Pet Peeve Today: Bikers - I love you guys, bike all you want - but if you bike on the roads with no bike lane, like a car, you gotta follows the rules, like a car.
No sliding up five places at the red light because you're thin enough to fit between the cars. You gotta wait your spot!
No sliding up five places at the red light because you're thin enough to fit between the cars. You gotta wait your spot!
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And yet... I also do it from time to time, especially to not loom behind a cyclist so I guess I need to live with my own standards.
Of course, the underlying truth here is that we need more bike lanes, and sharrows are horribly dangerous.
Though I do remember one incident when an oncoming car veered into my lane.
It looks to me like the law was made to be deliberately hostile to cyclists.
But it seems reasonable to me that sliding up is also generally applicable, as long as it's safe and you don't block cars you passed.
but in NC i wouldn't be so sure...
Maybe the same is true in NC.
Even so, a bicycle passing on the right is far safer than a car veering to the left.
> North Carolina
Cyclists don’t have the luxury of a protective cage. And are often at the total mercy of drivers. And following the law is often a luxury cyclists don’t always have.
Like, if that's where the light happens to turn red, sure, fine.
Breaking rules to slow everyone down? 😑
Bikes don't slow me down around town, because they can slide up the inside. It's all the bloody cars that are the problem.
It’s literally the standard in the UK to have a designated space there for bikes!
Will it?
If it doesn't, what happens next?
Passing me when there is little space?
Yelling at me to get out of the road?
Throwing shit at me?
Those are examples of actual outcomes from my cycling life.
I have the power to eliminate those options and will always choose to do so
I need to be more than a door length from any vehicle and I do not trust any driver.
"Remove their ability to do harm" is the only rational choice for me.
I assume every driver will fail to signal and wants to hit me with their car.
(Also, if there is a bike lane, could you, you know, be in the center of it, not to the side of traffic?)
Maybe your 4 seconds aren’t more important than that, champ
https://bikeeastbay.org/doored/
https://nacto.org/
Most cyclists are also motorists & pedestrians so they understand what it's like for motorists & pedestrians.
Careful drivers tend to be careful & considerate cyclists. Reckless drivers who lose their license often become reckless cyclists & reckless pedestrians.
Everyone needs to be more cautious & considerate, including those who design streets & vehicles.
My baby is very sick and needs urgent medical care. We are struggling financially and any help would be a lifesaver for us 😢.
That's the best way for everyone to be safe.
You're arguing that it's good, actually, for an unprotected meatsack to perform maneuvers that make it very difficult for the operators of large metal killing machines to know where you are. That's stupid.
If you want to make the 1/
US traffics laws do not entitle anyone to speed
https://transportation.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/260/2021/06/BIKELAW_RG_NC_2019_WEB.pdf
Then you wonder why this annoys people?
So tone-deaf
If I’m in the bike lane, I HAVE to ride to the left-1, b/c no city keeps lanes clean, that’s the cleanest path, 2 I need to be SEEN. Hiding in the gravel, does not make me visible.
Nothing worse than stop-and-go on a bike.
guy in 4000lb car: if you inconvenience me i'll murder you
Ever wonder why death rates associated with peddle bikes and motorcycles are ignored in these countries?🤔
so i am not really incentivized to take "what would a car want me to do here" into consideration
they will try to kill me just for existing anyway
If only all drivers drove in a way that minimised danger, or even just inconvenience, to cyclists...
Getting out in front of all the cars is often the best way to be visible and physically distant from the cars, and that's always the safest place to be. 2/
Average cruising speed of a cyclist: 15mph
Average urban car speed: 7mph
Nah, I'd say that it's impatient drivers like you upset that you can't speed everywhere that are the slow problem in everyone's way, m8
It is **safer** to wait behind all of the cars! Even in unprotected bike lanes!
You don't get there faster if you stop closer to the intersection!
That said: We don't ever really get to avoid the poison gas and particulates. I wear an N95 when cycling for just this reason.
On the other hand, that box is the most-visible spot in the system
Also one of the times I got hit was a driver speeding past me after an intersection to make a hard right turn w no signal *into* the front of my bike!
Otoh:
https://bsky.app/profile/obcycler.bsky.social/post/3lkrb3ehlzc2n
(I had never considered or been close to being rear-ended.)
