PSA: Courtesy and cyclists

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Should cyclists on the road be treated humanely?

  • Yes, they're people too, even if their shorts make my uncomfortable.

  • No, they belong in the ditch with war protesters and illegal immigrants!

  • Ralph Nader would look good in bike shorts.

Results are only viewable after voting.
Pabst Blue Robot

Pabst Blue Robot

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Puyallup, WA
Today, while riding my bicycle from my home to the local trailhead for my weekly training, I came to the unfortunate realization that most drivers seem to have some misconceptions about how roads are supposed to work. Before trying to get my attention by hanging out the window of your lifted F-350 and shouting from the opposite lane "Get off the road" and a string of monosyllabic justification for precisely why I should, please give consideration to the following:

In my area, not only is it legal for a bicyclist to ride in the road with all of the same rights as a motor vehicle, it is illegal for me to operate my road bike on the sidewalk. Now I'm not one of those guys who rides in the middle of the road. I ride to the far right on a 4 lane road with a 25 mph speed limit, doing 25 miles per hour. I use signals, I obey the control devices, and I do not obstruct traffic. I am courteous and attentive to the other vehicles on the road. I only need to get about 2.5 miles to the trail where I will be out of your way for the rest of my 30 mile trek.

Hard as it may be for some of you to comprehend, bicyclists are not uniformly homosexuals, or communists, or hippies. Most of us enjoy good beer and half of us are out there because we enjoy good beer too much. My pants won't make you gay if you're not already, so please stop the dastardly shouted insults and attempts at vehicular homicide. Thanks,

Your two-wheeled friends

:off:
 
stay on the shoulder. bikes should not be in traffic with cars. there's nothing I hate more than to be in a left turn lane behind some guy on a bike.
 
i often use the left hand turn lane (which is legal in my area). I don't stop or even slow traffic down, because when i turn i end up on the right side of the road (imagine that) and you can whiz by screaming all the obscenities you'd like without missing a beat. there are a few bicyclist a-holes on the road that take up entire lanes and don't obey traffic signals, which the rest of us don't appreciate. it doesn't mean you should run them off the road, though. and try and be courteous to the riders that actually do obey the rules.
 
Let them eat their McDonalds and get 4 mpg on the Yukon Denali YXJPCRT 6X6. Cagers!

Look at Holland, the bikers have it better than cars!
 
todd_k said:
stay on the shoulder. bikes should not be in traffic with cars. there's nothing I hate more than to be in a left turn lane behind some guy on a bike.
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What does it bother you so much? When you live in an area like Portland or Seattle, a large percentage of the population uses bicycles for primary transportation. As was mentioned, good cyclists stay to the right, even in the turnlane so it's no an impediment to your schedule.

Here's a peace offering of Krausen:
 
Down here in Aus... most bike riders are complete and utter tools.

Riding down the middle of the lane, weaving in and out of cars... acting like they have more of a right to be there than the cars. Tis those guys i hate...
 
there's a lot of them out here, too. they're worse than the people that try to run me off the road. course, people with cars don't have more of a right than people with bikes. everyone needs to be courteous on teh road or stay off it.
 
I don't mind a courteous bike rider, even if I find the pants to be on the border between offensive and gross (just put some f'ing normal shorts on!).

Stay as far to the side of the road as possible, and be courteous when turning, and I will do my best to give you a little room as well.

Ride in the middle of the road, take up the entire turn lane, and pretend to be oblivious to faster traffic, and I will be the guy cursing obscenities out of the window of his truck.
 
Man, I am on a bunch of message boards and this kind of thread always ends up like a political argument...try boulder, we got it pretty good here.
 
I used to cycle 20+ miles at least 5 times a week until I had back to back accidents. The first was plain stupidity of a fellow cyclist... he rode to close to me and hooked his handlebars on mine flipping us both forward. I basically skid to a stop on my face...

The second, and way worse, accident came soon after I was getting back in the saddle from the first wreck. A car passed me, pulled back into my lane, then immediately braked to a complete stop trying to turn onto a side road he overshot. I was on my road bike, easily going 20 mph, when I slammed right into the back of him. My head and right shoulder went straight through his rear windshield. My right arm and leg were bruised to the bone (I still can't believe my arm wasn't broken they way it swole up).

