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Bikes Sharing the Road
It's spring and the bikes are out. Do you ride or do you hate sharing the road with them?
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It's also motorcycle season (well, will be here in another 8 weeks when the rain slows down), another kind of bike to look out for.
Or are they "just" running red lights and stop signs?
Oh, and some of them aren't in cars but are actually on bikes.
Yes, fintail, it's always best to leave some room. Too often the bike lanes are full of trash and debris, which cyclists may sometimes NEED to stray into the regular lane to dodge. Of course, there are essentially NO bike lanes where I am, unless I ride in toward the city, which is counterproductive for getting a good ride.
No, I don't put a foot down at every stop sign, or wait for every red light to turn green. But I'm not going to do anything to put myself in anyone's way either, knowing that I can't win in any confrontation with a motorist. I treat a stop sign as yield, and a red light as a stop sign when traffic is light enough to allow that, and I do everything I can to help cars pass me safely.
Sadly, there are enough people that don't respect my right to ride on the roads that the only sure way to avoid an issue is to keep my [non-permissible content removed] firmly planted on the sofa, and see how quickly I get to 200 lbs. But even if I know I won't die in a bike crash, I also know that's not living.
When I jog, I just stop and go when clear at red lights, as the braintrust of "engineers" in my fair city wants the roads to be both pedestrian and vehicle unfriendly. Shouldn't be a problem for bikes or even cars to do likewise.
Id' be leery to ride a bike on thoroughfares during peak traffic hours here, that's for sure.
That's the problem... most motorists DON'T understand. Shards of glass, pebbles, gravel. some place that sand has collected... these are just a few examples of things that can be encountered in a bike lane, which seem like NOTHING to a motorist, but could be enough to ruin a cyclist's day. I'm not endorsing just arbitrarily not making use of the bike lane, but if the bike lane is too much of a mess I'll be in the regular lane. And if that is routinely too dangerous I'll be choosing a different road for my ride.
On the flipside, I'm guessing most of your encounters with cyclists are hipsters and/or commuters, which are a much different breed. There's definitely an element of cyclist behavior out there (probably more so in your area) that really peeves me, mainly because they piss off motorists who take it as a license to drive extra-aggressively around even responsible cyclists.
Just because I've had encounters in my car with poorly driven Audis doesn't mean I go out there trying to scare/menace/wreck any Audi I see on the road.
Not as many hipsters on 2 wheels here - the hills make a fixed gear bike difficult :shades: - but the green-on-their-sleeve [non-permissible content removed] commuter is a big contingent. For rainy days, they drive a Prius that they use to merge onto a highway at 41mph, then get in the carpool lane and tailgate.
I seldom have a problem with any cyclists though - maybe because, as I like motorcycles, I am always on the look out for 2 wheeled vehicles.
Euphonium's Portland seems to have more bikers than Seattle - maybe the same level of brashness. Portland is a little more "hip", I think.
Jipster, that doesn't leave a lot of roads. And in locations where there ARE bike paths, that still doesn't leave an effective way to get TO a lot of said bike paths. Never mind that bike paths aren't safe over about 12-15mph, depending on how many pedestrians are using them.
Cyclists are another user of the roadways, and maybe you need to pay more attention to your driving if they seem like that much of a hazard to you.
Now that the metal stalls and kiosks where bikes will be stationed are turning up in parts of Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan, the theater of operations in the war among cyclists and drivers and pedestrians has expanded and multiplied and bred new factions, even though the bike share program itself has been shown to have widespread support in polling. "
The Bikes and the Fury (NY Times)
I walked Central Park from north to south 2 years ago, spent a few hours there, it was pretty cool - no cars (only a few roads in it), and recreational cyclists rather than commuters and couriers, so no wars.
There's a reason cyclists aren't supposed to ride on sidewalks.
When you talk about how much of the thoroughfare a bike takes up, and speed relative to the main users, cycling on a sidewalk is like landing a 747 on the freeway. (i.e. a much worse idea than riding on the road)
Biggest bike path around here is literally two blocks long. :-D
"For the sixth year in a row, Washington was named the nation’s most bicycle-friendly state."
Top 10 most bike-friendly states (Detroit Free Press)
I still wouldn't roll those dice on my commute, especially on dark rainy mornings with no bike lanes on some roads. I am not going to leave this world via a spoiled airhead in a luxo SUV with a phone to her ear and her eyes on her designer lapdog instead of the road.
Bikes and the End of the World (WSJ)
I wonder what the author does for a living, and where he lives. Oh yeah...
I am not against the bikeshare idea though. Centralized and regularly found stations with a relatively cheap rate, why not.
The German automaker suggests that the Concept Active Tourer Outdoor may be a good solution for commuters in crowded cities, since they can drive the vehicle to the outside of the city center and then continue their journey by bike."
BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor Aimed at Bicyclists
Nice thing about a minivan is that I can just roll my bikes in and out. No messing with the wheels or seats.
I don't know if the target market for an "urban activity vehicle" or such nonsense has a tough enough ego to drive a minivan
I still like the idea of a low van like a Transit with a ramp for a motorcycle.
I've been in the flatlands too long - keep forgetting about hills. :sick:
Brown signed a measure Monday requiring California drivers to provide 3 feet of space between their vehicle and any bicyclist they pass on the road — or to slow to a safe speed as the bicycle goes by. The bill does not specify what speed that is."
Motorists must give bicyclists breathing room under new state law (LA Times)