Bicycles on the road & why reading the actual law is always wise

Aaaand this is why I stick to rail trails. Nobody but other cyclists and the occasional pedestrian. The occasional road you have to cross, but that's not hard.

As a cyclist, I hate motorists.

As a motorist, I hate cyclists.

I have no problem throwing my bike in the Durango or Jeep and driving a half hour to go ride a rail trail. It really eases my paranoia of if I'm going to get hit by a car or not. It also eases my wife's anxiety. She thinks I'm going to die every time I step out the front door.

I ride around 100 miles a week for fun on a roadbike, in spandex. There is only on place in my state where you can do a 50 mile ride and not be on public roads, and that's in Atlanta 2 hours away.

There are many, many groups locally that I refuse to ride with because they don't ride responsibly. I stop at traffic lights. We ride single file when there's traffic. I ride as far right as I can safely given the road conditions. Remember, there are asshats in spandex and asshats behind the wheels of cars. neither group is all bad or all good.

The biggest problem behavior in drivers that I encounter is the blind pass. We ride hilly, rural 2 lane roads. Often a driver will come up behind us and sit there for a while refusing to pass on long stretches where they can see for miles. As soon as the road kicks up and we slow down, they get frustrated and pass us - up hill just before a crest on a double yellow line. Several times I've seen people come within a couple feet of a head-on collision when a car comes over the blind hill. For all our safety, pass when you can SEE what's coming at you.

There's lots of cyclists around here, mostly good riders by my standards. BUT I get upset when they're riding in a bunch and taking up the whole lane. A couple of years ago I was slowed to a crawl by one such group , so I beeped the horn to let them know I was there and hoping they would go single file so I could pass. One rider turns and flips me the bird, so I waited patiently until I came to a proper passing zone and passed the entire group. Then I slowed down to walking pace and held up the group for a few hundred yards.

In thirty years of driving I have been held up by bicyclists probably a total of five minutes. Bad or obnoxious driving by others adds at least forty five minutes a week to my commute time. Bicyclists are the least of my issues.

I am probably the least obnoxious bicyclist you will ever see. I obey all traffic laws and I'm typically glued to the white line at the edge of the pavement. And still, motorists who I have not inconvenienced at all seem to have a problem with me. Yeah, pack riding roadies can be douche bags but I think most of the time the problem is with the nut in the car.

I'd also like to point out that the road is generally a much safer place to ride a bike than a sidewalk, and most severe cycling accidents occur on the sidewalk.

Cars entering or exiting driveways never stop to see if someone is coming on a sidewalk or crosswalk, and often stop right in the middle of it waiting for road traffic to clear.

Lesley wrote: I'm all for bikes, they're healthy and help reduce our oil dependency, but holy hell, there need to be some definite rules governing them. I despise having to give them all sorts of leeway, only to have one come up beside me at the lights, pass me, look both ways and cross on the red. Or decide at that point that they get to be a pedestrian, and cross on the walk in front of me. I try to give them plenty of room, but there is no way I'm creeping along doing 30k behind one if there's room to pass. And only supreme douchebags create animosity by riding two abreast to prevent that. A colleague and I were driving together on his first trip to California a few years ago... he was aghast when a group of spandex guys spread out to block our Mustang. He couldn't believe they were doing it on purpose... I told him to wait – you haven't seen the infamous "Prius brake-check" yet... which we experienced later that day.

What's the "Prius brake-check"?

ultraclyde wrote: There is only on place in my state where you can do a 50 mile ride and not be on public roads, and that's in Atlanta 2 hours away.

Silver Comet? Been on there, it's pretty cool.

Where I live there are miles and miles and miles of country roads that I take my motorycle on and I will see maybe two or three other cars in an hour.

Where do the dipE36 M3 cyclists ride?

Main roads and truck routes.

Shawn

I too have miles and miles of country roads.

Narrow 2 lane country roads with blind corners & many hills so they can be hidden over the crest.

There are also no shoulders, but do the bike riders stay close to the edge and watch out for cars - NO WAY!

They ride 2 & 3 wide in large packs strung out for quite a ways & do not pay the least bit of attention to what's approaching from the rear or what's going on in the front.

Use a little common sense people!! That's not where or how you need to be riding. You cannot win in a bike/car collision of any magnitude.

Tonight on GRM! A bunch of fatties whine about people living a healthier lifestyle and how inconvenient it is to share the road with slower vehicles.

Stay tuned while we beat another dead horse!

In reply to Mr_Estrotica:

Yeah, bad attitudes exist on the roads and the interwebz, too.

In reply to oldsaw:

Agreed.

In reply to Mr_Estrotica: Point is, though, that the fatties wouldn't have a problem sharing the road with the people living a healthier lifestyle, if the people living a healthier lifestyle would follow the berkeleying rules.

Some of us do follow the rules, but we get lumped in with the red light runners because we ride bikes in similar outfits.

This "fatty" had his incident with the cyclists on his way to the gym, like he does several times a week.

Because I have to ride on public roads.. a couple of years ago I had significant "incident" regarding an older driver. He passed me as I was on the shoulder and without warning pulled into the parking lot we were both next to, leaving me no room to turn, brake, or pray.

