What’s up with the bike rage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I ride that bridge on the road.

OP here. Riding on the road on that bridge makes sense to me - with the concrete dividers there separating the side walk and the road, the sidewalk there really doesn’t have enough room for two way traffic for both people and cyclists at that speed.

[Anonymous]

Can't tell you how many times I've almost been hits by cyclists blowing through stop signs and red light.

[Anonymous]

Can't tell you how many times I've almost been hits by car blowing through stop signs and red lights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think bike license plates would help a lot - if bikers know they can be reported and held accountable for breaking traffic laws or reckless “driving,” harassment, whatever, they might just behave better.

YES!!!! They're out of control. Completely out of control.

They think NO law applies to them. They think reasonableness/sense of responsibility towards other trail and road users does not apply to them.

[Anonymous]

There's nothing special about bikers. There are a-holes that ride bikes, a-holes that walk, and a-holes that drive cars. There are also a lot more nice, respectful people that do all three. Please stop the stereotyping (all blacks, all white, all immigrants, all men, all women, all bikers, all drivers, etc.). Thanks.

[Anonymous]

In response to your comments above, recently I almost got killed by a vehicle that crossed a double line onto my lane because he rounded a curve (50mph zone) and there were two idiots riding bikes in the middle of the two-lane narrow road. He either took them out or crossed the double yellow line. He crossed the double yellow line. I came around the next curve and found him on my lane. In a split second, it was either take out the spandex jerk-offs to my left, or drive my car into a ditch to my right. Thank God I had an option, and drove my car into a ditch. I had no choice. The bicyclists never stopped, never indicated in any way they almost caused a tragedy, and as far as I know they couldn't have cared less. They clearly saw my car driven into the ditch, and unless they're brain-dead, they understood what happened.

Now, what is that you're saying about stopping the stereotyping?

It's time to hold them accountable for their extremely irresponsible behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In response to your comments above, recently I almost got killed by a vehicle that crossed a double line onto my lane because he rounded a curve (50mph zone) and there were two idiots riding bikes in the middle of the two-lane narrow road. He either took them out or crossed the double yellow line. He crossed the double yellow line. I came around the next curve and found him on my lane. In a split second, it was either take out the spandex jerk-offs to my left, or drive my car into a ditch to my right. Thank God I had an option, and drove my car into a ditch. I had no choice. The bicyclists never stopped, never indicated in any way they almost caused a tragedy, and as far as I know they couldn't have cared less. They clearly saw my car driven into the ditch, and unless they're brain-dead, they understood what happened.

Now, what is that you're saying about stopping the stereotyping?

It's time to hold them accountable for their extremely irresponsible behavior.

I’m no fan of cyclists in general, but the situation you describe is the fault of the driver who ran you off the road. If he needed to swerve into oncoming traffic, it was because he took the corner too quickly to be able to safely react to whatever might have been around the bend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In response to your comments above, recently I almost got killed by a vehicle that crossed a double line onto my lane because he rounded a curve (50mph zone) and there were two idiots riding bikes in the middle of the two-lane narrow road. He either took them out or crossed the double yellow line. He crossed the double yellow line. I came around the next curve and found him on my lane. In a split second, it was either take out the spandex jerk-offs to my left, or drive my car into a ditch to my right. Thank God I had an option, and drove my car into a ditch. I had no choice. The bicyclists never stopped, never indicated in any way they almost caused a tragedy, and as far as I know they couldn't have cared less. They clearly saw my car driven into the ditch, and unless they're brain-dead, they understood what happened.

Now, what is that you're saying about stopping the stereotyping?

It's time to hold them accountable for their extremely irresponsible behavior.

I’m no fan of cyclists in general, but the situation you describe is the fault of the driver who ran you off the road. If he needed to swerve into oncoming traffic, it was because he took the corner too quickly to be able to safely react to whatever might have been around the bend.

I don't agree with you. Assuming he rounded the curve at the posted speed limit, there was no way he was going to avoid hitting the bikers in the middle of the road on the other side of the curve. He did the only thing he could do. What he should have done was brake immediately, and gotten back on his lane as soon as he could.

What do you suppose I should have done if I had not had a ditch to drive my car into? Take a head-on car crash going 50mph, the other car 50mph, or driven my car over the double yellow line and counted on the bicyclists to push their bikes to the edge of their side of the road? This is a road that has seen several bicyclist fatalities in the past.

These people showed ZERO concern for me. Like I said, they kept going, looking straight ahead. Do you think they would have hung around if there had been a head-on car crash? I doubt it. They would have pulled a disappearance act very fast.

