Crazy Bicyclists
 

This morning in an upscale residential area, I come to a stop sign. Stop. Quick look at both sides. All clear.

Just as I am engaging the clutch to start across the intersection, I notice some movement out of the corner of my eye to my right. I'm about half a car length into the intersection and I turn my head and see a bicyclist coming straight into the intersection. I slam on the brakes as he runs the stop sign and goes right past the front of my hood.

I'm a little peeved, so I honk the horn. He slams on the brakes, turns around, flips me off and yells at me to F-off. I let it go and simply drive away.

As a long time road bicyclist and having been hit twice and nearly hit more times than I can remember, I am generally on the bike side in the bike vs car argument, but I am not sure why bike riders like this go out of their way to antagonize a driver. I thought that I did him a favor by not running him over but I guess that he didn't see it that way.

And then we bike riders wonder why drivers seem to hate us.

This is a growing battle in SoCA. On 2nd St. thru Belmont Shore in Long Beach the right lane of the 2 lanes is designated bike/car lane & the bikers love to hog the lane & ride slow to exert their rights. They usually pick & choose which laws they follow & which they ignore. I do the same thing on my mountain bike but never intentionally slow down vehicles. Once I was downtown by the Staples Center when 100's of bycyclists took over all the surrounding streets filling the streets with bycyclists & freezing cars. Reminded me of SantaMonica blvd thru West Holloywood street closures. :mad: :ah:

Being a arsehole is not cured because you jump on a bike or get into a particular car.
When i come accross and a-hole doing something stupid on the road I get out my phone and make it visible to them that I'm taking a picture of their plate or in this case the rider. I then calmly tell them I'm sending this to the local PD. They usually stop yelling..actually they stop talking period.

p.s.
I've nearly been killed oh at least 8 times. The last close call with an SUV, where the car brushed my whole right side (luckily I was pedaling and not coasting) prompted me to give up riding on the street altogether. I now ride a 29er for cardio in a wooded area instead. I rather deal with the random fox, racoon and otter (I've seen all of these up close) than a bimbo or douchebag talking on their iphone while driving their giant truck.

He was probably a cyclist that lost a race to Lance Armstrong, one of the tours… There are a few cyclists out there that are very upset.

Nazi Cyclists.....Gotta Love 'em.

Probably the guy was a Vette owner. And/or on steriods. Steriods make people angry, I hear. One of the side-effects.

I am a runner. About 16 years ago I was hit (and run) by a car leaving a liquor store. I was jogging on the sidewalk. Fast-forward a year after the accident, I had reconstructive knee surgury.

Ya gotta be careful out there. You might even be in the "right-of-way" like I was, but you never have the right of way to be dead.

+1 on this, that's why I try to stay on the beach bike path. Bikes, like pedestrians, should always yield to cars unless they are in their own dedicated lane. :chicken:

I've been a road bike rider for over 25 years and had my share of car encounters but I like to think that I respect the rules of the road on my bike as much as I do in my car. It absolutely infuriates me when bikes think they can run through stop signs and stop lights. It gives us all a bad name.

After 25 years of ABLA, USCF and NORBA bicycle racing I have found that the mid-level bike rider has the worst attitude to the sport. In the early 80s I was training with the likes of Eric Heiden, Greg lemond, Bob Roll, and I found them the most gratis on the road because they had not a thing to prove.

+1. I'm a cyclist, and have had a few close calls, and it always pisses me off when I see cyclists do arrogant/stupid things. Just makes my life harder. However I'd be willing to bet the the percentage of a-hole cyclists is no greater that the percentage of a hole drivers.

The sad fact is that this behavior is happening all over. it's the "I'm doing what I want because I'm special" mentality that so any people have these days. The State of Florida has paid millions of dollars to put in a bike path next to US1 in the Florida Keys. Sadly lots of these bike riders refuse to use it putting themselves in danger. I've asked several of them why and the response is always been "because it's legal for us to ride on the road" Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's smart. They've even told me "If you hit me I'll own everything you have". It's an amazing attitude.

On the plus side we were recently in Napa and Sonoma Counties in California. The bicyclists in these areas were MUCH more road friendly. We only wished the ones in our area were as road smart and obeyed the laws as those we encounters there.

Keysguy

Too many Lance Armstrong wanna be's! They still should obey the traffic laws. I ride a road bike 200 miles a week and I ride like I drive. Stop at lights and signs, yield when it's posted, and I only ride on wide roads. Knock on wood I haven't been run over yet.

I see this attitude with drivers as well. Our society is incapable of making a mistake and owning up to it. For example, I can recall many times someone pulled out in front of me while driving. I honk and then the other driver returns with the finger. The other driver gets mad that we pointed out they made a mistake.

