we don't need no stinking stop lights!
 

let darwin sort 'em out, i guess. that's the way they roll in this town. i can't tell you how many close calls i've had. i feel for the guy, but jeeeeeezzzzus!


SEATTLE - Traffic was backed-up during the morning commute in North Seattle Thursday when a bicyclist was struck by a truck. It happened at about 6:15 in North Seattle near 145th and I-5. The victim was taken to the hospital, however there is no word on his condition. It appears that the bicyclist had run a red light before he was hit by the vehicle. Police say he was not wearing a helmet.

No kidding! I've had many close calls because of people wanting to run lights and stop at the last minute because they saw a car coming (me)....


Lately what's been bothering me is people drifting left to make a right turn or drifting right to make a left turn.. Annoying!

Bicyclists usually don't stop for anything so who knows what really happened. And a bike helmet wouldn't have done much against a vehicle. Still I hope he recovers and is sort of normal.....

Missed one today while making a right turn. Stopped at the sign, look right then looked hard around parked cars to the left. Decided it was clear and pulled out to find a bicycle shooting off the sidewalk to my right going against traffic. I do hope some day this old enough girl gets hers, but not wrapped in my bumper.

Check out the video clip from my local news site

Scary!

Red-light cameras record wrecks, near misses :: WRAL.com

"That is more or less a daily occurrence at the intersections," said Shawn Brown, Knightdale's public safety director and police chief. "People are using their cell phones, or they're distracted in some way and don't see the light."

I hate that late-apex-into-the-Vons-lot driving! especially when they just about come to a stop doing it!

Around here, I'm fairly certain that laws don't apply to bicyclists.



. . .well, other than the laws of physics, of course. (splat!)

Sounds like you would be at home driving around Philly.... :)

Earlier this year, I was pulling out of a drive halfway down a steep hill. The view of the sidewalk was about 20-30 feet to the uphill. Coincidentally it was right next to a body shop, who's owner I had just spoken with on seperate matters.

Checked right, checked left, and while pulling up heard a long skid and saw a 20'ish vagrant-looking kid on a bicycle skidding towards me the full 20-30 feet, fast. Must have been going 35-45mph on the sidewalk.
-Couldn't go forward.
-No time to reverse.
-Just had to watch while he nailed the fender and his face expanded the size of a dinner plate in the window.

He thrashed around on the ground like a snake catching a cat while I apologized and asked him if I should call an ambulance.
-He jumped up in the air at me with fists clenched and started swearing about "f'n drivers". The ironic thing is I'm willing to block traffic for miles rather that pass a bike with risk.
-He then hopped on his bike and took off fast, leaving me with a caved-in fender and a door that wouldn't open.

Bike are stuck in the middle of cars and pedestrians.
Unless there are dedicated lanes and consistent rules, they will continue to be a third leg(good and bad).

The problem is that there seem to be so many cyclists (not all) that cop an attitude and think that everyone needs to get out of their way. They act as though its OK to disregard traffic laws, general safety, and common sense and get belligerent when they get hurt (as per John70T's post above). Frankly, if its that unsafe to ride then maybe it would be wise to join the YMCA for exercise until the proper lanes are in place. I wouldn't walk into a jungle unprotected and then get mad that something wanted me to be their dinner.

Yeah like driving around Philly is an example of everyone on the road following the law. More red lights are run in one day in Philadelphia than by all the cyclists in this country in a year. If you slow down for a yellow anywhere within a 50 mile radius of that city you're getting rear-ended. No one stops until the red light has been red for 3 seconds minimum. Septa busses go through red lights that have been red for a week and a half. If by some miracle they actually stop at a light it is almost guaranteed they are jumping the light before it turns green. Philadelphia owns 2 of the top ten most dangerous intersections in the country last time I saw the report.

Again we are ripping on cyclists and celebrating that they got "splatted." The guy in the original post did something totally wrong and stupid, but guess who is paying for it.

How many here have never been speeding, accelerated into a yellow light, made a left hand turn after the light has turned red, jumped a light, or god forbid can say they've never driven while drunk or buzzed.

We all break some rules sometimes and we bear the burden of the risks we take, but that doesn't mean we need to celebrate that you, me or a cyclists got what was coming to them for those infractions.

A road is not a jungle. It is a place where civilized people constantly encounter one another; unfortunately more often than not automobile drivers do not treat cyclists with an ounce of civility. Do cyclists do boneheaded things, without a doubt. As a cyclists it both amazes and upsets me when I see what other cyclists do. But the result of those bonehead moves puts their own life on the line, automobiles who treat cyclists wrong gamble with the cyclists life. Anyone who has ridden on a regular basis has stories of bad drivers, near misses, and believe it or not intentionally being run off the road.

A cyclist may bother you a handful of times a year, but odds are they aren't putting your life on the line.

I'll be the first to say that I'm a cyclist and have ridden in plenty of traffic. It drives me nuts when others on bikes pay no attention to the rules of the road, ride in the middle of the lane at half the speed limit, etc. It makes everyone look bad. The stereotype of the bike messenger on a single speed with no helmet and practically begging to get hit is too true.

A couple of weekends ago I was in my 911, late for a class, riding through Fremont which is the hippiest of the hippie neighborhoods and some procession of bikes was going through town, stopping in the middle of intersections, holding up traffic. They got out of the way when I rolled right through their make shift traffic control and kept going after getting the hand held up you need to stop sign.

Yes, blocking an intersection is against the law.

I remind the locally-uneducated on a daily basis.
When someone attempts to force me to break the law, wherbye creating an accident which encumbers hundreds of drivers for hours, I try to remind those drivers of the consequences by whatever means available.

Rich,
You missed the humor in my post.

I do ride a bike around Philly and it amazes me how people on bikes have no regard for traffic laws, especially after your very accurate depiction of Philly drivers. I am hyper aware when I am on my bike as I know how insane the driving style is around here. Actually riding a bike has also made me more aware to check for cyclists when I am driving. It was not meant to fuel the age old cyclists versus driver debate

Carry on..._ :)

I was sitting first in line in the left turn lane at a stoplight in Lynnwood one afternoon last week, waiting for my light to turn green. Just as it turned and I started to pull out, some ass hole on a bicycle shot past my right door and turned left in front of me, narrowly missing the front of my car. He both scared the crap outta me and seriously pissed me off.

If I would have gotten away from the light just a split second faster, I would have hit him. I did punch it the instant I saw him, but, alas, the old Beetle is just too damn slow. That, and at 50 years old, my reactions aren't what they used to be. If I was in the 911 I would have gotten him. I would have drug his sorry ass underneath the car, over to the curb, and left the goddamn thing parked on top of him until the cops got there.

Hey Tim, no offense intended at all. Just Philly was an easy target to explain how so many automobile drivers drive around with the same disregard for the law as cyclists do. Honestly it blows my mind some of the things you see happen around here.

Pepper Spray and now draggin under the car Mr. Higgins did you bring a fishing rod with that post?

Funny thing is I had a car pull the a similar stunt to me (while driving) just the other day. Idiot made a left hand turn from the right lane. Then flipped me off for being upset at them.

Funny, this guy flipped me off, too. If we hadn't turned onto such a steep uphill I could have caught the sonofabytch.

No offense taken. It's the interwebs, all things are in good fun. :)

Do you really believe that? :eek:

Best,
Tom

Not always, but I try. Lol