Bicycle rider in court

[l00p]

stat, I am very much a minority among cyclists. I will be stopped at a stop sign or light and somebody blazes right through. Sometimes they narrowly avoid getting hit. I made a left hand signal and almost took a guy out as I hit him in the arm as he went by. What happened to the common and basic cyclist courtesy of announcing when you pass? Is, "Passing on the left", "Up on the left" or even "LEFT" too hard to blurt out?

So many have iPod's in their ears they won't hear you if it is announced. I have startled some when announcing a pass. The last thing I want is to be passing somebody and have them make a left right into me.

So many cyclists do so much to piss off cars I understand some drivers frustrations. Cyclist want equal or fair rights and treatment but most don't earn or deserve it based on their actions. We cannot have our cake and eat it too. Not without choking.

 

[Statalyzer]

In reply to:

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[l00p]

I read the accurate post as having some sarcasm to it. You know, Devil's advocate stuff. I could be wrong.

A car moving that slow in traffic would get a ticket, right? The law does specify a difference for the bicycle. You are both right.

 

[ChiknSamich]

I've had two idiots hit my car in west campus on a bike in the last ten years.

If you use the road, obey the laws and pull the F over when there is a lot of traffic. In fact it should be illegal to ride on roads without a sidewalk or bike land between 6-9am and 4-6 pm. When you ride in rush hour on 360 you are playing with fire. When you ride in the street and switch to a sidewalk to avoid the red light, you are pushing it.

And when you are riding your SKATEBOARD in the left lane of Guadalupe at 430 in the afternoon clogging traffic for miles you should just Fing end yourself.

Riding a bike on a road is a privilege, even if the laws grant it. Don't ride in spots where vehicles travel over 35mph. Way too many 40 something Lance Armstrongs out there, put some shorts on your a grown *** man

 

[Bluepies]

Reading the article, I thought maybe the guy wasn't in the shoulder because the rumble strip took up the whole thing, or it was only a foot wide, or there was a ton of debris, etc. Looking at the picture, I can't imagine why he wouldn't take the shoulder. Looked like a perfectly good surface to bike on, wouldn't impede traffic, and would even be more pleasant to ride on since the cars roaring by wouldn't be so close. This guy was obviously riding in the lane for no other reason to prove a feeble point. He wanted to get pulled over.

As a cyclist, I do just about everything I can to avoid being obnoxious to drivers. Not just out of common courtesy, but for my own safety. Drivers, please do everything you can to avoid being obnoxious to us. Not just out of common courtesy, but for our safety.

I do ride on streets like Guadalupe and 45th, but never more than a mile at a time. I only do to connect between smaller roads or roads with a bike lane. Going 3-4 miles (15-20 minutes) out of my way on a 5-mile trip is a little ridiculous. A more comprehensive network of bike lanes would keep me from having to take up lanes on these roads. If you would like to see bikes out of traffic lanes, call a representative and demand more bike lanes. I'm not going away, but I'd be happy to ride in a bike lane if it's there.

 

[longtex]

Took a tour of Colorado last May, and in the really mountainous stuff - say, from Buena Vista to Ouray - we not only got snowed on a couple of times, once for for over an hour, we also narrowly missed hitting - at a guess - about fifty bike riders over a three-day period. Also passed another couple hundred without coming too damn close to them.

I understand the concept of your mountain training, but on skinny little narrow-*** roads with little or no shoulder and cars coming up on you on blind curves going 30 to 50 downhill and 20 to 40 uphill, WTF are you thinking?

I also understand the various laws about bikes, pedestrians and motor vehicles, but honest to ******* pete, if you're a bike rider please bear in mind that the laws of man do not, never have, and never will take precedence over the laws of nature... just ask King Knut. I don't ride a hell of a lot (for one thing, my office is about five blocks from my house) but when I do, I try to remember to ride as though it's a game, and the ******* in the cars win if they can hit me on purpose... someone once said that life is hard and it's even harder if you're stupid (John Wayne said it after that, too).