This thread hits a bit close to home. I've been a competitive cyclist for over 20 years- was just hit by a car (again) - my third time, a few months ago. All were due to distracted or inattentive drivers. This time, I was traveling on the right side of the road (the correct side) of a lightly used access road. No other traffic around. He was traveling towards me and turned left into a building parking lot , right across my path. Big hit. I came out of my pedals, hit the passenger side hood of his car, rolled over it and ended up on the ground on the driver side. He said he never saw me- me with a bright red/white bike and brightly colored kit. Guy must have been day dreaming. In his defense, he was very, very apologetic (I was livid). Got pretty banged up , but nothing serious, luckily. Bike was toast- got a new bike and $2,500 from his insurance company for my trouble.

I will admit, I have run stop signs (slowly) a few times, but ONLY in rural (farmland) areas on lightly traveled roads and ONLY where I have a good view of traffic in all 4 directions to ensure no other vehicles are around. For you cyclists, it a momemtum thing, which I'm sure you get. In urban areas however, you have to be an idiot or have a death wish to engage in this kind of stupid behavior.

On my urban routes, I've seen many examples of bad cycling behavior and it always pains me as it reflects poorly on all cyclists and the sport in general. I've seen examples of drivers who were pissed off just due my presence on the road. I wonder sometimes whether some stupid ass cyclist did something to give the driver a permanent anti-cycling hard on . On balance though, in my experience, drivers seem to bear the majority of the blame for much of the car-bike carnage. Bikers can be harder to see and drivers aren't compensating. In fact, most drivers are just plain distracted- texting, reading, cell phones, eating, shaving, applying makeup, you name it- cars are a rolling personal improvement and entertainment appliance these days. Other auto drivers need to beware, but us poor cyclists just don't stand a chance. The only future bright spot is the emerging deployment of the new auto drive technologies now beginning to hit auto showrooms. In 5 or 10 years most cars will drive themselves and will be much , much smarter and more aware than the 'brain dead boogerheads' who now populate our nation's roads.

Okay, done, Feel better now. :)

My pet peeve is when they ride on the sidewalk and then charge into the crosswalk at an intersection like they expect you to stop for them. I do stop for pedestrians in crosswalks :rolleyes:.

^ generally there is a stop sign at most cross walks. So it doesn't matter if the person is on foot or on a bike, the motorists on either side of the stop sign must stop, either because of the stop sign or the requirement to yield to any traffic be it foot, bike or car. Even if the town forbids bike riding on the sidewalk the motorist must stop or yield to any opposing traffic.

In my experience, particularly in Cities like Orlando where the sidewalks and crosswalks are very wide, the overwhelming majority of drivers roll the stop completely. Actually thats being generous, they hardly slow down at all until they're about to make the turn, driving completely over the crosswalk without stopping. And i couldn't even begin to count the number of drivers who steam roll the stop while talking on the phone.

When I'm cycling, I only run stop signs if I can see the intersection clearly and there are no vehicles approaching. Otherwise, stopped. I stay as far right as practical for the conditions, signal turns and stops. If the shoulder will accommodate, I will ride on that (such as on group rides in single-file). Will stick to cycling paths or lanes if available.

Most of my ire from other cyclists really aren't cyclists in the specific term, but GOBs (guy on bike). Last weekend, for example, I was leaving my parents' home and three teens on bikes took up the entire road. When I approached, they all went to the oncoming side, then drifted back across both lanes again. :rolleyes:

Same for the dolts around town. Mostly those traveling on department-store dual-suspension setups or beach cruisers, crossing the road between intersections or being oblivious to situations around them.

I don't like the bicyclists when I'm walking, either. They zoom through intersections which I'm trying to walk through with my dogs, and if one of them ever hurts one of my dogs . . .

I also hate the "sneakers", the dolts that ride up behind you on the sidewalk and try to sneak past without a word. It's dangerous on a tiny sidewalk, why can't they say a simple "Passing on your right"?

And get a clue; VERY few people look good in bicycle shorts.

I used to do road work on a bike but traffic got heavier and I just had too many close calls. In bike vs car-with-distracted-driver, bike loses every time. A guy who regularly runs stop signs without checking traffic carefully will discover this the hard way.

I don't give cyclists much thought!

If they are in my line of sight I stay out of their way and yield to them.

The dumb ones or ones with attitude get run down by less alert drivers on cellphones so instead of getting annoyed, I just pitty them and decide whether to turn on the window cam so I can send their collision to a TV show or submit it as evidence for an unfortunate driver.

I'n my area the road cyclist population seems to rise and fall every year and I expect that attrition and Darwinism plays a role in that.

The quality of driver being turned out in Socal these days is probably somewhere between the ability of a 5 year old and a grown Chimpanzee with 20:50 vision ability at best, no situational awareness what so ever, and about 20 seconds of heads up time out of every minute.

We need the Auto drive cars and FAST, or STOP giving out driving licenses until people don't just know how to drive but are actually COMPETENT at driving.