Clear the Bike Lane!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ&feature=share

since when is it illegal to NOT ride in the bike lane?

mad_machine wrote: since when is it illegal to NOT ride in the bike lane?

It ought to be illegal not to ride in the bike lane if one is provided.

Bikers are stupid. They are the smallest creature on the road but they act as if they are the largest or at least the most entitled.

A small, to a car, mishap is major on a bike. You'd think they'd take extra care instead of daring you to hit them.

Everytime you ride your bike not in the bike lane the terrorists win.

At least he was allowed to film the police officer without being arrested.

carguy123 wrote:

mad_machine wrote: since when is it illegal to NOT ride in the bike lane?

It ought to be illegal not to ride in the bike lane if one is provided. Bikers are stupid. They are the smallest creature on the road but they act as if they are the largest or at least the most entitled. A small, to a car, mishap is major on a bike. You'd think they'd take extra care instead of daring you to hit them.

Bikers ARE the most entitled to the road. They have right of way in ALL situations (except pedestrians...that hurts). If you fail to give right of way to a bicycle, YOU go to jail.

In NYC you are required by law to use a bus lane whenever possible. They bitched about getting them, and now they are everywhere. It would be nice if one or two people used them.

From NYC.gov :

§ 4-12 (p) – Bicycles • Bicycle riders must use bike path/lane, if provided, except for access, safety, turns, etc.

oh here we go again

He's a douchebag, but at least he's a funny douchebag.

man.. did i ever kick a hornet's nest...

In reply to carguy123:

So you're that guy.

Can't stand cyclists that act like they own the road.

carguy123 wrote: Bikers are stupid. They are the smallest creature on the road but they act as if they are the largest or at least the most entitled.

Say it out loud. Maybe record it and play it back so you can hear it as if someone else is saying it.

While you think about how it sounds to hear someone say that, I'm going to count to ten and see how much calmer I am.

If nothing else, go search the off-topic posts for cycling-related stuff, and think about how much of the GRM community you're addressing when you say stuff like that.

quite a few of us Cycle.. Granted, we respect cars more than the average cyclist (or motorist for that matter)

it is good to know about NYC and the bike lanes.. I was planning a trip up there and was thinking of bringing my bicycle

carguy123 wrote: It ought to be illegal not to ride in the bike lane if one is provided. Bikers are stupid. They are the smallest creature on the road but they act as if they are the largest or at least the most entitled.

Oh, E36 M3! Here we go!

In my experience as a driver of everything from large pick-ups to small cars, motorcycles and bicycles, there are a heck of a lot more a$$holes behind the wheel than there are on bicycles.

Was that video for real, or was he just auditioning for a role in the next JackAss movie?

makes sense to make bikers use the lanes if they're there, and seems reasonable to expect them to stay in the bike lane except where there is an obstruction like construction or a parked car, but i've seen bikers nearly get run over when they go around a bus thats at a stop and the bus starts to pull back into the traffic lane just as the biker is going by. who's fault is it then?

and no, bikers do not always have the right of way, they have to follow the same rules as any other motorist on the road. the only time cyclists "own" a lane is when there are two or more riding together in a lane, then they have to be treated as if they were a car in that lane (you have to pass completely in the next lane, passing zone, etc.)

Doesn't say why this guy was outside of the bike lane. Somehow, I suspect he did not just pop over to get around an obstruction before sliding back into the appropriate lane. I think that makes a difference.

And riding his bike in crappy weather is not "doing the world a favor". It's playing a one-man game of Russian Roulette.

There's a 4 lane road nearby that has a generous bike lane. In the last few months I've noticed bicyclists riding right on the white line that seperates the main traffic lane from the bike lane. Normally, I give bikers a bit of extra space if I can, but not these clowns. I just can't imagine what is going through their head when they have a 3 foot wide (maybe wider) bike lane that they refuse to actually use, but instead put themselves as close as possible to traffic passing by at 60 mph.

ncjay wrote: There's a 4 lane road nearby that has a generous bike lane. In the last few months I've noticed bicyclists riding right on the white line that seperates the main traffic lane from the bike lane. Normally, I give bikers a bit of extra space if I can, but not these clowns. I just can't imagine what is going through their head when they have a 3 foot wide (maybe wider) bike lane that they refuse to actually use, but instead put themselves as close as possible to traffic passing by at 60 mph.

