TheManShow

I drive a car, and also ride my bicycle for excrcise, and recreation. But this moring I had an interesting experence with a group of 10-12 bicyclist riding threw my community. These we not local over 50 but some of the younger folk who often ride out were I live because the road are wide, traffic is not heavy, and last there are not too many stop lights. Also all are poad are post 35 MPH, 30 MPH, or 25 MPH.

I am doing the limit and all of a sudden out of a sigh street with stop sigh this group of bicyclists maybe doing 20 MPH plus, blow the stop sigh shoot out turning right in my path, I swerve left. blow horn, slow down and get the finger.

As I slow down to regain my composure, I think who ran the stop sign. Who fliped me off. Who was in the right.

But had this not happen how it did, and maybe someone else was at the wheel. I could see where some person might go on a hunt for the finger flipper.

Remember living in Sacramento and there was a ride out of City Bikes on Saturday, normally almost 100 riders. They would go out on the river road north of the city take all both lanes in both directions, and just be a bad situation.

If some vehicles was using the road and these river road riders were out there car got vandalized. Guess there was a mentality the river road ride owned the road.

Finally the City Cops, Sheriff, and CHips got involved, and wrote some expensive tickets. Arrested several who did not stop for the cops. Think that ended the ride

B. Carfree

Yes, people ride like they drive. Shall we also form opinions about all motorists based on the (admittedly large) percentage of them who drive about with near-total disregard for the vehicle code? All of us have to constantly be aware of the poor decisions that other road users may make and be prepared to react accordingly. At least when people get on a bike and ride like they drive they have a much reduced chance of injuring or killing someone.

lostarchitect 

Not this again. The Self-Hating department is down the hall, just after Abuse but before Arguments.

B. Carfree

I'm not so sure the OP rides much, if at all. He sounds like one of those folks who, after nearly killing a cyclist with an ill-advised and/or illegal move, jumps out and declares, "But I'm a cyclist too" as though that absolves him of any responsibility to drive properly.

baron von trail 

Yeah. The op should know cyclists can do no wrong, and only cagers are at fault whenever there is an incident.

bluegoatwoods

I 'read' the OP a bit differently. It seemed to me that he witnessed some bad bicycle behavior and described it in order to see what comments would come up.

Sometimes it simply feels good to say, "Isn't this annoying?" and then describe the situation.

lostarchitect 

Nobody said any such thing.

jgadamski

syntax, spelling and rambling make it a difficult post to read. The eternal point is that anyone on a bicycle is a cyclist. Anyone driving a car is a driver. etc. Expecting some else to make sense, excuse,explain or validate another opinion is fools errand. Ride your own bike, walk in your own shoes, drive your car, if you must. But if someone jacks your jaw regarding operation on the road, deal with it.
If someone considers an individual cyclist responsible for the general state of cycling/cyclists, who has the perception issue?

Chris516

I don't see the point/objective of what the OP is saying. The syntax and spelling errors kept happening. So, I didn't read the whole thing.

Hokiedad4

As a fellow cyclist, I would have felt within my right to stop and have a chat with them. There's simply no excuse for reckless behavior like that. Better a chat with another cyclist than tickets from the local constabulary.

Rollfast

So you can't see it by default. This isn't a grammar class. Not everyone can type or spell well, not even ME. That's no excuse to dismiss a post.

I-Like-To-Bike

But it is a reason to Take the Lane! Ain't it?

Rollfast

Perhaps, but you have a large group and wouldn't that be fun if they turned on you? Let the officers do their job, I believe that even if the judge overturned some of the tickets they did the proper thing.

Fleeing a police officer was not kosher either. You are impeding the duty of an officer and they all left the scene of an accident. Ticketing was justified.

Keep in mind that law enforcement is not a judge or jury. They make charges that are judged in a court of law, which imposes the sentence. Some of you act a little nervous/guilty about that. The law is equal for everyone. If we advocate for the safety of cyclists against bad driving then we support safe cycling for all, including the desires and wants of drivers to avoid accidents caused by poor behaviors of cyclists.

And again, it's impolite, no, rude to imply that you didn't read a post because of grammar. IF you can make a comment towards the poster questions either way, do so, otherwise please refrain from pointless and insulting remarks.

Mvcrash

Answer to title of thread. YES

Rollfast

I guess that solves that question. If the cautionary tale was learned from, that's good too.

kickstart

Some grasp every "reason" they can find to justify their actions because they can't take ownership of their shortcomings.

CrankyOne

Cyclists are sadly a minority in the U.S. As such there is prejudice from the majority who mostly lump all cyclists together. Mostly because they often do make a distinction between bad ones and not bad ones. Anyone in lycra or with ratty clothes on a fixie is largely considered bad and irritating. They 'all' run red lights, have irritating blinkie lights and block traffic by blocking traffic lanes. Those who look normal and wear normal clothes and ride normal bikes (upright cruisers, beach, city?) aren't viewed as bad.

This isn't fair, but it is the reality of how many or most drivers view people on bikes.

More:

i b i k e l o n d o n: The myth of the red light jumping cyclist

i b i k e l o n d o n: Cycling's PR problem, and its serious consequences

TheManShow

I was actually in the LPBS yesterday, check out an item I wanted to buy. Wondered over where the announcment are posted. The was a little booklet from ADOT (MVD) I snadded one it was called "sharing the road". Have not read it cover to cover, but did leann in AZ you need not come to a 110% stop putting foot down on ground at a STOPsign like some places.

But the booklet also out lined a few of the ARS (arizona revised statutes) that if you break will cost you dearly if ticketed, and will cost points on your driver license. BTW it was a free booklet, simple english &b diagrams. So I comend ADOT for doing it. Only in english that too is a plus as english is the official launguage of AZ.

digger

110% stop?

digger

How are those two things even remotely related?

mconlonx

In the general population, there will be a certain percentage of self-absorbed jerks. While there may be a bit less or more in some population subsets, you can pretty much count on nearly the same level. Some drivers are jerks. So are some cyclists. There are times in your life when you will encounter them. You can't help the fact that they suck, but you can moderate your own reaction.

kickstart

Its the irony of someone having similar issues, using it as an excuse to dismiss opinions that conflict with the VC dogma they're habitually pontificating.

Cyclosaurus

Virtually every minority group in society deals with being defined by the worst excesses of members of that group. Virtually every majority group has the luxury of being able to claim that bad actors in their group are only responsible for themselves but don't represent the group as a whole. So all cyclists are told that they are responsible for the actions of a few, but drivers can say that they are not responsible for anyone but themselves. Yet the facts are that cyclists break the laws no more than drivers.

This dynamic is not unique to cyclists and drivers. It happens everywhere based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc. It's just a how our human brains respond to the pattern-making challenge of making sense out of all the information we take in. "Good" behavior is ignored because it is unremarkable, while "bad" behavior (e.g., cyclist running a red light) is emphasized, giving a vastly distorted picture of reality.

The human race as a whole seems incapable of learning the lesson. People foolishly continue to believe their perspectives are objective despite science proving again and again that it is not true.

kickstart

What doesn't help is that some people intentionally asseverate the stereotypes in response to their own biases.

I-Like-To-Bike

Everything is related to the need to Take the Lane! Doncha know? Just ask Chris, in fact, you won't have to ask, he will tell everybody on the slightest pretext, like clockwork. That is how it is related!

But you knew that already.