Originally Posted by
gremlin76
Today while out driving with my wife, we passed a couple on road bikes. I had a feeling that they were not locals, probably tourists out for a training ride in Vermont. As we came up to a red light, I bet her that they would pass the line of stopped cars on the right along the curb, instead of stopping at the end of the line of cars.
There are two lanes at the red light, one going straight or right and one left turn only. Amazingly I watched as they got behind me in the center of my lane, like a good cyclist should.
But then they suddenly swerved over and split the lanes, not even slowing down, completely blowing the red light and flying through the intersection. No idea how they didn't get run over.
We live in a little small town (9,000 people), and obviously ride on the road. It's idiots like these that the locals see, and then project their bad feelings onto us local law abiding riders. Sucks that tourists make us look bad. My wife and I work at the high school, and have had students yell at us on the road and tell us in school that we should ride on the sidewalk, when we ride safely and obey all laws.
And yes I mention the locals vs. tourists thing. You can tell the difference quite easily. Locals are having fun and in no hurry, and tourists are riding like they still are in heavy city traffic. There are only 2 traffic lights in town, so it's not like you'll lose the race if you have to stop and wait 30 seconds once or twice.
Just recently I had a not so dissimilar "conversation" with an individual along these lines. He passes me too closely, cuts me off, and continues to violate my right of way. I give him a quick little toot on the ole air horn and figure that that's the end of it. I see him make a right and really figured that that is/was the end of it.
Only to have him loop back around to chew me out. Trying to tell me that the road we were on where he passed me too closely has a bike lane and that I needed to ride in it. It does not have a bike lane it is too narrow to have a bike lane. The second road that we were on does, but is in the door zone.
The thing I had to "laugh" at is that even though I was acting both safely and legally that he accuses me of being the one to give cyclists "a bad name." When sadly the reality is that "cyclists" like him who hug the curb/ride in the gutter pan are the one's who make life hard for those of us who ride all the time.
I'd also talked with a friend of mine who is an LCI Cycling Savoy instructor as well as the police and they all agreed with me that there is no bike lane on the road that he was going on about.