bizarre bikers?

[Duck on Wheels]

Reading the comments on that study that showed cars passing closer to someone with a helmet (how's that for a convoluted sentence) made me think a bit about how I perceive other cyclists... and I've got to admit, personally I view anybody biking fast in traffic without a helmet as slightly insane, and give them a wide berth too. No, they're not compulsory here yet, but barrelling down a road at 50 kph with cars a foot or two to your left and more than happy to take you out at the next right turn, without a helmet? I just don't see how they dare...

Which brings me to other, more bizarre behaviour I've observed from fellow bike commuters. Ditto barrelling down a road with heavy traffic - with a child seat with small child in it. Jumping from the sidewalk into the road without checking if the road's clear. Running a red light seconds before crossing traffic (classic, that one). Oh, and a real kicker - using the (very narrow, room for one person only) bike lane on the wrong side of the road. That last one is the only one that will turn me into a real bike nazi and make me yell uncontrollably.

Oh yes, I'm turning into a *****y old woman here. So, how many of you have I now offended?

I just spent 2 days in Oslo and was amazed by how few of the many bikers I saw were wearing helmets. No, waitaminit, not helmetS ... A helmet. I saw 1 (one) rider wearing a helmet. There's a rentabike system in Oslo you can subscribe to and get a key to racks full of bikes. I saw a lot of them in use, and apparently nobody thinks to bring a helmet along. I also saw lots of folks on their own private bikes -- still no helmets. And there all those many bikers were, bouncing on and off of sidewalks, zipping and winding through evening traffic, sometimes even by riding in the opposing lane. No wonder lph was inspired to do a rant about crazy bikers. Up here in the "boondocks" we have 2 crazy-biker intersections during student rush hour (when the students on their way to the uni leave the bike trail and swarm every which-way through a roundabout to cross the last road towards campus), but otherwise bikers seem pretty sane. We also have fewer and calmer motorists, although I must say that the car traffic in Oslo didn't seem as dense or aggressive as I remembered it from previous visits. It was the bikers who scared me, not so much for my pedestrian self (although one did cut in front of me across the corner of a sidewalk just as I stepped up onto it from the intersection) as on their behalf.