Originally Posted by
Seattle Forrest
I try to make it easy on people who want to go right on red. I stop in the middle of my ( the rightmost ) lane, but when someone comes up behind me, I look back to see if they have their blinker on, and move out of the way if they do. If they look like they're trying to go right, but have no blinker, sometimes I'll point to their right with a quizzical look, which seems to be pretty universally understood.
One day an SUV came up behind me in the right lane, with no blinker, and the wheels pointed forward, not right. So I assumed they were going straight. After about ten seconds of some jackass cyclist (that's me!) not getting outta the damn way, the guy moved into the left lane (close pass at low speed) then sped out into a gap in traffic and made a right turn from the left lane. Tires were squealing at the end. If the driver had put a blinker on, I would have just moved into the next lane.
All of these encounters help to prove what many of us have said time-and-time again. That is that motorists think that they own the road. And that we cyclists are an annoyance that they wish wasn't on the road.
If they acted like legal and responsible road users themselves and communicated their intentions i.e. using turn signals they would get that same courtesy back. But by acting like a horses ass they're not going to get any cooperation from cyclists or any other road user.
If a motorist has been "disrespected" by a cyclist they need to ask themselves, "have I done all that I could do to be a legal, responsible and cooperative road user?" If they answer themselves honestly and that answer is "no" than that is why they got no "respect" from the cyclist in front of them.
Oh, and on a more positive note, again as with the fool who was talking on his bluetooth headset, I didn't flip her off, or cuss or swear at her. I just asked her where she thought I should go, and when she said she was turning I just basically shrugged my shoulders, and gave her a "so what" look.
As I said, if I'd been a car she would have wait her turn. Why does the fact that I was on a bike change that?