I am not just a bike, I'm a vehicle

[colorisnt]

I saw this on a decal at the local used bike store where I got Truman, my new commuting road bike. It often occurs to me to ask why people driving cars don't think of me as a vehicle.

I am a researcher and have my hypotheses, but why do YOU think drivers treat us as some sort of PITA rather than another vehicle going somewhere?

Here, in Columbia, MO, I don't have an issue. The drivers HAVE to behave with cyclists. They will get pulled over if they don't. You have to yeild to bikes and also treat them as vehicles at the same time.

It's a delicate balance. But the general consensus is that bikes DO belong. We have a ton of trails and cycling lanes to reinforce the point. I don't get honked at here or chased. But back home, who knows! People in my small town didn't much like cyclists. They didn't know what to think of them more than anything. In Bloomington, IN, they would honk, yell, and be rude because clearly any rider on a bike is a frat or sorority person training for their big race! There is an elitist tinge to cycling and people dislike it.

I would argue the culture of the place matters. But I am curious to know what you all think?

[PamNY]

There are lots of factors we could discuss, but IMO the main reason is that drivers don't want to slow down, which they occasionally have to do for bikes.

Cyclists don't like to slow down either -- I regularly get snarky comments from cyclists when I stop to let pedestrians cross on the bike path (required by state law at crosswalks).

It's mostly just human nature.

[OakLeaf]

I think it's just our vulnerability that brings out the cruelty in people. They have to slow down for farm machinery and garbage trucks, too, but they don't try to run them off the road.

[zoom-zoom]

We don't have engines or license plates. I think Oak is on it with the vulnerability thing, too. I drive a small car and have had larger vehicles hog the road, ride my @ss, and cut me off more than I see when I'm a passenger in a larger vehicle and paying attention to the politics of the road.

[marni]

because bikes and bike riding are not thought of as an adult recreational or non professional skills unless you are a pro and getting paid to do it. Bikes and the children who ride them belong up on the sidewalk, and most drivers consider anything or anyone on a bike or resembling a bike as childish.

Around here in Texas, it is also probably that most drivers don't remember the vehicle code. Even when I quote to section and lines referring to the rights of bicycles and bicyclers in the vehicle code to them they tell me I am wrong and that I should get out of the road.

I've had "ranchers" pull over and curse me out for being in the road when they had to slow down and "endanger their stock in the stock trailer" in order to get past me. If they had stock in their trailer, why were they driving so fast?

Never mind.

marni

[zoom-zoom]

Around here in Texas, it is also probably that most drivers don't remember the vehicle code. Even when I quote to section and lines referring to the rights of bicycles and bicyclers in the vehicle code to them they tell me I am wrong and that I should get out of the road.

I have really considered getting this jersey (http://www.elevengear.com/trafficmaster.html). With my luck I wouldn't be wearing it during an altercation. Perhaps I should consier a forearm tattoo. ;)

[marni]

I love the jersey and the site, but as you say, the chances of me wearing it and being able to use it are zip,zero,zilch and nada.

[JennK13]

I do think it depends on where you are. Here in the Denver area, bikes are very common, so drivers are more used to seeing us out on the road.
Circumstances also seem to make a difference. What I mean is, drivers treat me differently depending on how I'm dressed and what bike I'm on. It seems I'm more of a bother to drivers on my road bike dressed in cycling attire. If I'm dressed that way but on my commuter, it's about half and half; if I'm wearing my work attire on my commuter I rarely have any issues with cars at all. It's almost as if they consider me more like a vehicle since I'm dressed like them, and I'm using my bike for transportation instead of recreation.
Last situation, if I'm on my cruiser and on the road instead of the bike path, drivers again look at me like a problem - as if I belong on the sidewalk if I'm on that bike.

[ny biker]

Okay I'll bite. Today as I drove home from work, I passed a guy riding a bike. This was on a road with 2 lanes in each direction, no shoulders, lanes not wide enough to pass a cyclist without crossing the line into the next lane. At every red light, the dude on the bike passed all the cars waiting for the green and ran the light. When I reached the intersection where I turn left, I was the first car at the red light in the left turn lane. Cycling dude rode up between the lanes on my right and stopped in front of me. He totally surprised me -- if the light had turned green as he pulled in front of me I would have run him over as I accelerated.

As long as so many cyclists ride with such disregard for the traffic rules, we will not be seen as vehicles.

[zoom-zoom]

As long as so many cyclists ride with such disregard for the traffic rules, we will not be seen as vehicles.

I cringe when I see stuff like this. Motorists don't notice those of us who are respectful of the law; they notice the jerkwads like that guy.

[JennK13]

I agree. On my route, there is a place where a road terminates (more accurately, it dead ends into the light rail parkinglot) thereby creating a "T-intersection". The terminating road has a double right turn - with signals and a sign saying "no right on red". Sure, when you happen upon it you just want to yield and turn right like at any other intersection. But, I don't - I stop and wait for it to change green. I DO take my lane so cars don't try to get beside me and crowd me into the shoulder at the red; I also stay in line and dont pass all the cars on the right at the red. This also makes my intentions known so no one gets an impression that I want to turn right when I don't.
Some jerks do ruin it for the rest of us; the same goes for drivers - if there weren't jerkwad drivers, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

[korora]

This thread has been dormant for a while, but I thought I'd share an experience from last weekend:

Rural NZ roads have a lot of short single-lane bridges. They are always marked on both sides as to which direction has the right of way if vehicles are approaching from both directions.

I was riding with DH and two friends when we came to one of these bridges. We had the right of way, and we all rode onto the bridge together. Nice sunny day, bright clothing.

When we were halfway across, a car started driving onto the bridge right at us. Didn't stop until we were a couple of feet from his bumper. We didn't give any ground (had nowhere to go in any case). We left the driver stopped in the middle of the bridge with his female companion apparently screaming at him--and three cars following us, so he wasn't going to get past them.

Didn't stick around to see what happened. I contemplated taking his number and reporting him, but he looked like he was getting educated already.

[Biciclista]

great story, Korora!

[TinyThings]

Cause cycles dont got that heavy horns :D That could be one of the reasons . . . :D
Really nice though i really appreciate your idea .