I was pretty much unconsious for a few minutes. When I came to, the police had arrived and cited me for rear end collision. I was able to get the fine dropped but I had to pay for the driver's rear windshield.

10 years later and 20 lbs fatter, I'm still pissed about it...
 
Where I live there are a lot of bikers and a lot of cars and a lot of cars with "Share the road" bumper stickers. My favorite bumber sticker said:

"Same road
Same rules"

Now I know this is the "Share the road" lobby producing these but I think it is important for the bikers to realize that they are required to follow the laws too.
This means:
-signaling when turning
-stopping at red lights
-not passing cars illegally
- (other things bikes do that are annoying)

I was in a left turn lane, the light had just turned green, and all the sudden a bike came zipping through between me and the car to my left (going straight), and turned left right in front of me (no signaling). I almost hit her.

This kind of biker drives me crazy. I honked at a guy on a bike running a red light the other day. If they follow the laws, I am nice.
 
Yuri--I swore when I started riding that I'd never wear the shorts. I have MTB shorts which look like regular ones that I wear whenever I'm riding casual. It gets to the point if you start racing or doing long haul rides that the difference the bike shorts make in terms of padding, wind resistance, and comfort begin to outweigh looking retarded.

:D
 
In Portland, it depends on the area on how bicyclists are treated. I commute from inner SE Portland to outer gresham which is about a half hour drive. Closer to the central part, all the cyclists have this holier than though attitude where they smugly *know* they own anything that has pavement and will even be aggressive in how much better they are than the polluting SUV drivers. There was one time a cyclist was riding on the sidewalk without a helmet, and had to go around me because I was in the van turning right. He gets off, walks *slowly* in front of me, and as I make my turn, finds a piece of trash in the road and attempts to pelt my van with it! o_O. The urge to turn around and mash his ass under my wheels of doom was intense, but faded as I drove away.

However, as I get closer to home in Gresham it's the opposite. Cyclists will courtously be riding on the shoulder or in the bike lane, and morons in Hummers wil routinely cut them off, drive around them almost clipping them or otherwise endanger the cyclist lives.

In closing, all I gotta say is that there's a trend for hot chicks to ride bikes in thigh length skirts here and I don't oppose that at all :D
 
Beerrific said:
Now I know this is the "Share the road" lobby producing these but I think it is important for the bikers to realize that they are required to follow the laws too.
This means:
-signaling when turning
-stopping at red lights
-not passing cars illegally
- (other things bikes do that are annoying)
Click to expand...

yep, cars never do any of this:drunk:
 
I too think that bikes should follow the same rules as cars on the road. But, when is it not fair of me, as a rider, to take up the inside lane while going 35mph in a 35 mph zone. If you need to go around me you are speeding! So why should I have to move? Now , I usually only ride on wide , well paved roads that have a shoulder or bike lane. It makes it much safer for me.


And Yes I do wear the shorts!
 
Car drivers should just be more patient. What difference would it make it they arrived 2 minutes later in their journey.
 
Brewnurse said:
I too think that bikes should follow the same rules as cars on the road. But, when is it not fair of me, as a rider, to take up the inside lane while going 35mph in a 35 mph zone. If you need to go around me you are speeding! So why should I have to move? Now , I usually only ride on wide , well paved roads that have a shoulder or bike lane. It makes it much safer for me.


And Yes I do wear the shorts!
Click to expand...

I think bikes in big cities are awesome, they cut down on traffic, are very efficient and move about the same speed as cars.

On highways, they make me nervous. I think they need to be extremely cautious when cars are going 45-55 mph. I don't think they don't belong there, but they do need to be extra attentive.

And, yea, I don't understand the shorts. Seem uncomfortable to me.
 
Brewnurse said:
when is it not fair of me, as a rider, to take up the inside lane while going 35mph in a 35 mph zone. If you need to go around me you are speeding! So why should I have to move?
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Two reasons:

As soon as we get to a hill, your 35 MPH is going to rapidly (and possibly dangerously) decrease, and then I will really want you to move.

You're not the police, so don't attempt to enforce the speed limit with your bicycle.

Don't get me wrong, I am usually very courteous to bicycle riders. I just don't like them to pretend that they own the road - just like I don't like automobile drivers and truckers to act that way.
 
Yuri_Rage said:
Two reasons:

As soon as we get to a hill, your 35 MPH is going to rapidly (and possibly dangerously) decrease, and then I will really want you to move.