That's insane behavior. I'm trying to figure out why it's more than one random moron...

Is there anything wacky about the bike lane? I was out for a ride last week, part of it along a 4-lane highway with a bike lane at the outside each direction. Given my druthers, I'd be riding as close to the curb as I comfortably could, which is way nicer for both drivers and myself. However, late spring means that gravel that was spread on the roads has been swept to the sides, but not cleared away. That meant that I had to ride pretty much dead center in the bike lane, and occasionally a bit to the road side.

Is there anything about the condition of the bike path that you might not be noticing from a car without looking for it?

If it's not a city where the streets get swept regularly, all the crap from the road (garbage, glass shards, oil, small rocks) eventually gets thrown just to the outside where bicyclists ride. It's like being just off-line on a track.

1988RedT2 wrote:

carguy123 wrote: It ought to be illegal not to ride in the bike lane if one is provided. Bikers are stupid. They are the smallest creature on the road but they act as if they are the largest or at least the most entitled.

Oh, E36 M3! Here we go! In my experience as a driver of everything from large pick-ups to small cars, motorcycles and bicycles, there are a heck of a lot more a$$holes behind the wheel than there are on bicycles.

Quite probably. But what kind of an idiot do you have to be to ride like an shiny happy person on something as small as a bike? Even in cases where the legal laws are on your side, the laws of physics don't give a rat's ass about such things.

It's the Kannapolis Parkway here in NC. The road has few buildings on it and is not all that old. Very wide and smooth. The bike lane is as clean as can be expected. Traffic is fairly light most of the time, except between 3 PM and 6 PM when everyone rushes home from work. I used to ride quite a bit, but many of the roads around here just aren't designed for cars and bikes at the same time.

Problem: Cop gave me a ticket and I don't feel I'm guilty. Solution: Go to court. Fight ticket. That guy probably wasted 8 hours of his time making a video that wasn't really all that funny...though running into the cop car was pretty rad. He should've sued.

ncjay wrote: It's the Kannapolis Parkway here in NC. The road has few buildings on it and is not all that old. Very wide and smooth. The bike lane is as clean as can be expected. Traffic is fairly light most of the time, except between 3 PM and 6 PM when everyone rushes home from work. I used to ride quite a bit, but many of the roads around here just aren't designed for cars and bikes at the same time.

but you have the RIGHT to bike, berkeley all those commuting "haters"

Cyclist forever here.

I ride mainly in a large park that bisects DC. 2 lane road, no bike lane, some has a 6" high square concrete curb 12" to the right of the white shoulder line.

I ride on the white line, typically at about 20 mph, in a straight line.

The problem is that drivers have been so terrorized by the wobbling, swerving unpredictable riders that they won't overtake me 'til they can cross entirely into the oncoming lane - 4 wheels on the wrong side of the double yellow - before they mat the pedal and blast by.

The other day (and I don't mean to make sweeping generalizations, but it seems it's always a woman operating a Prius) a woman operating a Prius swung out to pass a cyclist who was coming toward me about 100-150' away. Once she was fully in my lane accelerating as hard as a prius is able, she rotated her head to look behind her to see if she was clear of the cyclist she was overtaking.

As a lifelong cyclist, motorcyclist, motorcycle, kart and car racer I've developed a natural ability I'm sure many here also have - calculating a likely point of impact of vehicles and or objects on the basis of trajectory and velocity, and how the manipulation of the various controls can influence the outcome. You might make a million calculations in a 40 minute heat race - or in a 53 second autocross run. Anyway - if you're used to this, stuff can happen when your driving or riding which would make regular drivers crap themselves but it's clear while it's going on that nothing bad is going to happen. You're going to make the corner/miss the cone, the car spinning in front of you as you rail into a turn won't be there anymore when you get there....

I was pretty convinced that even if her head DID swivel back to a forward looking position, by the time she'd regained situational awareness I'd be someplace behind her having creased her front bumper and hood and shattered her windshield. I'd be seeing if the broken clavicle was a compound fracture or just displaced.

I set up to bunnyhop the curb and head toward the weeds when she looked up and jerked the wheel right. We cleared by about 2'.

I'd love a 24" strip of real estate just so the car operators would feel confident enough to pass the cyclists in a non-homicidal way.