anything with wheels was not allowed on the International Mall at NMSU. This was for bikes, skateboards, roller blades, anything with a wheel. Got routinely ignored. I kept threatening to stick my arm out when one of these idiots came flying by. Go ahead, break my arm. Hope you got money because you're going to be paying for part of it. The rest would be the university, because they never enforced it, ever.

He caught up to me at a red light, yelled through my window 'Share the f***ing road!' and then proceeds to ride right through the red light.

Ah yes, the scream of "Share the road". I'm perfectly willing to share the road with them....as soon as they start sharing the road with me!

Unfortunately, around here, it seems that the one's that actually do realize that they're subject to the same rules and regulations that cars are are few and far between.

[IvorTangrean]

as far as being a sidewalk rider, I will admit that I have done that. In this particular strech of road is between two cycle areas (bike path on one side and wide residential roads on the other), thing is the road is 60km/hour and VERY busy so I would ride down the 4' wide sidewalks with a 6' grassy area on the far side of the sidewalk from the road.

Thing is one day I was going down the side walk and was approaching a pedestrian so I rang my bell yelled 'passing on you right' and went about 5' wide of the guy going maybe 20km. The guy then proceded to yell at me to use the damn road.

[Kaylyn]

On that narrow road I drive back and forth on at work, I get bicyclists that drive halfway in my lane, the wrong way, and they have the gall to wave at me, telling me to drive in the oncoming traffic lane so as not to hit them. Well, I wouldn't normally have much of a problem giving them some room, except they ALWAYS do this to me when there's a vehicle coming. So who do I hit? The cyclist or the Lincoln? Cyclist wouldn't do much damage to my truck, but I'd probably kill them...and I guarantee you either way, I'll be the one to get in trouble, from the cops AND from my company, who would probably classify it as a preventable accident ("You were going too fast! Never mind the 55mph speed limit. You should anticipate that this will happen and drive 10mph the whole time so you can just stop and let everyone go around you! Oh, and if you don't get your quota on loads, you're fired!")

[Dreamstalker]

I don't know if it's still the same (I'm hoping so), but anything with wheels was not allowed on the International Mall at NMSU. This was for bikes, skateboards, roller blades, anything with a wheel.

Most of the flat walkways on my campus are chunky gravel for exactly this reason, keep bikes off. The ex once bet me he could ride from the science building to physical plant...a mountain bike could make it, but not the dinky things most kids had (he didn't make it ten yards and I won 20 bucks).

[Chromatix]

Just get a tricycle. Because it doesn't have the front wheel doing three jobs at once, it'll behave that much better on gravel. The weight distribution over an extra wheel doesn't hurt either.

[Pezzle]

It's comments like blas87's that make me use the sidewalk sometimes though. I know motorists hate me on the road. I hate bicyclists on the roadside it makes me nervous!

If the shoulder becomes too narrow, I am perfectly within my legal rights to enter traffic until such time that it is safe to ride on the right shoulder again. Sometimes there's no sidewalk here, just grass, about a sliver of shoulder (maybe a foot and a half, MAYBE) and an endless line of turnpike/I-95 exit/entrance traffic. Anyone here living in Central NJ: Morning commuters on Old Trenton Rd and parts of Ewing. People get pissed off when I enter the road and can't catch up. I stay as far right as I can but making those cars swerve halfway over the center line is more dangerous than me just entering traffic, ESPECIALLY on some of the skinny bridges we have over creeks.

So sometimes yes it's just easier to go on the sidewalk. In downtown Trenton, where there's cars parked on the street side and barely two cars can fit passing each other on the road sometimes it's just easier to pop up on the sidewalk than try to not piss off that Isuzu truck late for his delivery.

[One-Fang]

Thing is one day I was going down the side walk and was approaching a pedestrian so I rang my bell yelled 'passing on you right' and went about 5' wide of the guy going maybe 20km. The guy then proceded to yell at me to use the damn road.

While I don't condone his swearing, he was entirely in the right. As rerant correctly pointed out, if the road is too dangerous to ride on and you feel you must be on the sidewalk for safety's sake, then you should be walking your bike.

Now, I've done sidewalk riding too, I ain't no saint, but if you do the crime - be prepared to do the time. That means acknowledging that people pointing out you are in the wrong, are in the right. You should either walk, or accept that YOU are in the wrong, regardless of the niceties of consideration that you take towards pedestrians. You're still wrong.

[ditchdj]

Just be grateful you don't work as a server and would "have the honor" of serving these jerkoffs and then getting stiffed for it.

[Dreamstalker]

There's a paved path along the Charles River that isn't specifically for one or the other (bikes/pedestrians). There is a rut next to said path that cyclists also use, but along a certain stretch the rut is 6 inches from a fence so not the best place. I always defer to the cyclists/runners along there, I figure I (on foot, relatively slow-moving) can deal with ducking under branches better than they can.

[minchazo]

Now, I've done sidewalk riding too, I ain't no saint, but if you do the crime - be prepared to do the time. That means acknowledging that people pointing out you are in the wrong, are in the right. You should either walk, or accept that YOU are in the wrong, regardless of the niceties of consideration that you take towards pedestrians. You're still wrong.

Bike safety/rules depend on where you live. In my town, bikes can legally use both sidewalks and roads. The only sidewalks off-limits for bikes are in front of businesses. Even then you can use the sidewalk if you can prove that it's safer than the road.

So the choices are: a) Ride in the road and piss off the cars, or b) Ride on the sidewalk and piss off the walkers.

[Buglady]

I am a cyclist, getting pretty serious about it lately. My bicycle is a vehicle and as such, I have rights AND responsibilities. I do have the right to ride on the road and to take a full lane if that is safest (for example, if there is a blind corner coming up and it will be unsafe for a driver to pass me until after the corner). I have the right to use left turn lanes just as a car would, and I have to right to use pedestrian crossing lights, since I can't trigger the sensor at some intersections otherwise. This is all in the highway code and city bylaws.

I also have the RESPONSIBILITY to ride predictably, to make myself visible with lights and reflectors, to signal my intentions for turning and stopping, and to obey traffic lights and signs. That last part IS something a lot of cyclists ignore, and it drives me up the frigging wall because then drivers remember the idiots and transfer that onto ME. I have yelled at other cyclists for running lights and stop signs, and other assorted idiocy. (I also yell at drivers who pass me too close - they are always very surprised when I catch up to them at the next light, but I can sprint to 40KPH if I need to - and pedestrians who decide stepping out in front of a bike is OK because the bike "can't possibly be moving that fast." I'm usually cruising at 30 kph...)