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I was heading for my favourite little diner for breakfast this morning.
D1 - Driver 1
D2 - yep
D3 - yep
TIC - Truly Idiot Cyclist
I'm at an intersection with advanced left-turn signals for both roads. My light turns green, which means (of course) the lights for the intersecting road are now all red ... AAAAALLLLLLLLL red. But D1, D2, and D3 decide they are Speshul Snowflakes (especially D2 and D3, as D1 was already in the intersection waiting to turn. I don't think D2 was and I know damn well D3 wasn't).
So they zip through their left-hand turns because, ya know, the traffic now waiting at GREEN LIGHTS don't have anything better to do. Also because they have BIG MANLY TESTOSTERONE-IZED vehicles (no, I don't know if the drivers were all male, but I have noticed people of any gender who drive these honkin' oversized monsters are the ones who more often than not play these "My codpiece is bigger than yours" games).
But then ... TIC decides she's gonna do the same thing! Oh, and did I mention she wasn't wearing a helmet?
She starts pedalling across the road -- two lanes of traffic in each direction -- just as I release the brake and press down on the accelerator.
I slam on my brakes and she slams hers on, and nearly goes arse-over-teakettle. I sat there and stared at her as she got her bike back under some control, and then VERY pointedly gestured toward the GREEN LIGHTS that I was looking at, in an attempt to remind her that she was obviously looking at RED LIGHTS.
Seriously. Drivers who ignore traffic signals are bad enough, but at least they have some protection (their vehicles). If you're gonna play suicide-by-oncoming-traffic on a BIKE ... you will probably be successful.
D1 - Driver 1
D2 - yep
D3 - yep
TIC - Truly Idiot Cyclist
I'm at an intersection with advanced left-turn signals for both roads. My light turns green, which means (of course) the lights for the intersecting road are now all red ... AAAAALLLLLLLLL red. But D1, D2, and D3 decide they are Speshul Snowflakes (especially D2 and D3, as D1 was already in the intersection waiting to turn. I don't think D2 was and I know damn well D3 wasn't).
So they zip through their left-hand turns because, ya know, the traffic now waiting at GREEN LIGHTS don't have anything better to do. Also because they have BIG MANLY TESTOSTERONE-IZED vehicles (no, I don't know if the drivers were all male, but I have noticed people of any gender who drive these honkin' oversized monsters are the ones who more often than not play these "My codpiece is bigger than yours" games).
But then ... TIC decides she's gonna do the same thing! Oh, and did I mention she wasn't wearing a helmet?
She starts pedalling across the road -- two lanes of traffic in each direction -- just as I release the brake and press down on the accelerator.
I slam on my brakes and she slams hers on, and nearly goes arse-over-teakettle. I sat there and stared at her as she got her bike back under some control, and then VERY pointedly gestured toward the GREEN LIGHTS that I was looking at, in an attempt to remind her that she was obviously looking at RED LIGHTS.
Seriously. Drivers who ignore traffic signals are bad enough, but at least they have some protection (their vehicles). If you're gonna play suicide-by-oncoming-traffic on a BIKE ... you will probably be successful.
Drivers of full-sized SUVs tend to throw their weight around with the attitude "I've got 3 tons of steel to protect my family, so get out of the way or get squashed". Trouble is they get so used to throwing their weight around that they do it even when they don't have the weight to throw. You've got 3 tons of steel to protect your family? Running bobtail I've got 10 tons to turn them into a red smear.
I've had a similar experience - light turned green as I got to it, so I went through. Cyclist with the red was pissed that I didn't stop for him, almost tried forcing the issue. I had over 40,000 pounds of cargo at the time. Cyclists have to be suicidal to challenge an 18 wheeler.
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