I saw this LINK over here and thought it was a good read. If you have ever been upset with a cyclist for slowing you down, you might want to read this article. If you are a cyclist, you will definitely enjoy it.
On a related note, one thing I see some cyclists doing, is running red lights and passing cars on the right at traffic lights. In fact, I see one guy doing this regularly along Center Street west of 114th on his way to the Keystone trail. He even passed me when I was waiting my turn at a traffic light on my bike. Even I was angry with him, I can just imagine how many drivers he has upset with his stupidity (not name calling, just an observation of his actions). So if your a bike commuter, and you disregard traffic laws while riding, please stop. Remember that your actions reflect on all cyclists and the last thing I need is some motorist yelling at me because some other cyclist was doing something stupid that upset them.
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So, about that cyclist I mentioned. I ended up catching up to him that day he passed me (which was tough because he ran every light from 102nd to the keystone). I kindly mentioned that what he was doing was against the law and had a very negative affect on the people he passed. His response was "I am going to get yelled at anyways, I might as well get ahead of them so I don't have to ride in as much traffic".
Now that makes a certain amount of sense but it has a couple of flaws.
1) If you are going to get yelled at for no reason, does it make sense to give people a valid reason to yell at you instead?
2) So now instead of just the occassional upset motorist, you now have a large group of upset motorists that will be passing you again in just a few seconds. But now they all hate you and any other cyclist they see in the near future. Gee, that makes a lot of sense. That ranks right up there with kicking a sleeping lion.
Not that this guy will ever read my blog, but if he did, I would say this: "Please stop before you get yourself, me, or somebody else killed or injured by an angry motorist."
Man, I wish people would learn to be responsible. If you want to use the road and earn respect from automotive traffic, you have to act like automotive traffic. Granted, you're going to be slower, but so are a bunch of old people driving their 1970's boat-car. However, if you, or the old people, ignore traffic laws and travel wildly around at your own whim, you're going to cause accidents. In the case of a cyclist, it's easily a fatal accident.
I wanted to yell at this one guy who I saw pull an absolute bone-head move. However, I was 3 blocks away, and just finished a hard ride, so that wasn't happening. The road was 2 lanes each way with a turn lane in the middle. This road is scarcely traveled and right off the Keystone near Aksarben. He's riding in middle of the left lane (first mistake) heading toward a traffic light. A car is coming up behind him, also in the left lane. He gradually moseys into the left-hand turn lane about half a block away from the traffic light as it's turning red. The car, impatient that this guy was just moseying around, passed him and pulled into the left-hand turn lane a few car lengths ahead of the biker. The car, of course, stopped at the light. But then the cyclist didn't even slow at all, but instead passed the stopped car on the right and proceeded to turn left through the intersection while his light was still red!!! Sure, it was rude for the driver to pass the cyclist just to get to the red light first, but breaking the law and risking your life just to prove your point is pretty stupid. I half expected the car, once the light turned green, to go speeding by him and try to take him out. Instead, they just cautiously drove by and gave him plenty of room. Kinda crazy.
That guy just made another driver disrespect every cyclist they will ever pass in traffic. Wonderful!
I get upset when I see people riding on sidewalks or riding in the street but ignoring traffic laws. At least the people on the sidewalk are making an understandable mistake. They are affraid of the traffic and wrongly assume that the sidewalk is safer. However, ignoring traffic laws is just plane stupid and self centered.
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