From: "William Robb"
From: "John Sessoms"
From: Christian Skofteland
>> It's "Bike to work Week" in the US (Bike to work day was today). The
>> Washington Post had an article about the conflicts between cars and
>> bikes that was slanted against bikes. The writer kept going back to
>> the "bikers blowing through red lights and stop signs" argument but
>> only briefly touched on the drivers that go out of their way to
>> intimidated and assault bicyclists.
>>
>
> I have seen plenty of the "bikers blowing through red lights and stop
> signs". It's a self correcting problem as far as I'm concerned.
>
> I've never witnessed motorists "go out of their way" to intimidate
> cyclists. Not saying it doesn't happen, but I have never seen it.
>
> I have been hit (brushed) by motorists twice when I was on a bicycle. Both
> times I was knocked down, but otherwise uninjured. In neither case, one a
> city bus, did the driver stop and inquire if I was OK. I don't even know
> if they were aware they had knocked me down.
>
> I have twice had cyclists crash into me in my automobile. Once from the
> rear, once from the passenger side. In both cases I checked that they were
> OK. In neither case did the cyclist inquire as to possible damage done to
> my vehicle ... the side hit DID require body work to repair.
>
> I try to be vigilant whenever cyclists are on the road. Given the
> disparity in road weights & momentum, I don't ever want to hit one. But,
> it's not going to be my fault if it happens. It will be in spite of my
> having done everything I could to "share the road".
>
I don't know what the bike laws are in your part of the world, but here a
bicycle is considered to be a motor vehicle, and as such is required to be
operated in accordance with local laws.
In North Carolina, a bicycle is not a motor vehicle, but IS subject to
follow the same "rules of the road", aka traffic laws as motor vehicles;
i.e. stop signs, one-way streets, right-turn on red after stop, red
means stop, green means go and yellow means floor it to get through
before it turns red.
As I said before, bad attitude, scoff-law cyclists on streets, roads and
highways are a self correcting problem. The ones who live, learn.
The ones who won't learn ...
We have such a huge problem here with cyclists operating with a holier than
thou I'm entitled attitude that there is a growing sentiment growing among
drivers that cyclists really don't have a right to be there since they abuse
the privledge so frequently.
Bicycles are governed by additional rules off road on such as
bike/pedestrian pathways. We call them greenways.
And that's where I see a lot more discourtesy and just plain bad manners
from cyclists. Cyclist-pedestrian collisions are as harmful to
pedestrians as automobile-cyclist collisions are to cyclists.
It doesn't take a collision to injure a pedestrian forced to take
evasive action to avoid being run down by a cyclist. But I see cyclists
on the greenways acting the same way towards pedestrians as they accuse
motorists of acting towards cyclists.
Consequently, we also have a lot of car/ bicycle accidents where the car
driver simply refuses to give up his right of way to an errant cyclist and
takes him out instead.
I won't swerve into the path of another motor vehicle and cause an
accident to avoid a cyclist who is failing to obey traffic laws. I will
slow down, even brake hard ... change lanes IF POSSIBLE, but I recognize
there are limits to what I can safely do to avoid the idiots.
Most cyclists are not idiots. It's just the idiots who get all the
attention.
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
PDML@pdml.net
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
