a bicyclists' rules of the road

Most expressways have catwalks these days. With the cost of gas and the effort to make the roads more bicycle friendly I'm sure yours will have one built if enough people push for it.

reply to post by MrMysticism


Well, I get your point, but it is and it isn't.

For instance you can not ride a bike on the superhighways in the US, east of the Rockies, but often you can to the west. So to get from one place to another it's almost impossible to find a route.

In addition, if the city decides to mandate use of a cycle lane (but the lane doesn't take you to your destination) you can be in trouble. Strictly speaking, if you have to cross the street to go to your destination and to do that, you have to merge into traffic to turn left, by the code, if you are hit by a car, there's ample room for that driver not to be charged since he is not strictly at fault since you are not using the cycle lane (even though you can't get to your destination unless you merge into the road).

Also, drivers are allowed to run over people on bicycles and get off with a fine by saying 'I didn't see them'.

See the examples I posted about how you are forced to ride unsafely by the designated facilities.

I'm sure you've also seen bike lanes that abruptly end with no warning, or into the middle of which the city will just erect a sign or a barrier or bollards with no thought of a cyclist running into them.

Of course other people riding bicycles are also dangerous if they decide to ride the wrong way and not with traffic, and joggers typically run on the wrong side of MUP (Multi-use paths) because of their habit on the road even though there's no cars on the MUP. It's totally a mess in the US for people just trying to get a little exercise or to save gas.

Check this out.
Touted as having 200-300 miles of cycling trails, a beach town depicted below does NOT have a way to get from your neighborhood to the beach on your bike.

Note trying to get from the red X to the other red X (Beach) going by way of roads and through the area circled in Green. It's scary even in a car!!



In fact, though they call that a selling point for recreational riders, if you asked them how do I get TO the beach, they'd laugh and say "put your bike in your car and drive".

IN FACT, when they 'improved' the road in that area, the planners stupidly removed the bike roads which used to run parallel to the expressway because they claim they didn't have space.







[edit on 30-6-2008 by Badge01]

Originally posted by MrMysticism
Most expressways have catwalks these days. With the cost of gas and the effort to make the roads more bicycle friendly I'm sure yours will have one built if enough people push for it.

Nice comment, if totally erroneous. "Most" expressways do not have catwalks, and few cities have money budgeted to make cycling more friendly and you're claiming to "be sure" of something for which you have no way of knowing. Every person in town could picket for a highway improvement but without matching Federal funds, all it would do would be to make the news as a joke.

You might as well claim that most pigs would fly if only they had wings.

Don't mean to sound argumentative, but what you said is dismissive and not accurate, my friend.

Edit: I do understand how you might make that comment because I probably sound like I'm complaining. I am really just remarking.

For instance my town got a 'bicycle friendly' award, but it was given by people who have never ridden a bicycle here. Why is it not friendly?

Well the traffic planners, who have never ridden a bike here either put in bike lanes that are only 1/2 as wide as they are mandated because there's no room for it. In reality, skinny bike lanes are more dangerous as drivers try to force you into them and parking cars open their doors into them. It actually makes conditions worse. But they get 'credit' for having a bike lane.





[edit on 30-6-2008 by Badge01]

Originally posted by Badge01


Don't mean to be so negative. It's hard to imagine how it would work here, but if it works for you, great. What is your accident or incident rate wrt crazy drivers?

I have been hit over ten times, yep. over 10 times....i've lost count. Trashed three bikes......only fractured a rib and chipped the bone of my elbow that went through a drivers side mirror on a postal van that nearly hit me head on and i basically scrapped down the side of the van until i flipped over the side after my front wheel packed it in. Lost alot of skin though, but it grows back. Only been hit twice while training on my race bike.....thank god. I could tell you some crazy stories about what drivers have done to me as i have been making a living from riding a bike for nearly 8 years now. I've been chased, been in a cop chase on my bike....lol. No word of a lie. Stuff thrown at me.....geez...i could write a book.

Other issues would be adequate bike facilities at the destination, and the backing of the cops. Even if it's legal to ride two abreast, if the cops are not on-board, they'd pull over and ticket the group leaders who would then have to fight it in court to have the illegal ticketing rescinded. This could be costly.

The real problem we have here is that local Govt. makes millions of dollars from parking infringements, Sydney council alone makes over 20 mill in fines a year, to make cities more friendly requires less cars, less cars means less $$$ for the local Govt......while they make small gestures to placate cyclists( by helping with ideas like Bikebus) the priority is always $$$ and thus cars etc. That is why educating drivers and asking police to enforce laws in regard to road rage etc( we have a road rage register system here that no body really knows about) where cyclist can report aggressive drivers and have those reports taken seriously are far moreimportantl but unlikely to happen. We just had a guy plow into 60 riders( some training for 2008 olympics), the amount of anger directed at these cyclists was insane, people actually defended this idiot who hit these riders. The police only persued it due to the profile of some of the riders, if it had of been a social group ride i doubt sqwuat would have been done.
On another note to, we had to fight the state govt. and the police who wanted all our triathlon races to be held under sterile road conditions( closed roads over the entire course), now while this makes sense, trying to get local councils and residents to agree to this was a nightmare, it was almost an end to racing within sydney. Most races were held on sunday morning at 7am....so traffic was isolated at the most at that time. This is just another fine example of how Govt. and police as well as local govts approach cycling.