It was me that time. Next time, it might be you, or your spouse, or your teen-aged kids who don't have the experience to react quickly, or your parents, or your best friend. Please think about it. It was a very close call for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's nothing special about bikers. There are a-holes that ride bikes, a-holes that walk, and a-holes that drive cars. There are also a lot more nice, respectful people that do all three. Please stop the stereotyping (all blacks, all white, all immigrants, all men, all women, all bikers, all drivers, etc.). Thanks.

It may be true that not all cyclists are a-holes, and there are a-hole drivers and a-hole pedestrians. But a-hole pedestrians and a-hole drivers won’t and can’t cross-cross freely between the sidewalks, roads AND crosswalks the way a-hole cyclists do, just for their own convenience of that moment to save time/energy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think bike license plates would help a lot - if bikers know they can be reported and held accountable for breaking traffic laws or reckless “driving,” harassment, whatever, they might just behave better.

Yeah, it's definitely been successful in getting all drivers to comply with the traffic laws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In response to your comments above, recently I almost got killed by a vehicle that crossed a double line onto my lane because he rounded a curve (50mph zone) and there were two idiots riding bikes in the middle of the two-lane narrow road. He either took them out or crossed the double yellow line. He crossed the double yellow line. I came around the next curve and found him on my lane. In a split second, it was either take out the spandex jerk-offs to my left, or drive my car into a ditch to my right. Thank God I had an option, and drove my car into a ditch. I had no choice. The bicyclists never stopped, never indicated in any way they almost caused a tragedy, and as far as I know they couldn't have cared less. They clearly saw my car driven into the ditch, and unless they're brain-dead, they understood what happened.

Now, what is that you're saying about stopping the stereotyping?

It's time to hold them accountable for their extremely irresponsible behavior.

I’m no fan of cyclists in general, but the situation you describe is the fault of the driver who ran you off the road. If he needed to swerve into oncoming traffic, it was because he took the corner too quickly to be able to safely react to whatever might have been around the bend.

I don't agree with you. Assuming he rounded the curve at the posted speed limit, there was no way he was going to avoid hitting the bikers in the middle of the road on the other side of the curve. He did the only thing he could do. What he should have done was brake immediately, and gotten back on his lane as soon as he could.

What do you suppose I should have done if I had not had a ditch to drive my car into? Take a head-on car crash going 50mph, the other car 50mph, or driven my car over the double yellow line and counted on the bicyclists to push their bikes to the edge of their side of the road? This is a road that has seen several bicyclist fatalities in the past.

These people showed ZERO concern for me. Like I said, they kept going, looking straight ahead. Do you think they would have hung around if there had been a head-on car crash? I doubt it. They would have pulled a disappearance act very fast.

It was me that time. Next time, it might be you, or your spouse, or your teen-aged kids who don't have the experience to react quickly, or your parents, or your best friend. Please think about it. It was a very close call for me.

Change "cyclists" to "grandmother driving really slowly" or "broken down car" or "tractor" and are you blaming everyone but the driver who was going too fast to see around the curve? The speed limit on any road is what is reasonable for conditions, no greater than the posted speed limit.

BTW, did the driver who was on the wrong side of the road stop to help you out, having seen what s/he caused?

[Anonymous]

I thought of this thread when I heard a WAMU segment this morning on bike safety. Honestly the bikers came off as whiners. I think you have to be either crazy or stupid to ride a bike in DC traffic. They enjoy biking (or perceive there to be some social benefit), so they want to make biking work EVERYWHERE. Well, that’s a fairy tale, absent an existing, viable bike infrastructure/trails.

[Anonymous]

^^Are you defending the bicyclists?

Why?

I'm going to assume you're a guy. What if this happened to your wife? What if she didn't have time to react and crashed head-on with the other vehicle?

Would you still defend the bicyclists?

Be honest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^Are you defending the bicyclists?

Why?

I'm going to assume you're a guy. What if this happened to your wife? What if she didn't have time to react and crashed head-on with the other vehicle?

Would you still defend the bicyclists?

Be honest.

I'm trying to understand why someone is blaming cyclists when a driver clearly was going too fast and opted to go into the opposite travel lane and run someone off the road. That's ridiculous - the cyclists are at most an unexpected impediment, like another slow driver, a deer, or a mattress. The driver who crossed the road is at fault in this situation. If my wife crashed into the driver who crossed the yellow line I would blame that other driver.

I'm sorry you got run off the road, but blame the driver who was in the wrong, not the cyclists.

[Anonymous]

Why does it SEEM there are more cyclist-car or cyclist-pedestrian complaints than pedestrian-car complaints?