Giving roadies a bad rep

[salsabike]

Pooks, slow at the stop signs when no one's there, even if you don't stop--just safer. You don't have to put a foot down, but slow and look, and you'll be fine (as long as cops don't hang out around there).

One of the not so great things in the Seattle to Portland ride this weekend: a couple of people who live in the area posted messages to the Cascade Bicycle Club board complaining about some groups of riders blocking the lane and making driving a really scary event. I hope it opened some eyes for folks. Here's part of one of the posts:

"A week before the start I crashed and trashed my shoulder and arm...against my judgement we drove the course from Kent to about
Centralia. Oh do I ever regret doing that. I will ride far differently after having had to drive past several thousand bikes. Magnify the riders feelings about
danagerous riding behavior and you will have an idea of the drivers feelings. Pullouts without looking. Pullouts with looking. Straddling the white line.
Stopped bikes forceing riders to swerve. I was in the green suv and spent as much time as I could driving in the turn lane! I don't think a fraction
of the riders had a clue as to how incredibly lucky they were to not have been hit. Too many ipods. Not enough mirrors. I will pedal much differently next year..."

On a happier note, there was an STP finisher with one arm. No legs, and only one arm. How cool is that??

[Trek420]

salsabike "there was an STP finisher with one arm. No legs, and only one arm. How cool is that??"

but OMG, that's got to be one heckofanarm.

I don't have a really good picture of him but this guy rode the last 2 AIDS rides I did. Y'all know I'm slow but on registration day of my first ride I said to tentmate Kathy "I'll be slow but I think I'll be in before the handcycle"

"Oh no you won't" she said, and she was right.

Back to subject, I will admit I blow through most T intersections, eg: traffic from the left but nothing on the right, I slow for stop signs, stop if there's *any* traffic visible, never go through a yellow light and even when it's green check for red-light runners. As a ped or cyclist I don't like to be the first one to go on green.

I learned not to yell "clear" at intersections, just because it's clear for me, might not be for you a nano second later.

[pooks]

I do slow down -- I'm a big chicken! But I don't stop unless there are cars around!

[betagirl]

Hmmm. I slow down at stop signs, but if there's no traffic I don't stop. So guilty there. At a red light I'll slow down and if it's a small intersection and there's no traffic, I go through. If there are cars, I stop and wait for the green. Guilty there too. I never, however, blow through intersections. There's always a slow down/unclip one foot/check it out on my part. I also yield to cars who have the right of way. I do a lot of urban riding, and have to admit I picked up a lot of my bad habits watching bike messengers

Let the beatings begin.

[DeniseGoldberg]

I appear to be in the minority here because I usually do come to a full stop. I will admit that there are times when I don't put a foot down - that is, I do a kind of rolling stop - but that is only when it's a totally flat and clear intersection. I wish I could say that I never go through a red light - but there is one intersection on my travels that is always green for one of the roads unless a car approaches on the cross street. And I do mean a car - my bike will not trigger the light to change. If I come up to that intersection I come to a complete stop. I do cross on the red, but only when there are no vehicles in sight coming from either direction (and the speed limit there is 50 mph, so I don't head across unless there are no vehicles in sight!). Unfortunately, I believe that if I didn't do that I would be standing there waiting to cross until a car came up to cross the intersection...

Bicycles are considered vehicles (in the US, that is - per the motor vehicle code of all 50 states), and I believe that we need to be following the rules of the road.

I find for the most part that I am treated with respect by motor vehicles. Yes, there are the idiots out there who come to close, but I'd say there are more drivers who are respectful than not. And although I do not work (or ride) in a big city, the roads I take on my way to work are pretty heavy commuter roads. There is a section that I avoid because that section is driven as 4 lanes, the 4 lanes are tight with just the cars, and there is a curb rather than a shoulder. I prefer to avoid that section of road at rush hour, so I ride a couple of extra miles to get to the office.

--- Denise

[Veronica]

I was so p*ssed at myself our last day in Nova Scotia when I discovered partway through an intersection that I had run a red light. It was one of those T intersections. It was foggy and my I was wearing my glasses (stupid eye infection!) and they were fogged. I just could not see the light until I was midway through the intersection. I was perfectly safe, BUT I stop at stoplights - even those T ones - because we are vehicles.

V.

[SouthernBelle]

I think lots of us have had to go through reds after a stop. I was doing a charity ride this past spring and there were 8 of us in a left turn lane trying to get the light to change. We tried to get the car behind us to come up to change the light, but they were being nice to us, not understanding the problem. So we finally had to go when we got the chance.

[plantluvver]

I confess, I do not stop at every single stop sign. I do slow, and now I will usually stop if I think there is a car who sees me. I have always felt bad about this, but now that I've read that Idaho is allowing this, I figure it is reasonable behavior, even if not legal, and I have justification for it.

There is one traffic signal that I do not stop for, since it is a T and I don't receive cross-traffic, and there is a bike lane there. I do slow and watch, because you never know if a driver going too fast for a turn will stay in their lane. I rationalize this by thinking, it's not an intersection for me, because I don't think a bike would ever make a left hand turn at that particular spot. It is from Columbia Road Westbound, onto Portland Road. I am also going uphill at that point.

Last week, BF gave me a ride downtown in his pickup. (Bike was in the back, on it's way to get fixed ). He yelled at a cyclist, I didn't see anything wrong with what the cyclist did. But then, the guy came up between two lanes of cars lined up at a stop light. Having a cyclist come up from behind on my left side would spook me out. Now that I think about it, it could be there was a right hand turn lane (That"s the only RATIONAL reason for wanting to do that. )

Also, I have seen an increase in all kinds of people riding bikes. At first, I was glad to see them, but now many of them ride on the wrong side of the street, in a dedicated bike lane. There was one place that I USED to do this, for about 1/4 of a block. It just didn't make sense to me to cross the street twice in that distance to be on the right side. I no longer do this, because I don't want to be a model of bad cycling behavior for those "lowest common denominator'" newbies.

Mary

[Deanna]

If I come up to that intersection I come to a complete stop. I do cross on the red, but only when there are no vehicles in sight coming from either direction (and the speed limit there is 50 mph, so I don't head across unless there are no vehicles in sight!). Unfortunately, I believe that if I didn't do that I would be standing there waiting to cross until a car came up to cross the intersection...

Denise - I'm not sure about the rules in all states, but I recently took a bicycle safety class here in CA and was told that if a light won't change for a bicycle, it is considered defective and you can't be ticketed for going through it (if it's safe and there are no cars of course).

I obey all the traffic rules also, though do tend to commit a California stop in the stopsigns in subdivisions--I unclip though I may not put my foot down. In the same class mentioned above, our instructor, while not encouraging us to run the signs, pointed out that a lot of stopsigns, especially those on residential streets, are "political stopsigns" - the neighborhood felt cars were driving too fast and demanded a stop sign, when a yield sign would have been just as efficient. You just need to make sure you're ready to stop.