^Ha. No, I'm in Toronto. Also, the girl wasn't wearing a helmet. I hate to say, but it's this subset of the non-helmet-wearing demographic that probably amount to the majority of fatalities on the road. If only helmets could also cure stupidity I'd jump on the mandatory-use bandwagon.

(sorry for getting sidetracked, but a recent coroner's report in Toronto made the mandatory-helmet-law suggestion, based on a low incidence of helmet use among victims of fatal head injuries. However, one wonders whether the non-helmet-wearing demographic is highly polluted by idiots like the girl I described in my above post, and if these inexperienced cyclists don't comprise most of the fatalities. )

Are you saying that cyclists are only irresponsible if they start killing motorists? If cyclists are human beings, it can be certain that some of them are being irresponsible while on their bike, no killing necessary.

This was in Atlanta. I've recently left the city for reasons unrelated to my tale above.

Sometimes I don't wear a helment.

RAGBRAI "permits" doesn't make the roads for the exclusive use of the participants.

Do Honolulu "event permits" force everybody else off the public roads and paths?

Getting a permit for using the public facilities for an event doesn't keep nonparticipants in the event from using the path, road, sidewalk,etc. What makes you think it does?

Do these "other cyclists" hold a dang gun to your head when they force and require you to do these awful things?

Though there maybe irresponsible cyclists, they do not cause the carnage on our roadway that motorist do annually. I lost a good friend that I've known since elementary school to a drunk driver this past weekend, with the drunk driver already having two prior DUI convictions .

I do not know of a marathon that does not close down at least half the road. Lots of other events close down roads, or trails such as triathlons, parades, mountain bike races, road cycling races, charity walks/runs, etc.
The police road and path blocks and the guard rails put up for the event. Is Burlington really that back woods?

Of course not. I think you've missed the point. It is extremely inconsiderate for a slow cyclist to repeatedly filter ahead and hold up other cyclists. Sure, we can all slow to a crawl to accommodate the jerk who does so, but this is not a very practical solution.

Philadelphia is, they never close down the River Drives MUP to bicyclists or other nonparticipants because some group is running an "event" on it.

Half a road closed is not a road closed to bicyclists in my book, I guess it is in yours.

I didn't miss the point.
I do suffer from a lack of empathy for the crying and whining by the "behaving wonderfully" cyclists who are "held up" and have such a hard time passing another cyclist, and get so bent out of shape because they are "forced" to do it more than once.

Wow, sorry to hear that dynodonn. My condolences and prayers for your friend and his family.

There is one thing about this that I'm not following. I could understand being miffed if a slow cyclist rudely cut in front of me at a light, I had to wait around to pass him, and then I left him in the dust. I would also be put off just by the cyclist cutting in line, slower or faster either one.

But over and over - the "fast" and "slow" cyclists have the same speed, light to light. The "slow" cyclist is riding more efficiently for the same overall velocity, and I could see how he or she has reason to be miffed at the "fast" cyclists rushing by after every light, forcing him to filter back to the front. One cuts at the light, other cuts between lights, almost equivalent. Just stay back and wait your turn, he might think, and we'll all get there just as quickly.

Sorry to hear that Dynodonn. That puts things into perspective doesn't it?

Who's the bad cyclist here?

Late dusk last night, I'm riding with traffic on a highway with two lanes each way with a curbed median. (The road is actually 3 lanes wide, but marked as two, with the right lane twice as wide as the left.) I've got "see" headlight, and I'm riding along near the curb (no reason to take the lane with a lane that wide). I'm clipping along at maybe 18-20 mph (no speedo, estimated on a slight downhill). Out of the gloom, about a hundred feet up, I make out the white reflector then just after that two yellow pedal reflectors of an oncoming cyclist. No lights, salmon.

Not wanting to play chicken and knowing I've got room to the left, I jog left a bit to make it clear which way I'm going (closing speed of about 30 mph). As we pass, I yell out, "You're going the WRONG WAY." He hurled an f-bomb back and me and yelled several other things I didn't make out because at that point he's already behind me.

Thinking about it in retrospect, probably wasn't cool of me to blast him, but in the heat of the moment, I was pretty rattled when the bike appeared pretty much out of nowhere. Luckily he was dorky enough to leave his reflectors on or I might have collided with him.

Luckily it was early in the ride so by the time I finished the ride I was pretty much over it.

What's even more distressing is the fact that my friend was killed two blocks from his house while he was walking home, and the drunk driver was his neighbor of three houses away.

The other guy was, for sure. The scary thought is what if he swings out to the right, doing the left-right dance thing because his reactions are slow? I've actually been nailed by one of them and it wasn't pretty.