You're not the police, so don't attempt to enforce the speed limit with your bicycle.

QUOTE]


I never said I was trying to Enforce anything, only that at the speed limit I have the right to the lane. The rules say that a bicycle has the right to the road and must folow the same rules as cars. So then why don't the cars have to follow the same rules?
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But Yuri had a good point about when you hit a hill and your speed drops to 5 or 10 mph almost instantly... that's dangerous if your are in the middle of the road... staying to the side will avoid that danger.
 
If I am going that slow or see a hill coming( usually know the roads I ride really well) then it is in my best interest to move to the side of the road. That is what I do, I never said that I stay in the lane the entire time, just when I am going at or near the speed limit.
 
Brewnurse said:
I never said I was trying to Enforce anything, only that at the speed limit I have the right to the lane. The rules say that a bicycle has the right to the road and must folow the same rules as cars. So then why don't the cars have to follow the same rules?
Click to expand...
Here's the best argument - it comes right from the cyclist advocate bumper stickers: "Share the road." That doesn't just mean that automobile drivers should be tolerant of cyclists...cyclists should be mindful of faster traffic and "share the road" as well.
 
ColoradoXJ13 said:
yep, cars never do any of this:drunk:
Click to expand...

But when they do they get tickets.


I really don't care about the bikes, rid if you want to ride. I just don't want to hit anyone and sometimes I feel that people on bikes think that is only my responsibility, they have no obligation to ride in a manner that won't get them hit.
 
I bicycle on the road & offroad. I ride a motorcycle and I drive a car. Over the past two years, I have really increased my road cycling (4-5 days a week) and can't count the number of times I have been cut off, forced off the road or just about run over. The same goes on my motorcycle but it is less frequent due to increased visibility and drivers will sometimes think twice about pulling the same move on a motorcycle.

Courtesy and safety are not exclusive to the method of transportation but the individual operator. I have found that people who are the as*hat cyclists are also the as*hat drivers and so on.

Don't be an as*hat.
 
Beerrific said:
But when they do they get tickets.
Click to expand...

Hate to say it, but so do bikes, I got pulled over by a cop for making an illegal left turn on my bike about a week ago. Oh, and people get BUI's too in this town.
 
I rode a lot years ago. I don't any more, because there are way too many log trucks in the area. As long as people stay over to the right side and follow the traffic laws, I'm fine. Unlike the bikee in Corvallis last month, who ran a red light to make an illegal left turn to go the wrong way on a one-way street. I'm missed him, but he was positive it was my fault and stopped to curse me.
 
seefresh said:
On highways, they make me nervous. I think they need to be extremely cautious when cars are going 45-55 mph. I don't think they don't belong there, but they do need to be extra attentive.
Click to expand...

That's the only thing that bothers me. If the speed limit is low - fine. We'll all follow the same rules. But, when bikes are on streets where vehicles are traveling much faster than they are, they cause problems.

You may have the same "rights", but you need to understand that you're an annoyance as well, and when push comes to shove - you lose. From my limited experience, it seems that most bike riders understand that.
 
ColoradoXJ13 said:
Hate to say it, but so do bikes, I got pulled over by a cop for making an illegal left turn on my bike about a week ago. Oh, and people get BUI's too in this town.
Click to expand...
Wish they did that here, well, at least I have never seen/ heard of it. I think if people knew that they could get a ticket for running a red light (and almost causing an accident) they might actually stop doing it.
 
Tucson is a very bike friendly town. Many major roads have the 5' bike lane on the right. Stay there and your chances of dying here are a little less likely. What freaks me out is the riders on 2 lane rural roads that aren't really rural anymore because of population explosion 'round here. Why you want to ride on those is beyond me out here. 3-5 bikers die annually out here I'd guess. Especially in winter when the snow-birds come to town.

those shorts should be dedicated to the babes.
 
Like brewt00l I too have been riding for years. I rode in the Bronx, Hawaii, and California. I have never been hit by a car , caused an accident or done any really stupid thigs.......Why? Because I ride within my means and ride carefully. I been cut off, yelled at and just plane not even seen. It happens and will continue to happen. And YES, Share the road! I don't think I own it, just have an equal right to it(when the time , place, and circumstances allow).

