Patronizing Drivers

[DebW]

Is anyone else annoyed by partonizing drivers? The ones who come to a dead stop in traffic and motion you across the road even though they have the right of way and traffic would flow smoother and more predictably for everyone if they didn't. When I'm riding with the flow of traffic, I expect to be treated like any other vehicle. I don't want special privileges other than common courtesy and enough space for safety. Sometimes all a driver needs to do is look in their rear view mirror and see that there is no one behind them and therefore stopping only wastes time for them and me. The only time I welcome someone making a special stop for me is if I'm waiting to turn left on the double yellow line in a busy street with cars whizzing by closely on both sides. If I'm at a stop sign, I'll wait until there's a break in traffic just like any other vehicle would.

[Kimmyt]

If they stop to let you go, you know that they see you. How do you know that the person behind that driver letting you through the stop sign will even see you, much less recognize you as another vehicle?

K.

[roughingit]

I'm personally thrilled whenever they aren't using me as a target out here. I miss the other side of the state with the polite bike-friendly drivers. Here there are mostly hillybillies with trucks that think it's a fun sport to scare the beejeebers out of you!

[Eden]

I have to agree more with Deb, drivers who stop in stupid places just because they think they are being nice are almost as scary as the ones who are really rude, because when you refuse to take their "nice gesture" you might be creating ill will with the driver, so who knows what they will do next time.
What they don't seem to get is they are doing something dangerous My husband and I encountered one of these people just two days ago. They stopped and waved us on into the path of traffic coming the other direction. They get so fixated on the bikes that they forget we have to deal with all of the other traffic that is not their particular car.

[DebW]

I encountered one of those yesterday. A driver stopping in traffic and waiting for me to go when I couldn't because of traffic in the other direction. I worry that all the drivers behind the guy who stopped needlessly will be upset at cyclists for slowing traffic. Or they could try to pass the stopped car and create a more hazardous situation. I'd rather wait for a break in traffic than depend on driver B to guess what driver A is doing.

Then there was the time I was riding straight down a road where a policeman was stationed to help cars turn left into a school driveway. The policeman motioned for a car to turn left right in front of me. The driver saw me and refused to do so, while the policeman began to get angry with him. You don't expect a policeman to totally not see you and almost cause an accident.

[CorsairMac]

I'm with Deb and Eden, although I appreciate the gesture and I don't want to create tension between cars and bikers, it doesn't help me to stop traffic so I can cross the street. A)it may not be safe for me to cross Both lanes of traffic and B) the ppl behind the stopped car may Not see me, may not know why traffic is stopped and pull out to pass the stopped cars and then I'm a pancake.
I try to motion the stopped car on with a smile on my face and a wave of thanks.
On the other side of the coin, my commute home crosses a very busy 6 lane divided street and I can't tell you the number of times I've had BAT's (big a** trucks) stop RIGHT in front of me, completely blocking any access to the crossing.
Guess no matter what we do, we're just little bitty bugs on their windhshield of life!

[fixedgeargirl]

What they don't seem to get is they are doing something dangerous My husband and I encountered one of these people just two days ago. They stopped and waved us on into the path of traffic coming the other direction. They get so fixated on the bikes that they forget we have to deal with all of the other traffic that is not their particular car.

Sadly, a 7 year old pedestrian in my little town was killed this way. A well meaning motorist saw her waiting to cross the street to the park, stopped and waved her across. Cassie was struck by a van which had the right-of-way and had stopped at the stop sign, but unfortunately didn't see her. This vehicle was carrying an out-of-town elementary school jumprope troupe who had just performed at Cassie's school earlier in the day. Awareness of all the elements around you and eye contact are essential (I'm working on that one ). You can't assume anything.