Do YOU yell at cyclists to get off the road?

[DarcyInOregon]

There are a lot of new cyclists on bikes this summer, new to cycling for the first time, or they haven't ridden a bike since they were a child. These people are trying to commute to work or exercising for health. Eventually they will learn the rules, but in my opinion it doesn't do any good to become the "bike police" and holler at people while they are on a bike. If everyone is at a stop, then fine, explain the rules nicely, but from a car to a moving bike - no - or from a moving bike to a moving bike - no.

I really dislike bike police, the self-important cyclists who think they know everything, who issue proclamations without any understanding of what is going on. For example, earlier this year I was on a group training ride. My chain started skipping on the rear cassette. I was on a low-traffic rural road with no shoulder, just a white fog line on the right and gravel to the right of the fog line. It was a category climb and I couldn't keep the bike in the lowest gears due to the chain skipping and the steepness of the grades. I moved my bike out to about 8 inches to the left of the fog line, further into the traffic line for fear that my bike might wobble and hit the gravel on the right; in Oregon a cyclist can take the traffic lane entirely for safety if needed. I had lost the lead pack of my training group by then due to my mechanical difficulties. On my left comes a female cyclist from another training group and proceeds to lecture me about where I was riding on the road, that it wasn't good for the "team" for me to be riding that far out into the traffic lane, to stay on the white fog line at all times. The last thing I needed while doing a category climb in too high of a gear was the bike police to come along and start lecturing me.

The worse is when they come up on the left and start telling me how to ride my bike, the most egregious example being when during one ride, when I was past mile 80, two male cyclists kept yelling at me to shift down in the front until I finally screamed swear words back at them that I rode a double, not a triple, you ######.

But for cyclists who don't wear a helmet, many times it is just some poor dude trying to get to his job as a minimum wage dishwasher and he doesn't have the money for a helmet, or when they ride on the wrong side of the road it is because they live on that side of the road and the traffic is so busy it scares them to try to cross the road, so they ride against the traffic. Many people are just trying to get from Point A to Point B, don't have much money and are doing the best they can.

[OakLeaf]

I totally hear you and mostly agree, Darcy (although I don't agree that people will learn the rules by osmosis ... witness my 50-some-year-old neighbor ... they need to be taught, it's just that road rage isn't the way to teach them).

But as a pedestrian/runner I will continue to yell at people on bicycles who illegally endanger me. I can't imagine, when traffic is so heavy that they'd rather ride on the sidewalk, why they think it's okay to run a pedestrian off the sidewalk and into said traffic.

[zoom-zoom]

I really dislike bike police, the self-important cyclists who think they know everything, who issue proclamations without any understanding of what is going on.

I've run into one of these, recently on a group ride. She seems to assume that I know nothing, simply because she's old enough to be my mom and uber-fit (I'm 20+s overweight and struggle with overly large hills from that, compounded by asthma--but I'm still faster up hills than others we ride with)...she reminds me a LOT of my MIL--in build, fitness, and demeanor.

I get to this week's ride when it's 90 at 6pm and haven't yet put my helmet on, since it's at least 15 minutes before we roll and the last thing I want to do is make myself warmer for no reason. My helmet is actually hanging on my handlebars, but she couldn't see it with a car between us. So she very condescendingly says "don't you have a helmet?" She's ridden with me once before...not sure why she assumes that I don't have a helmet on this particular instance.

Later we're pacelining and after about a mile of pulling I drop off. Shortly after I drop a huge pick-up truck appears from behind (it's a somewhat winding stretch of road) and very aggressively passes us, macho-ly gunning his engine and acting very put-out that he had to deal with passing a group of riders--with one of us 2-abreast (legal here in MI).

Again, in a condescending tone of voice, she "instructs" me to check behind before dropping back. Duh, I have a rear-view mirror on my bike...which I use religiously. I also always double-check by glancing over my shoulder to make sure that I'm seeing the whole picture.

So, yeah...last thing I want to do is come off like that. It does nothing to encourage others to ride more or ride better. The only time I speak up is if another cyclist or pedestrian is truly putting my safety at risk with their behavior.

[katluvr]

More about the riding w/ traffic and walking/running against traffic (some of this mentioned here)...
I was TAUGHT in kindergarden (I am pretty sure all my early days) that you walk facing traffic and ride w/ traffic. Do they not teach that any more? I was just a regular kid and I'm in my upper 40's now?
I run in a neighborhood and everyday I end up running face to face w/ another runner. And the bike against traffic IN A BIKE LANE...OMG, don't get me started. I really thought everyone knew the rules of the road, it was like learning to cross the street and look both ways. I am not sure they teach that anymore, either.
Ok, sorry for my rant.
Yes, I do for bicylists if I encounter them in a bike lane going the wrong way I let them know they are, because it endangers me. Most often no matter how nice I say it they don't seem to take it very politely. As for walkers and runners...I just don't have the energy to remind them to face traffic (or how about a little flashy light when it dark or just dusk/or before dawn, the hardest time to see anyone if you are driving a car!)

K

[zoom-zoom]

More about the riding w/ traffic and walking/running against traffic (some of this mentioned here)...
I was TAUGHT in kindergarden (I am pretty sure all my early days) that you walk facing traffic and ride w/ traffic. Do they not teach that any more? I was just a regular kid and I'm in my upper 40's now?
I run in a neighborhood and everyday I end up running face to face w/ another runner. And the bike against traffic IN A BIKE LANE...OMG, don't get me started. I really thought everyone knew the rules of the road, it was like learning to cross the street and look both ways. I am not sure they teach that anymore, either.

I don't think they teach it around here, either, if the local kids are any measure. The adults are rarely better.

[jessmarimba]

No, but I get yelled at by cyclists to get on the sidewalk when I run on the road!

(I can't run on concrete - I will usually pop out of their way if I have time or see cars that will endanger them, but it doesn't stop them from yelling!)

[Antaresia]

I've told other people (kids) to use the right side of a round-about. They have signs on all of them showing you to keep right; why people go left is beyond me. I don't really want to pass you in of one of those things, even less so if there is a car or two around.

I've been told "riding on the sidewalk is illegal, you know", which I thought was funny. I only hopped up there because I was going into the very apartment complex the lady was yelling from, I really didn't think biking a couple of feet would get me in trouble
I can't get away with anything!

[Velocivixen]

If you truly hope to help their riding skills or knowledge, then shouting at them in any capacity won't help. A lot of people also don't give a sh*t what others say, so they're not willing to be helped anyway.
Also, you don't know their particular situation, as mentioned in Darcy's post above.

So....no, don't yell. It doesn't help.