{quote} END RANT {quote}
 
I ride my bike everyday that complies to my 20-40-60 rule: winds less than 20 mph, temp over 40*F and less than 60% chance of rain. Most drivers around Austin are friendly enough, and most of the streets I ride on have bike lanes. There is the occasional a-hole that insists on driving in the bike lane because he has to make a turn a block or two ahead, or feels the need to yell epithets out of his window.

I dont wear the shorts, but I do wear a helmet. There is nothing more goofy than some guy with the shorts, shirt and shoes on, but no helmet.

- magno
 
Got any leg shavers out there? Come on admit it :D

My bro-in-law does but hey, whatever. he's got chicken legs and it looks strange for a greek dude who is hairy everywhere else.
 
desertBrew said:
Got any leg shavers out there? Come on admit it :D
Click to expand...


Used to when I rode a lot, I am not riding road as much anymore b.c I don't have the time to commit, it would take 4 hours to get a good ride in, takes 2 on my mountain bike.
 
Pabst Blue Robot said:
What does it bother you so much? When you live in an area like Portland or Seattle, a large percentage of the population uses bicycles for primary transportation. As was mentioned, good cyclists stay to the right, even in the turnlane so it's no an impediment to your schedule.

Here's a peace offering of Krausen:
Click to expand...

Then I have never seen a good cyclist. It bothers me so much because they ride right down the road at what 10-12 mph? while traffic backs up behind them even when there is a perfectly clear shoulder right there. I don't see why the crosswalks can't be used.
 
i'm usually passing traffic downhill and usually going about 20 mph otherwise. i stay to the right when it is available. i signal. i never hold up traffic. granted, there are people that do, but most the people around here follow the rules.

you're telling me that ALL the cyclists in your area purposely ride in the middle of the lane, going slower than they need to be, and blocking traffic when they turn? seems like more of a cynical than an observation, every single person can't be like that.
 
Just watch out for each other on the roadway. If someone is not doing what seems appropriate then tell them so. But watch out for the road rage thing. Anger is easily infectious. Be courteous, be careful.

Here in Florida we have to ride in areas that don't have heavy traffic. But if you do ride in those heavy traffic areas then watch out for the blue heads. They will run you off the road and won't even stop if they hit you. What a mess.
 
Yes, people on bikes and pedestrians think they own the road. They walk (or ride) wherever they feel like it and expect traffic is move out of there way. You never see that idiot walking down the middle of the street? You never see that jogger or biker in the middle of a traffic lane? And if they get run over, it's the driver's fault.... :rolleyes:
 
That's one thing I miss about living in town- it was practical to ride a bike. I rode everywhere I went, and I could get across town faster on a bike than in a car. And no, I never wore those silly shorts. In fact, I used to love passing those guys like they were standing still. Ten+ years later, that's not gonna happen anymore......
 
todd_k said:
Yes, people on bikes and pedestrians think they own the road. They walk (or ride) wherever they feel like it and expect traffic is move out of there way. You never see that idiot walking down the middle of the street? You never see that jogger or biker in the middle of a traffic lane? And if they get run over, it's the driver's fault.... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


With all due respect, your attitude conveys the same faults you find in cyclists, that cars own the road and that any other vehicle has no place. Some cyclists ride like inconsiderate jerks just like some drivers will cut you off, not signal, pass on the right, tailgate, run lights, etc. The difference between cyclists and joggers and other pedestrians is that the other pedestrians have run of the sidewalks whereas cyclists do not and are forced to use the road. (this extends to crosswalks in most cases if you're going by the book)
 
As a fellow two wheeler (of the motorized variety), I have this thought to offer.


Does it matter that you're right if you wind up dead?


Cyclists may have the right of way sometimes. Personally, I don't care if bicyclists fly down the middle of the road. If I had a bicycle, that is what I would do because it would be fun. Dangerous? Sure. Piss a lot of people off? pfft... get over it, dill hole.

It doesn't change the fact that if you're on 2 wheels and are hit by someone on four, you will be the one flying down the asphalt. It doesn't matter how "right" you are. Most often, right and dead don't get you a cup of coffee. I say let two-wheelers have their fun, but they'd better know the danger they're putting themselves in.

I fly through traffic at 100+mph, but it's the guys on bicycles who I think are the crazy ones. At least I have the hp to get out of the way!!!
 
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