So now I'm cantankerous, pick a line (usually to the right) and stick with it. One stubborn old cuss refused to budge and I slowed to a dead stop inches from the right side, waiting for him to go around and on his wrong-way way. I'm not going to let another one bang into me at the last second. He still refused, stopped in front of me, forgot to clip out and fell on his face. In the mud. Hilarious. But at least it was safe to go around him finally, and I innocently inquired as to his well-being on the way by.

The only time that I have had issues with cyclists riding against traffic is when they are obscured by a parked vehicle, and then pull out into the roadway at the last second, causing some quick thinking/ evasive maneuvering. Most salmon riders that I've encountered are rather not willing to ride well into the road way, and I've been able to see them at a far enough distance to move out of the way, and plus I always avoid playing "chicken" with them. I just consider them as another obstacle to contend with on my daily commute.

Indeed you are missing something. The cyclists are not having the same speed, equalized by the lights. If it weren't for the slow cyclists moving back in front of the faster ones at the traffic lights by cutting in front of the line and jumping the lights, the faster ones would quickly put much distance and many lights in between them. It is only being held at about half speed for a considerable time before a safe opportunity arises to pass, and then finally passing only to be stopped at the next light that equalizes the speeds. My original post clearly states that at the first light where I prevented the filterer from jumping in from of me, I quickly put some distance between us and left her in the dust (exactly the first scenario you describe).


I can understand filtering to the front of a line of cyclists if you know you will be fast (I still prefer to wait my turn). But if you already know you're slower then it is simply rude and inconsiderate to do so.

I don't know what the roads look like in Iowa. But the street I was describing in Toronto is a busy road with 4 narrow car lanes + bike lanes, where cyclists ride single file in the bike lane. Passing another cyclist requires moving out into a busy car lane, so yes it is "hard" to find a safe opportunity to pass. Respectfully, I think it is reasonable and appropriate to get "bent out of shape" by a slower cyclist who insists on repeatedly cutting the line at lights, just as most of us get "bent out of shape" by the rude and inconsiderate behavior of others. Iowa must be just peachy.

Honestly I dismissed that as hyperbole, no offense intended, because if that is the case the faster cyclist - in most cases that I imagine - would pass and make a light on the first one or two. It's the over and over again that tips me into thinking that's an exaggeration. I know that *I* tend to feel that way, driving or biking, that maybe I could have caught that light if it weren't for that slow-poke. But objectively even when I do catch the green, the slowpoke often catches up at the next light, and we've gone the same velocity after all.

I can see your point, but given enough time the faster riders will eventually differentiate from the slower ones and end up several lights ahead. Perhaps you could construct a counterexample, but I see this as almost a statistical certainty given enough lights (i.e. fast rider on average catches more lights than slow rider + random noise of light changes). However, getting stuck behind the same slower rider multiple times for a good portion of the time between lights can prevent this from happening. Either way, cutting a line is never especially considerate, and it is downright annoying if the cyclist doing so already knows that they will be traveling slower than those in front.

I think the reason why some are having a hard time taking your complaint seriously is that it consists of 2 simultaneous improbabilities: (1) a clueless cyclist that repeately filters past a queue of faster riders, and (2) a riding environment that prevents the easy passing of that slower rider (even though the rider somehow had the room to filter up).

I can't recall a time I had a difficult time getting past a slower rider, and I suspect others here may feel the same way. Slow cyclists are slow off the line, and I find it pretty easy to pass them in the open intersection.

But, assuming the scenario and passing difficulties occurred as described, why wouldn't you just speak up. "Hey, nice day. Cool beach cruiser. Hey, I hope I don't mean to across as the ettiquette nazi, but we're having a hard time safely passing you when you keep coming up to the front. We'll have to ask you to stay at the back or we'll be forced to make comments about your butt."

I think people like to yell when they're freaked out, even if objectively they realize they're in the wrong.

Our pathways see lots of use in the summertime, and exponentially less in the winter. This means that a lot of the summer users are nervous and inexperienced. I tend to follow the speed limit (20 km/hr) because I also run on those paths so I understand the limits. I was casually cruising along one summer with the adjacent grassy areas full of people, geese, dogs, strollers, etc, and I was coming up on a woman who had politely pulled her bike off the path and was straddling it to have a conversation with a friend. I was just thinking "That's nice of her not to block the path when she stopped" when she decided to start biking again - and pulled out directly in front of me.

I slam on the brakes and let out a yelp. This startles her, obviously, so she turns and yells at me something along the lines of "Don't you have a bell? What's wrong with you?", to which I reflexively say "Sorry!" and get on with my ride. Damn my Canadian instincts.

I wonder if I reinforced this woman's conviction that it is fully the responsibility of riders on the path travelling in a straight line to announce their presence to those standing next to it...

It is if you want to go in the direction which is closed. Maybe you just ride the wrong way on the other side of the road I suppose.