Another bicycle versus cars rant.... WWYD, report them?

[Noah930]

Easy answer, Joe Bob. If I'm pissed and someone's stupid enough to pull that kind of garbage with a "Report Me Now!" sign plastered to their vehicle, you bet I'm gonna take 'em up on that.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by widebody911

This. All of this.

Many don't think that way. They think they are half pedestrian half bike when they want. Face it, it isn't going to happen. I am sick of them also and I ride a bike.

[jyl]

I guess this is stereotyping, but usually that is some dude in jeans and no helmet, on a crappy old MTB or BMX, at night with no lights, riding against traffic. Brainless slugs.

[look 171]

Many people are more comfortable riding on the sidewalk then the street because that's how they use to do it as kids. I am not sure if he here on Pelican, but a P car parts guy, many of you know here, are trying to get into this bike thing. I have been coaching and cracking the whip on some basic things on him. He was a bit worry about riding in traffic or a certain part of the street. It is a hell of a feeling in that skinny tire, little bike riding up against a big old bus or truck coming next to you at 35-40mph an hour if you aren't use to it. he said,"I usually ride here on the side and get through this section of about 2 short blocks, and jump back on the street and go home". That part is really a zoo with cars flying by with almost no curb around the tight curve.

[DanielDudley]

As a driver, I do everything in my power to preserve life, no matter how stupid the other person is being. As a cyclist, I do everything I can not to inconvenience other road users, while being as safe as I can possibly be about my own life.

Yes, I would probably report all of these incidents. But I would also take a look at the current driving climate in my area, and make a conscious decision as to whether I needed to avoid certain roads, especially during commuter hours It is my opinion that a large segment of our population has pretty much lost it's collective mind, and have no regard for the safety of others when it comes to exercising what they regard as their personal ''rights''.

We see it all the time, even on this board. I might personally forgo my right to operate a bicycle on certain roads, if it meant that I would be subjected to repeated or constant danger to my life, health or safety.

Please be very, very careful on your bike rides. I would feel very badly if I read something had happened to any one of us because of something so common as poor driving, regardless of whose fault it was. People ARE crazy. Consider that this is not likely to change soon, and ride accordingly.

[Zeke]

I sometime ride my bike home after dropping my truck off for any major repairs at a local shop. It just happens to be on the other side of the 405 freeway. I have to ride major streets part of the way, especially going under the freeway. There are no other routes other than large busy streets with no bike lanes. I ride the sidewalk most of the way. It's not a sidewalk that pedestrians use. In fact, I've never encountered another cyclist in the few times I've done this.

When I ride in the traffic lanes I literally hold my breath. The lanes are wide enough for 2 cars, not 2 cars and a bike. There are parked cars all along the way and we know how that goes. You are taking heart stopping chances riding in traffic, at the right, next to the parked cars and being passed by cars, trucks and buses.

F that. I ride the sidewalk and stay out of the cars' way and harm's way.

AS SUCH, I CONSIDER MYSELF A PEDESTRIAN. I use the crosswalks and obey the signals for pedestrians. I'll dismount and walk if need be. If I were to encounter a walker, I'd stop to let them by because I'm on their turf. I wouldn't do this if the walk ways were populated.

I don't know what I'd do. Change shops, I guess.

Yesterday I'm driving along a street with some bicyclists. There are 2-way and 4-way stops every 2-3 intersections which I dutifully obey. The cyclists don't. They blow each one and actually make better time in some stretches. It's cat and mouse. On a longer stretch I get ahead driving the speed limit or 25. I get to where I want to turn right.

You guessed it. I stop, signal and they come blowing by on my right. NOW THAT'S WHERE YOU WANT TO THROW A STICK IN THE SPOKES! I've got no compassion for those kinds of cyclists. Those are the ones you want an air horn from a locomotive and a PA system in the car to yell, "No, you stop for once and yield. I got here first."

[Hawkeye's-911T]

By Zeke: I only wish people on bikes would take it one way or the other. I've got them coming off sidewalks into the street and back on the sidewalk, in the cross walks, in the traffic lanes; they want it all.

