Future road pizza

[vikingchyk]

Some bicyclists are really annoying. They froth at the mouth because cars are mean to them, point out chapter and verse how cars are supposed to act around them[1], then ride around any damn way they please, ignoring traffic laws they don't like.

So, guy I saw yesterday. He was in the right lane on a divided 2 lane road which has no shoulder. I get over into the left lane, but the people in front of me do not, so he has very little space at the traffic circle, and the two cars trailing him and crowding him in the traffic circle. Then after the circle, he manuevers to this area that takes him up onto a sidewalk. Which is it, are you on the road or on the sidewalk??

So the cars get to the next intersection, and we're in the two right turn lanes, but No Right on Red. So we're sitting there, waiting for the light to change, when BikeMan catches up with us. He pops out off the side walk, into the lanes in front of us, and makes the right turn. Ummm...

It gets better. So, I'm watching him, to see if he gets hit by the cross traffic. He lucks out, and is between groups of cars. He then gets into the left lane and is pedalling down the center of it, when our light changes. He's in my lane. Great. Suddenly, he swerves to the left, and rides up the opposing lane, with an oncoming car in the other opposing lane. Once that driver had a heart attack and passes, he swerves to the left again to ride in that opposing lane. Well, good, at least he's not on my side of the road anymore. There's a tiny little shoulder on that side, and I think he finally made it into that. Maybe. I'm guessing he intended to turn left at the next street. I was well past him before he got there, so I didn't see for sure.

Seriously?? Look, I know the drivers around here are idiots. You are seriously taking your life in your hands to commute by bicycle, motorcycle, car, truck or tank.[2] I get that it's hard. Why do you want to make it harder, by doing stupid stuff that could get you killed??

[1] I'm pretty sure this guy is one of the bicyclists that constantly complains about traffic woes and mean drivers on our internal message system. I'm not sure if it's the same guy I saw nearly get hit by a truck last week, in the same area. That rider made a left turn at the light. The truck was clearly in the wrong.

[2] tank might be OK

[bhskittykatt]

Must be related to the cyclist I saw the other day. I'm going down a road at 35mph, come around a curve, and am met face-to-face with an oncoming cyclist in my lane. There was a car in the lane beside me so I couldn't swerve over there, and there's no shoulder, just a curb (with a sidewalk the cyclist legally could have been on that is plenty wide enough for both cyclists and pedestrians), so I just had to try and slow down in the time I had and squeeze by him with what space there was in the lane I was in. He did not get his three feet of space, needless to say. I doubt he learned anything, either.

[notalwaysright]

Ah, bicyclists. I just don't get it. Yes, sometimes cars don't give them room, or even deliberately try to run them off the road. That's horrible. But turning around and riding INSANE isn't helpful either! My dad used to ride a bike all the time, and he would yell at other bicyclists if they weren't obeying traffic laws. Why do they think it's cool to run read lights?

I moved from a town with twisty-turny streets with no bike lane or shoulder, with sheer drop offs. The bikes would ride 2x2 dead center. And I mean, on the yellow line, so you couldn't pass them even when it was safe to do so. I swear I worried I would give myself a heart attack or pop a blood vessel in my eye I would get so mad. It was uphill, and they would go slooooow. But it was a super entitled rich town, and this was all too common. Now I'm in a college town where the bicyclists still scare the crap out of me by suddenly flying out of side streets into my lane, but at least the roads are big enough I can get around them.

[Firecrackers Not Included]

I grew up in an area where a lot of cyclists in super cyclist outfits would ride all serious-like on county roads. These county roads had shoulders that are almost the size of the lane you're driving in, almost. So plenty of room for them to do what they do with little harm, but no. Why do they always ride directly on the WHITE line? All that room.... just not good enough? They simply need to get in your driving business?

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Fire, if they're like the cyclists I'm familiar with, the essential fact of it is that shoulder gravel is too big.

One of the factoids that stuck in my head from Boy Scouts and doing volunteer work on bike trails was that they made a special mix of gravel for bicycle trails. Crushed slightly smaller, then after crushing they ran some of it through a mixer, to knock off the edges. Resulting mix of sharp-edged and smooth gravel made for a nice surface that tended to pack well and stay cohesive.

[BlaqueKatt]

Fire, if they're like the cyclists I'm familiar with, the essential fact of it is that shoulder gravel is too big.

yup, one medium sized rock and you go airborne. I've seen it happen on a charity ride, rider moved over to let the car pass, rider ended up *under* the car when they skidded out, rider didn't make it.

