Originally Posted by
mtalinm
Cyclists appear reckless. It seems like most cyclists run red lights and stop signs. As a cyclist myself, I could tell that most of them were slowing down and looking both ways before proceeding, which I confess to doing myself. But as a driver, even as one who loves to commute by bike, I found this infuriating. Mostly I think the problem was "cars aren't running red lights; why are bikes?" though there was also the petty resentment of losing ground on others.
Drivers suck. I was appalled at the number of times motorists cut close or simply blocked cyclists. News to no one, but it seemed much more frequent and egregious when I saw it happen to others.
This won't make me popular but IMO most cyclists ARE reckless. And until it becomes oficially legal for bicycles to ignore stop signs and traffic signals - the behavior isn't just infuriating to motorists - its illegal. And it really doesn't matter how many people on this board think its OK - its still a ticketable offence everywhere I'm aware of.
If anything its both hypocritical and condescending to expect to claim equal right to motorists on the road without accepting equal responsibilities. Oh yeah - take the lane! But lets skip the stop signs and traffic signals because - thats just ..... inconvenient! Yeah -lots of drivers suck from a cyclists point of view. Probably because they feel no more respect for cyclists than they feel cyclists are showing them.
Yeah IMO too many cyclists are both reckless and stupid. I brought up this case before and I'll do it again - an 18 year old boy was killed by a truck this summer on a section of the bicycle path I commute on almost every day. There was a stop sign there - he ignored it. I mean - stop signs on bicycle paths are just plain stupid -right? Thing is - that was the point where the bicycle path crossed an entrance to an industrial park and no one else had a stop sign. He ended up under the wheels of a truck.
I'd like to say it was an isolated incident and couldn't happen again, but the news channel filmed that corner for a half hour and not one cyclist stoped at the sign.
And I get EXACTlY the same treatment trying to cross an intersection at the end of my street on a bicycle. There's a stop sign on the bike path on the other side of the street and a stop sign on both sides of the street. Motorists have no problem stopping to let me cross. Cyclists? I've had three close calls because they'd rather run down another cyclist than stop for anyone.
I think if cyclists in general want more respect on the streets - they're going to have to start showing some first.