Happy to be better educated via the conversations!
https://bsky.app/profile/dustyrhodes.bsky.social/post/3lkrgralydc2x
If you're on the motorway/freeway and a driver overtakes you, do you scrutinise their decision to pass you if you have the opportunity to overtake them a few minutes later?
It's even more annoying when driver overtakes then immediately gets stuck behind parked car, blocking cyclist.
I have appreciated the discourse and advice!
While I am no longer baffled, I remain skeptical. When I have followed the "statistically safer" options I have been clipped & hit! Not a surprise that I would look for a different route.
Nothing to do with convenience and everything to do with safety.
If I can't safely filter, I take the lane and keep an eye on what is happening behind.
Shut your fucking murderous trap you cunt. You just want an excuse.
Wait in the right shoulder -> get run over by a car turning right without looking
Being ahead of all the cars is the safest, though if the driver behind me is polite and not road-ragey I'll wait in the car lane.
Sounds like we are both in favor of more protected bike lanes.
Stay behind me when I stop!
And like bikes when it suits them:
Why aren't you on the bike path/sidewalk?
It's notable because it's just wildly self-centered in a way we wouldn't accept in other contexts.
Like
1 It affects us zilch
2 Even if it were illegal I got 0 interest in killing anyone
WTF
The max amount of time a car spent in that position was 30s. The mode was in the 5 - 10s range.
They're just babies.
Or get in line with traffic for a left turn on the yellow light?
I mean, it's an ambition, I guess.
A bonus is that less cyclists will be killed by drivers like you who make up "rules" and get mad when these fake ass rules are broken
take care, and if you’re feeling really generous, try not to kill any people who ride bikes :)
It’s then guaranteed that the usually inattentive drivers will see you and tell their friends how bad you were, rather than continue reading their phones and run you down.
• what the rules are
• what those rules try to achieve
Filtering to the front on a bike is completely legal. Why? Because it's safer. And because bikes are fundamentally different from cars.
Also, 99% of the time, you don’t actually want cyclists to follow the law, because it ends up the same as when government workers mount a slow-down by following every regulation.
Nah !
We all know how that would end up
☠️
No, that's not how this shit works.
https://bsky.app/profile/bretdevereaux.bsky.social/post/3lkqyemi6ik2w
1) Red lights mean STOP for ALL vehicles on the road, including bikes.
2) Stop signs mean STOP for ALL vehicles on the road, including bikes.
3) ALL vehicles on single lane roads must ride SINGLE FILE, not side by side
4) No passing on right side on a single lane road
That's not even time for a satisfactory fart.
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/rules-for-cyclists-road-junctions.html
Law changed quickly
Otherwise I have to keep looking back to make sure I'm not too close to them or cutting them off if I'm turning
Please go to the front at intersections, bicyclists
If you want bikes in the road. Where you can hit them. That's fun for insurance and guilt.
Not being noticed by a car is lethal for the bike.
Why?
How many times do cyclists get overtaken, why can’t motorists wait their spot?
or consider: if a cyclist is forced to take the lane, you probably shouldn’t be going much faster than them anyways
NO.
Seriously, that's dumb.
Are you suggesting that cars should never pass bikes?
Fuck off with that.
How did you survive it
As an RN, i have caredfor many bike accident patients. It isn’t pretty.
I’ll follow the rules of the road and not just whatever’s easy for me exactly as much as drivers do. You have a deal.
Bikes aren't 3 ton machines that kill people like cars do so need for them to follow all the same rules.
Real quick reminder why: getting hit by a car (even a little bit) can seriously fuck us up.
I spent a lot of time, in London, behaving in exactly the same way a motorised vehicle does.
I was treated incredibly dangerously by many drivers who objected to this.
So, do your time on two wheels before telling me what to do.
I'll look after my own life, thanks.
https://youtu.be/ton6tD771WQ?si=52Q1iV7IMBT4ZC3O
Pet Peeve Today: motorists who don’t know traffic laws.
A bike broke someone's leg once. I literally can't tell the difference between the two, I'm so smart.
It is an instructive exercise to examine the traffic rules, and the implicit assumptions it makes.
One you see breaking down here, is that almost all road users will readily accelerate to the speed limit.
For both our sakes please support public funding of multi-use trails and fully separated bike lanes.
Getting rear ended in a car is bad enough, do it on a 30 lb bicycle and that’s a lifetime of serious injury or death.
Bikes are not cars.
Everyone thinks this shit is just a game but the literal stakes are life and death.