My sentiments exactly. Although with the so-called "greening" of Vancouver we now have more dedicated bike lanes for cyclists, which in those areas of the city tend to eliminate some of these problem situations. There still is & always will be the "a$$hat confrontational factor", no matter what.

Cheers
JB

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

The police are the last people I would call.

I would be calling the owners or the boss.

Sorry, my bad... speed read your post on break... yes, I would call the companies!

What dimwit drives like that with a phone number posted on their car?

Carry on...

[look 171]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

Sorry, my bad... speed read your post on break... yes, I would call the companies!

What dimwit drives like that with a phone number posted on their car?

Carry on...

I was just thinking about when this happened to me this morning. A driver who was driving a SoCal Gas Co. truck completely blew a stop on a small street. Made a right without stopping at all while I was in the middle of an intersection trying get straight across. I honked and looked him right at his eyes. He said some BS to me and kept on going eventually flipped me the bird as I followed him down a quiet residential street. There's school one block away. You think he would pull that crap elsewhere away from a school without kids around? I think people aren't just doing it to bike riders (I will say it again. I am a bit sick of those idiots also who do not follow the rules). They are doing it because they feel they can and their time is worth more then ours or simply don't care. I will report this idiot when I find some time.

[Joe Bob]

Bayside Chevron and PCH in Newport Beach. Truck versus bike....fatality. The whole intersection is closed down.

Looks like a right turn and a gal got crushed by the back wheels. Film crew, PoPo, crime scene the whole 9 inch nails. Film at 11.

Called my Momz (shut up Sid) and told her it wasn't me.....getting local air play in the OC.

[Zeke]

That's really too bad. With school in session, that might be someone's mom. Doesn't really make any difference. But, I'd like to know if she did anything stupid. It's hard to believe this could be 100% the truck driver's fault.

And now look at his/her life. One person is dead and the other is ruined.

[Joe Bob]

The driver and helper are detained but not hooked up. Place is crawling with suits looking for witnesses.

The area as you know isn't South Central SmelLA....lots of money here and the smell attracts the sharks. The backed up supercars, SUVs, Rovers is horrendous. Nothing worse than a peeved rich wanker late for their pedicure....

[Zeke]

Apparently some folks posting on a local Corona Del Mar site knew this woman. I won't mention the name they said...you can find this pretty easily. Looks very much like she was in a vehicular right turn lane and maybe going straight. Unfortunately, the truck wasn't. There are bike lanes all over the place, but not in that RTL. She was coming down a slight hill off a bridge.

You can conjecture all you want. All I know is that the lack of respect of motorists and bicyclists for each other came to reality this morning.

[Joe Bob]

Cyclist killed in Newport Beach in apparent right hook collision; 8th OC bike death this year « BikingInLA

I've been in that RT Lane and have been cut off there as well. It's a 50mph zone...and every rich asshat in town is in a freaking hurry. I passed thru there at 8:15 just a couple of hours before it happened.

[jyl]

Right turn lanes are an interesting situation for the cyclist who intends to go straight.

If you keep hugging the right curb all the way to the intersection, then you pretty much have to dismount and use the cross walk. Going straight is asking to be run over by cars making the right turn. Even the last couple dozen feet before the intersection are dangerous, because drivers who cut the turn won't simply thump their tires on the curb, they will run you down. So the safest thing is often to go onto the sidewalk before the intersection and proceed as a pedestrian.

My choice is usually to get out of the right turn lane, and ride in the lane that goes straight. Take the whole lane because otherwise you will be involuntarily lane-splitting moving traffic. Sprint so you spend as little time as possible in that position. That's what I do in city streets where traffic is moving 20-35 mph.

On a fast road like the one in SoCal, with 50 mph speeds, getting out in the middle of the going-straight lane is too dangerous. Do the next best thing, and ride in the right turn lane, taking the whole lane - at least cars in that lane are slowing for the turn, not blasting along at 50 mph, drivers picking their noses. Sprint to get through there a-s-a-p. Yes, you will technically break the law by going straight from a right turn lane. But it is the safer alternative.

