Road etiquette

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

So what do you folks do when you pull up alongside the right side of the car at a red light and then jump out fast when the light just turns green and start making your left turn ahead of the car that was to your left, but then that car goes STRAIGHT instead of turning left along with you? If they didn't see you lurking next to them at the light, or are distracted for the moment, they'll then plow right into you broadside as you cross left in front of them. Dangerous.

[Crankin]

Torrelin, I am not making left across the highway, I am just going across. The light is NOT unsafe for cars; there is a sensor that holds the light long enough for any amount of cars to go through. But a bike does not trip the sensor. That is a different type of sensor and there is no way that MA would put a "bikes stop here on green" sensor (which trips the light for a bike) in this spot. I really don't have to do this on the way home, when there are more cars, because well, there are more cars at this time of day. I just get up to the front of the line, a bit ahead of the first car, on the right. There's plenty of time to get across at 3:15 PM because there's just more cars than at 6 AM. There's very few cars out at that time in the AM, even on the highway and I can clearly see when they are stopping on the yellow. If I don't do this, I will be half way across when the light turns red again. This is the only way I can go, unless I add almost 4 miles onto my commute and do a 1.5 mile climb. And at 5:30 AM, that is not what i want to do. Believe me, I am the probably one of the most risk averse person around and I am always on guard, as Lisa described. I won't even ride in the city or some of the suburbs closer to the city because of the way people drive. I did one ride last summer in the city/suburb I grew up in, which is next to Boston. I was in a cold sweat the whole time and swore I would never ride there again. The other people in the group thought I was nuts, but I prefer the country/exurbs for riding. Yes, there's traffic, but nothing what some of the other people here describe. Plus, there's tons of riders around here. The more of us drivers see, the better off we are.

[lph]

Just a general note - after riding a few years in traffic I learned to assume that the turn signals on ALL cars "don't work". Especially not on the big macho ones, they seem to be an optional extra.

Believe me, you never know when that stressed-out guy just in front of you suddenly remembers he has to pop into the store and buy toilet paper or his wife will kill him. You don't want to be next to him when it crosses his mind...

[Crankin]

Ha! Turn signals are always optional in New England. Most people don't use them, especially for changing lanes on the freeway. People here don't know how to smoothly merge into traffic either. They will come to a dead stop on a ramp and then drive way over to the right in the break down lane and push in the lane at the last minute, instead of smoothly merging in while signalling.
I expect to see all of these things while riding and driving.

[Jolt]

Yes, there's a reason why the term "M@$$holes" is often used by people from other states to describe Massachusetts drivers! We have our share of aggressive drivers as well as people just making dumb moves on the road. That said, when I drove to RI to get my bike (the seller was in Warwick), I decided the drivers there are even worse, at least on the highway.

[Torrilin]

In most of the US, the local, state and federal government specifies bikes as vehicles. That means we get all the rights that a car does, including the right to be able to cross an intersection on a green light. The following two links give MA specific examples of how an intersection can be designed to kill people.

programmed to run red?
MA intersections

Your local government can't fix the problem if they don't know it exists. If they know of the problem and don't fix it, you have better legal recourses in case you get hurt due to their negligence.

[Jolt]

Another problem at traffic-actuated lights in MA is described on this page: http://www.bikexprt.com/massfacil/no...rd/ongreen.htm. Have you ever seen the sign that says "bicycle stop on line for green"? First of all, it is poorly worded (sounds like it's asking us to stop on the line when the light is green--why would we do that?), and second, the "line" referred to often doesn't even exist on the roadway!! The idea was to have a pavement marking painted over a part of the loop that would allow a bicycle to trigger the light, but where I have seen these signs there was no such marking, and according to the page referenced above, this problem is widespread (the page gives examples mostly from the Boston area; I have seen it in Millbury and Grafton). An example of a good idea but lousy execution.