And a few crazy cyclists ...

[Grog]

I saw a guy reading the newspaper while riding his bike on the bike route (shared with cars) yesterday when I was riding home.

He was riding with both hands on the newspaper.

[kfergos]

Grog, I really can't beat yours. But here's my recent ARRRGGGHHH biking story:

One afternoon I'm riding home from work and see another cyclist in the distance. All I can make out at first is that the bike is painted that same neon yellow-green as my Whisper vest. Then as I come closer, I see he's wearing a backpack. I think Cool, another commuter!. Then I get close enough to see he's not wearing a helmet...or a shirt. And he's not one of those guys who can get away with not wearing a shirt. He also has just regular, if remarkably dirty, jeans on, and is riding his bike extremely laboriously considering the terrain. He doesn't look like he's showered recently. At least he's not riding the wrong way.

I call "On your left," pass him, and move on. Then I come to a stop sign, where I stop behind and to the right of the car there. So it's a car ahead and to my left, then me, then a small gap to the sidewalk. I decide to turn right here, so as the car ahead of me goes, I start rolling forward, keeping the gap between me and the curb. All of a sudden, Mr. No Shirt comes (slowly) riding between me and this gap, just as I start to turn right. We nearly had a classic right hook, only with me playing the part of the car! (This just reinforced the fact that cyclists shouldn't creep up along the right of any vehicle.)

I slam on my brakes and shout "Hey!" in surprise. He mumbles something extremely slowly and incomprehensibly -- it sounded like "Ummmufmhmf, fuummll muffhl" -- as if he's got marshmallows in his mouth. I make my escape. Should I be irritated by this apparent drunk's terrifying cycling behavior? Or should I just be grateful he's not behind the wheel of a car?

[blackhillsbiker]

Depending on where you ride here, you often meet either inebriated pedestrians or cyclists. I usually hope they are where I can get off the bike path and pass them on the grass. The bell or "passing you on your left," doesn't do a bit of good. They're completely unpredictable and oblivious.

The other night I came upon a family who had left the bike path to look at something in the creek. They left their bikes and burley on the path, effectively blocking the whole thing. Sigh.

[lph]

Oh, I had a grandstand view of a couple of doozies on yesterday's commute, involving both brainless cyclists and brainless drivers. First I'm heading down a wide road with a narrow bike lane painted on the right, that I usually avoid using because you end up going "blindly" into a couple of intersections. The car lane is a lot safer because it gives you the space to see more. Sure enough, cyclist ahead of me in the bike lane gets "stuck" behind a bus, tries to pass on the inside , and wobbles to the outside without checking his back. So I hurry up and pass Wobbly Guy at a safe distance but to no avail, because he then blows through 2 red lights even though he has to squeeze past me waiting to do so.

Then at a roundabout a little later a large truck ignores my right of way, and keeps on coming even though I'm RIGHT in the middle of the roundabout. I stop at his left front wheel and stare up at him exasperated. He finally hits the brakes. But not before a racer roadie dude behind me goes *swish* through the gap.

Next roundabout I'm also right in the middle, and a large SUV comes barrelling in from the right without even slowing down, as though it were a regular intersection. No-one harmed, but I'm glad I was on a laidback kind of commute yesterday. If I'd been just a bit more in a hurry I'd have had a few very close calls.

[ruffianxc]

I road with a triathlete, I actually have nothing against triathletes... just ta couple I ride with at my school, I ride with several others and get along with them great. This particular one is the worst not necessarily in her likeliness of causing a crash as I have another to nominate for that but in the fact that she was doing it on purpose and not just oblivious. she kept swearing the entire ride about how stupid f-in drivers were and she refused to unclip. She even did some weird turn on the wrong side the road to avoid unclipping when she should have stopped at an intersection as the car had no stop sign. I've seen cars do dumb stuff around cyclists, but despite her swearing at every driver...this bike ride was perfect in regards to drivers. Not a single car we came across did anything wrong.

What I hate about this is then drivers associate her bad behavior with all cyclists. As the president of a collegiate cycling club, I dont want her back as when new riders see more experienced ones blowing through stop signs they start doing stuff like that. Additionally since she was swearing so much I didn't think she'd take my feedback very well which was that she was the only crazy person lacking common sense. Sometimes you really should just unclip your pedal. Its not that hard to get back in.

[7rider]

So I hurry up and pass Wobbly Guy at a safe distance but to no avail, because he then blows through 2 red lights even though he has to squeeze past me waiting to do so.

Oooooo....it just grates my cheese when I pass slower cyclists, only to have them blow past me - and through a red light - when I'm stopped, waiting for a light to change. Grrr.....

[Atlas]

Its so nice to hear other people share their anger with stupid cyclists. I am a student and I hate riding to campus. I love my commute if I leave fifteen minutes early, but those ten minutes between classes are like asking for an accident. Like someone else mentioned, its people who haven't ridden a bike as an adult and to them they are toys, not vehicles. They ride the wrong way down streets, hit pedestrians, have a blatant disregard for four-wheeled vehicles - of which the buses are the most dangerous.

I was in an accident not too long ago on my way to class when a rider crossed the center line while I was checking a side road for traffic and collided with me.

[cylegoddess]

'I will usually ride over a crosswalk, but I slow down to a almost complete stop, catch the drivers eye and give him a nod or wave before I start pedalling again.' Me too.

I asked one person why she hated cyclists) on facebook) so much and she said, on the parkway( which is zoned for cycling, both on path and in one lane) - she saw a dad with two kids, on bikes. No helmets and the bikes had TRAINING WHEELS!!!

When I rode in the Tour de Femme, sunday on that same parkway, there was a line of cyclists about a km long. So no one could MISS that the race went thru ( plus numerous signs). We were allowed one lane, but kept well to side, in bike path mostly. BUT even then, these totally aggressive cars trying to CUT IN between the groups, to pass people. I was pretty afraid, also as old people were riding and being downhill, somewhat fast ( 23 km), plus dont ride on streets much.
Oh man, when Im queen of the world someone will hear about that!!
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