If the road has two right turn lanes and high speeds? I'll give up, bail out to the sidewalk, and go pedestrian.

I've said this before, but a mirror is practically a necessity for riding in traffic. I monitor my helmet mirror constantly. Eyes flick up to it every few seconds. If some truck driver is barreling up behind me in the right turn lane, I need to see him coming.

[Joe Bob]

I agree....being passive and hanging to the right is stupid.

On multi lane RT lanes I will hang to the left.....signalling my intentions with my left arm, left hand, and left middle finger for the douche nozzles on the phone and a double latte no viagra and rohipnol.....

Last week, when merging from the right over to the left in the very same intersection a gal actually braked from 50 down to 40 to let me in.....there WAS a full red but hell the limit WAS 55.....

Whilst in the LT lane I turned and said thank you......she blushed and said something intelligible and waved when the light changed....I think she said Zeke was a wanker....but I couldn't be sure...

[jyl]

Oh, about the lady who was killed - if she wasn't actually cutting across the right turn lane in th process of going straight, but rather riding along the curb side when the truck passed her and then turned front of her so that its rear wheels ran her over, then I'm not sure how it was her fault.

That is usually how a right hook happens. A young woman was killed by a truck's right hook here, a few months ago. The rear wheels of a car travel closer to the apex than the fronts. This is more so if the vehicle is long, and more so if the vehicle has a wider rear track. That's your typical truck right there. The driver passes the bicyclist, either doesn't pay any attention to the cyclist or doesn't grasp that the cyclist is moving, then driver turns in, his rear wheels crush the cyclist. Heck, truck drivers do this to pedestrians and inanimate objects too.

There are right hook fatalities where the rider was stationary waiting on a red light, and the truck driver turns right on red and crushes the cyclist. That happened to a young woman here three years ago. If you wonder why some cyclists stop right in the middle of the lane, holding up drivers who want to turn right on red, that is why. It might seem like it would be more considerate for them to stop out of the way, and I usually try to stop on the left edge of the lane so that cars can inch by on the right. But plenty of cyclists have learned not to stop over on the right edge of the lane.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

I agree....being passive and hanging to the right is stupid.

On multi lane RT lanes I will hang to the left.....signalling my intentions with my left arm, left hand, and left middle finger for the douche nozzles on the phone.....

Last week, when merging from the right over to the left in the very same intersection a gal actually braked from 50 down to 40 to let me in.....there WAS a full red but hell the limit WAS 55.....

Whilst in the LT lane I turned and said thank you......she blushed and said something intelligible and waved when the light changed....I think she said Zeke was a wanker....but I couldn't be sure...

I think she said 'gosh its a shame I don't like my men too skinny, oh well off to my Nymphomanics Anon meeting . . . ' Fer Gods sake get some skin back on your bones.

[afterburn 549]

For those of you who have NEVER driven a Semi OR
thought about the geometry involved-
Right Turn Clyde = this ---
As soon as the Tractor start in to the turn, the driver looses all site of whats going on there .
There is No automated device that turns the mirror as the vehicle bends around the turn
Its call the Blind SPOT for good reason
Yes the driver can lean Fwd and see some of whats happening..(If he does )
But its best to just think NO ONE sees you !
You might be right...dead right But that will not fix the problem of the rear trailer wheels going across you.

[85eurocarrera]

Hey Richard,
In regards to my comment on being "stressed out" I was suggesting that riding on the road in traffic was getting you all worked up. Who else posts up that they're mounting a camera on their bike to record all the idiot drivers....and then don't even post up the findings?

I ride plenty of miles on the road and have been hit by a SUV just last year. Plenty of idiot drivers etc. I try and limit my vulnerability by riding within the law and when traffic is low. Still, ***** happens, and you want to film it? Great, where is the footage?

Again, How does a camera help you with your "training"? Lets see evidence of you doing 25mph through traffic.

In regards to your comment on my Vibrator thread; This is what I did Saturday




40 mile mtb ride through Chequamegon forest.
BTW, thats a photo from last year...this years not up yet, but weather was just as nice. 1850 riders on a mass roll out start. I'll post some footage for ya when I get around to it.