Publicity helps, but too many drivers, I fear, would be uninformed.

They don't want to accept personal resposibility, that is what i believe.

What might help would be if the city declared a route to be a sanctioned BikeBus route, installed signage and marked the road surface as a designated route. This would warn motorists to take other routes or times to avoid the BB groups.

Yeah, not a bad idea, but given some mentality, any bike rider on those non-bikebus roads would be in for hell, as drivers would believe only one route should be used by all bikes, which would be impossible. In my city though, the tide is turning, pertrol(like everywhere) is high, public transport is overcrowded and inefficient, and people have no time for the gym etc. Bikes solve all that. We just need to provide a safer environment. And the perception that it is safe and effective to see those unconfident or insecure people overcome the barriers that would otherwise see them with the likes of Us, on the bike.



[edit on 1-7-2008 by atlasastro]

Originally posted by atlasastro
We just had a guy plow into 60 riders( some training for 2008 olympics), the amount of anger directed at these cyclists was insane, people actually defended this idiot who hit these riders. The police only persued it due to the profile of some of the riders, if it had of been a social group ride i doubt sqwuat would have been done.

Yeah I heard about that and saw the pics. The story I got was he pulled in front of them and then hit the brakes, causing people to collide with his rear end. (or maybe that was another case).

Fortunately, I've not been hit by any cars, but I only ride recreationally and on relatively low traffic back roads.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune and the attitudes in Sidney. Hope your BB system works and things settle down.

Here's another senseless tragedy.

Driver plows into Charity ride cyclists

On their journey, the cyclists were followed from behind by their RV, which flashed its amber lights.

The accident occurred around noon, near Virden, 290 kilometres east of Winnipeg.

Ms. Carrier said the RCMP told her that a Honda Civic tried to pass the group and apparently swerved back too quickly, sideswiping the four cyclists.

The Honda's driver, a 27-year-old from Virden, wasn't injured.

Please note the report tries to blame the CAR, whch I doubt was remotely piloted, and tragically, leaves the driver's name out of the report, though they are quick to assure us that surrounded by a heavy metal cage, thank gawd, he driver was not injured.

HE, not the car, swerved into the cyclists who were being closely followed by an RV with flashing lights in an apparent example of road rage, due to encountering a slower moving vehicle. Evidently he thought he'd ride close enough to scare the riders, but miscalculated and KILLED THEM.

Uh, just an attempt to balance out the story, which tries to minimize the deaths and focus on the CAR, poor Honda.

Maybe they'll bury the car, which was injured when a spray of blood damaged the paint. /sarcasm

Edit: The story has been updated, apparently, and the highway was a four lane road, which means 'swerving back into the lane' was not a requirement. In addition it appears that the RV was not following them a this time and was parked up ahead.






[edit on 1-7-2008 by Badge01]

I live in a nice area of San Diego, it’s actually been San Diego’s best for the past 10 years. With that said you could only imagine how nice it is. But recently they upgraded the roads so the roads at the moment from my un-educated observation of road materials it looks and feels as if gravel was simply scattered about onto the road and then covered with tar to keep it down.
The feel of the road is terrible and its like this on my daily errand runs around the city. So lately I’ve been simply riding on the sidewalk. I’ve done it in front police officers as well, I mean there are of course bike lanes ALL OVER town but the matter of fact is that the roads “for me” simply suck.
They might be nice and smooth for cars but not for the bike in the picture down below Lol : (. And when I ride for fun I wear my entire cyclist outfit lycra shorts and all…not that it matters but do look cute to some in it To make the ride more comfortable because I do go for long runs usually 15-20 miles around the city or simply to the coast and back. It’s funny though were the older roads are the better the quality of road whereas the new roads are to “gritty” lol.
Also for changing different lanes and what not, I don’t use my hand signals I’m too afraid most of the time to let go of the handle bars. I’ll rather get a ticket then let go of the bars going 35+ and eating the ground …UGH could only imagine. So all and all I DO NOT a majority of the time follow the rules of the road, I cut through lanes , hell I’ve ran red lights too. So I’m not a very good example of a “new” cyclist on the road : (

I remember once being at a deadstop at an intersection and this "female dog" of a lady was behind me in her BMW she got iffy because I was not according to her in the right lane which I was.....I suppose some people don't like the idea of cyclist on the road along with them...I've had my negative and posititive experiences like you all have.



Best Regards,

Richie

Also to add more to the conversation, when I do ride on the bike lane in the morning typically, there’s always freaking construction signs/equipment/ and or anything else planted right smack in the middle of the lane causing me the bicyclist to go into traffic. Now I don’t know if it’s illegal or not on stretch of road to enter the cars lane or not but I’ve done it in the past multiple times because of morons and their bloody obstacle courses they set in front of me.

Badge01
To answer your questions, no I have never been hassled nor have I ever seen someone else been hassled. Is it against the law? Beats me, would care less lol.
I do agree though riding MOST of the time on the sidewalk is dangerous especially in a city environment!!



Best Regards,

Richie