[Firecrackers Not Included]

Fire, if they're like the cyclists I'm familiar with, the essential fact of it is that shoulder gravel is too big.

I can understand that, but no! These roads are beautiful, all paved shoulders! 5 or 6 feet of smooth asphalt!

[Jay 2K Winger]

Yeah, the bicyclists like the ones described in the OP are the ones who tend to scream "SHARE THE ROAD!!!!onebangeleventy!" but forget that sharing goes BOTH WAYS.

What's that, bicyclist? You say that every motorist you've encountered has been an utter douchenozzle to you? What, besides the motor vehicle, is the common denominator in all those encounters?

[BlaqueKatt]

I can understand that, but no! These roads are beautiful, all paved shoulders! 5 or 6 feet of smooth asphalt!

smooth asphalt, that's odd, normally there's rumble strips which also can't be ridden on by bicycles. though there are also types of ashpalt(usually really sparkly) that contain glass, won't damage car tires, but shred the thinner bicycle tires(best dam bike tour got cancelled in the middle of the ride because one of the roads was repaved with it, over 200 flat tires in 30 minutes)

[mhkohne]

I grew up in an area where a lot of cyclists in super cyclist outfits would ride all serious-like on county roads. These county roads had shoulders that are almost the size of the lane you're driving in, almost. So plenty of room for them to do what they do with little harm, but no. Why do they always ride directly on the WHITE line? All that room.... just not good enough? They simply need to get in your driving business?

Even if it's a paved shoulder and not gravel, there's a heck of a lot of loose junk on the shoulder, where it ends up after being kicked up by the cars. If it doesn't doesn't just slide and cause a fall directly, it tends to be hell on the tires.

[Pagan]

Yeah, the bicyclists like the ones described in the OP are the ones who tend to scream "SHARE THE ROAD!!!!onebangeleventy!" but forget that sharing goes BOTH WAYS.

What's that, bicyclist? You say that every motorist you've encountered has been an utter douchenozzle to you? What, besides the motor vehicle, is the common denominator in all those encounters?

Sounds like here. It's this same subset that cannot get it through their thick little skulls that they're supposed to yield to all pedestrians and horses on the Open Space trail. I don't know how many times I've been almost mowed down by a group of them that thinks they own the trail. Regardless of the big-ass signs, with pictures, showing who yields to whom.

They also seem to look down their noses at you if you're walking. Haven't figured that out yet.

[Seanette]

Yeah, I get sick of bicycles nearly mowing me down when I'm WALKING on the sideWALK. In my area, there seems to be a pattern of acting like a vehicle or a pedestrian as desired with no consistency and the only apparent pattern being pure selfish "this is how I get my way".

[paxillated]

I've had more than one bicyclist, on a mixed use trail, thank me as they pass - because I call my dog to heel, and move off the pavement.

Gravel shoulders are bad enough, but gravel on top of smooth asphalt causes skids. And I've seen the scars.

All of which is no excuse for law-ignoring and stupidity! I'll have to go all onebangeleventy* on that!

*Thank you, Jay 2K Winger!

[notalwaysright]

In my area, there seems to be a pattern of acting like a vehicle or a pedestrian as desired with no consistency and the only apparent pattern being pure selfish "this is how I get my way".

This. Bicyclists do this so much, and it's really dangerous when they pop on/off the sidewalk at will.

I know the town I currently live in probably does have gravel and other junk in the bike lane. A surprising number of bicyclists actually have little mirrors and move over when they see a car. My previous town (the rich tourist one) had immaculate bike lanes. I can't stress enough how clean they were. So clean, that groups of woman pushing strollers would spread out INTO the bike lane. Picture a three-wide line of double jogging strollers, with the last one in the bike lane. So even if a bicyclist was trying to use the BIKE land, they couldn't.

[Chromatix]

The latter situation is what a bicycle bell is for.

Of course, there are a few situations where it's a good idea for cyclists to be more assertive in their use of the road. In my case, I once fitted a fifty-watt motorcycle headlamp to my bike when I realised I would be arriving in the Welsh countryside after dark, needed to go another ten miles after getting off the train, and the route would be downhill most of the way. At the time, I normally used a ten-watt lamp, which was already a great deal more powerful than most of the fiddly LED markers or dynamo lamps in use.