I plowed right into the rear fender of his DTS.

Getting myself upright and getting my head on straight again, I ignored him as he ranted and raved and threatened me with lawsuits and like. Finally acknowledging his presence, I pulled my phone from my bag and offered it to him. That stopped him dead. "call 911" is all I told him.

I was fine, a few scrapes, the bike needed the front tyre looked at.. but it was nothing a few dollars and a hot bath wouldn't take care of. He stopped ranting and screaming at me when he realized he would get a ticket if the cops came.

Mr_Estrotica wrote: A bunch of fatties whine about people living a healthier lifestyle and how inconvenient it is to share the road with slower vehicles.

Well at least now I know what delusion the asshat cyclists are suffering from.

AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE!

As a former roadie converted to knobby tire guy (for safety reasons of all things) I can't stand how some spandex rogues ride in my town.

Every weekend we get a TON of cyclists, who seem to love riding two wide on curvy back roads and give you dirty looks when you try to get by. It's one of the few times I wish my diesel truck would make soot.

Like most things, the annoying minority sets the expectations for the polite majority.

Trans_Maro wrote: Where I live there are miles and miles and miles of country roads that I take my motorycle on and I will see maybe two or three other cars in an hour. Where do the dipE36 M3 cyclists ride? Main roads and truck routes.

Yup. Joggers, too. Morans.

Sky_Render wrote:

Lesley wrote: I'm all for bikes, they're healthy and help reduce our oil dependency, but holy hell, there need to be some definite rules governing them. I despise having to give them all sorts of leeway, only to have one come up beside me at the lights, pass me, look both ways and cross on the red. Or decide at that point that they get to be a pedestrian, and cross on the walk in front of me. I try to give them plenty of room, but there is no way I'm creeping along doing 30k behind one if there's room to pass. And only supreme douchebags create animosity by riding two abreast to prevent that. A colleague and I were driving together on his first trip to California a few years ago... he was aghast when a group of spandex guys spread out to block our Mustang. He couldn't believe they were doing it on purpose... I told him to wait – you haven't seen the infamous "Prius brake-check" yet... which we experienced later that day.

What's the "Prius brake-check"?

I've had them cut in front and apply the brakes several time while in California. It appears to be a self-righteous way of putting high-horsepower cars in their place.

Mr_Estrotica wrote: Tonight on GRM! A bunch of fatties whine about people living a healthier lifestyle and how inconvenient it is to share the road with slower vehicles. Stay tuned while we beat another dead horse!

I'm not fat and I do my exercise without being an elitist shiny happy person pissing a lot of people off, but hey that's just me.

Lesley wrote:

Sky_Render wrote:

Lesley wrote: I'm all for bikes, they're healthy and help reduce our oil dependency, but holy hell, there need to be some definite rules governing them. I despise having to give them all sorts of leeway, only to have one come up beside me at the lights, pass me, look both ways and cross on the red. Or decide at that point that they get to be a pedestrian, and cross on the walk in front of me. I try to give them plenty of room, but there is no way I'm creeping along doing 30k behind one if there's room to pass. And only supreme douchebags create animosity by riding two abreast to prevent that. A colleague and I were driving together on his first trip to California a few years ago... he was aghast when a group of spandex guys spread out to block our Mustang. He couldn't believe they were doing it on purpose... I told him to wait – you haven't seen the infamous "Prius brake-check" yet... which we experienced later that day.

What's the "Prius brake-check"?

I've had them cut in front and apply the brakes several time while in California. It appears to be a self-righteous way of getting high-horsepower cars to put them in the ditch.

FTFY

Mr_Estrotica: That whole 'I'm doing a wunnerful thing for my health and the environment meaning I'm better than everyone else thus I don't need to follow the rules' thing doesn't wash. Time for an attitude check before it gets you killed. Personally, I do my best to give cyclists all the room they need, even the asshats in spandex. If there's an accident and someone is killed to me it makes no difference who's right or wrong, particulaly if either or both parties are acting like spoiled brats.

It would be nice if some of those self righteous pricks would understand that the roads are there for the use of all and they need to share, same as they demand of motorists.

All this makes me glad I only ride the road bike when I get out of work. 4am, neighborhoods only. Might only see one car an hour.

motomoron wrote: ....and no, you can't ride a road bike at a steady state 20+ mph slaloming through families w/ unpredictable children on 16" bikes w/ training wheels)

Just like I can't drive a steady 75mph on the freeway without slaloming slower traffic and semi's governed to 55mph?

Who ever thought up the idea that bicycles and cars can safely share the same place, not happening...

Two lane in north Georgia, great road to drive on speed limit 50mph. Lots of curves and hills though the mountains. Logging truck on a down hill, full jake brake reverbing off the rock walls. Group of about 10 cyclist blocking the lane, don't tell me you can't notice that fully loaded Peterbuilt bearing down on you... They refused to give way. Trucker blows the horn a few times, waits, horn sounds again and finally has to pull into on coming lane to get around.
I followed the truck, getting flipped off and yelled at the whole time.

In this area there is no shoulder, no bike lane, nothing. Why ride here? It's clearly not safe and these people were clearly here for sport, not trying to get somewhere.