Luddite

I have to get across a few uncontrolled intersections on my bike and cagers rarely will slow down/stop to allow me to cycle through. I figured out a trick to get across quickly. I get off my bike and walk it across. Within seconds of getting off my bike, magically a cager will stop. Cagers in the other direction stop quickly as well. I have no fragging idea why cagers will stop for a "pedestrian with a bike" and not a cyclist but it works every time.

I know it sucks having to walk your bike across but it beats waiting 15 minutes for some ******* cager to stop for you, eh?

coldfeet

You're in Canada.

I don't know if the rules are the same in B.C. but in Alberta, If you're riding the bike you're traffic. If walking it you're a pedestrian. They *HAVE * to stop.

Luddite

I guess, but as a regular pedestrian I find it much harder to get across. It makes NO sense whatsoever! And, since when do cagers actually obey those kinds of laws?

hairnet

I'm sure a lot of us have tried. I have, it feels weird every time because it gets me thinking that I must to choose between vehicle or pedestrian and stick with it.

tsl

Every time I visit Toronto I'm amazed that the one law cagers seem to obey, is your Canadian pedestrian crossing law. And boy, do they get upset when some American comes along and doesn't stop--the Canadian drivers, get upset at the American ones, that is.

So I'm with coldfeet. You're Canadian. Don't complain. Sit back and feel all smug about it.

coldfeet

Don't know, the only place where I use this, if I wait more than a couple of minutes for a space, has a push button pedestrian crossing.

If trying it as a pedestrian with no bike, stand at the very junction, on the kerb, stick your arm out with flat of hand showing to traffic.

They are very definitely supposed to stop if it's an uncontrolled intersection. And they know it.

( At least in Alberta, think it's the same in B.C. )

chephy

News to me. Especially that it happens in Toronto, as someone here claims. Yes, people will stop out of good will (or fear of splattering the pedestrian's guts all over the pavement, perhaps), but I don't think most drivers are aware of a law... Does Ontario even have such a law? I know there is no jaywalking penalty here; i.e., as a pedestrian, you can cross anywhere you like, but you must not interfere with traffic that has ROW.

Luddite

I'm American-Canadian.

no motor?

That doesn't work for me down here by Chicago. Maybe I need to say "eh?" a few times to see if that helps.

coldfeet

It's definitely the law in Alberta, *think* it's the law in B.C. don't think it applies in Ontario.

eshvanu

Similar law in State of Colorado, USA. Many of the crosswalks where I ride have signs posted to stop for pedestrians.

Kevin666

Americans may be a little crude, rude, and more rushed, but as one of them I can confirm that we take the yield-to-pedestrians rules pretty strictly. And the way US pedestrians jump in front of cars whenever they feel like it seems to prove that out.

coldfeet

Just to go back to this, is the intersection you are talking about a through road and you have the stop sign against you? If so, I *HATE* it when cars stop in such situations and try to wave me across, If I'm on the bike I'm traffic, you wouldn't expect them to randomly stop for another car?

If traffic is too heavy, then I will get off the bike and take the pedestrian rights option. i'd much rather wait a minute or 2 for a break in thraffic. in your case, if it normally takes up to 15 minutes for the flow to break, then getting off and walking is the thing to do.

chephy

+1. Get off your bike, change your route to one with signalized interesection, or just wait until the traffic is clear, and don't call people "*******s" because they're simply obeying the law.

Luddite

They're *******s because in other situations they constantly break the rules, there's one residential road near my house I've learned to watch like a hawk because people blow the stop sign for the intersecting road constantly. I roll through stop signs when safe but I watch for cager traffic and I figure it's my own ass that's going to die. Cagers can kill a bunch of people by doing something stupid.

Regularly at uncontrolled intersections even when they're far enough away to stop and let me through they dont. That particular uncontrolled intersection the cager traffic is constant, there's never a break for long enough to ride through.

crocodilefundy

In PA its "the law" but no one follows it and no one enforces it. In my parents town they painted a new cross walk in the street with a yield to pedestrians sign. The sign looks like its been hit 100 times and my friend got hit by a car in the cross walk because the car didn't want to stop.

Eutychus

If it's an uncontrolled intersection, and I'm out there insisting on my "rights" as vehicular traffic, why should I expect autos to stop for me when they wouldn't stop for another vehicle?
If traffic is steady enough and the road is wide enough to be dangerous, I would wait for a gap in traffic even if I were a pedestrian.
I sympathize with the bicyclist who stops for a light or sign and then watches autos stop for him. This often happens to me, causing me to wonder why I stopped in the first place. But look at the driver's POV: he never knows what those crazy cyclists are going to do, and it's better to be safe than sorry.
Of course I live in Portland, OR, where most drivers are friendly and courteous, if not afraid they'll be arrested for not honoring the rights of cyclists and uncertain about what the laws really are.
It may be different in other cities (evidently it is, from what I read) but by and large in my town, people generally treat me about they way I treat them: drive defensively, try to assess what's coming up, and be courteous and understanding.
Or so it seems to me.

Luddite

the one that gets me is the bonehead cager exiting a driveway onto a sidewalk and not bothering to look if a pedestrian is coming. They just go. The rare time I'm a pedestrian and not a cyclist these days I make sure to make eye contact with cagers exiting driveways or worse, the dreaded turning cager onto a busy street that only watches oncoming cager traffic while yapping on cellphone and never checks the sidewalk that they are blocking for pedestrians.

When they hit the gas and don't look first I can see it coming, I pound my fist down on the hood of their car as hard as I can and yell "WATCH IT!" trying to teach the dumb cagers to pay some ****ing attention before they kill someone.


SIGH. Gods I hate automobiles.

Varroa

For those that think this is a Canadian thing, please don't try that in Montreal. You will get run over!

chephy

Um, okay, those who break the rules and endanger others are *******s, but I don't know if calling all drivers that is very productive. Gee, most of your friends and family are probably "*******s" then. It's like calling all cyclists *******s because "they constantly break the rules".

Well, of course they don't. Would you expect them to do that for a random car?

Sorry, but that's not their problem; it's your problem. And it appears that you found your solution, which is great.

nelson249

Or in St John's outside the downtown core. If you even look like you are going to cross the road on Water or Duckworth streets everyone screeches to a halt. Try the same stunt on Elizabeth Ave. near MUN you'd best have your insurance paid up.

whatsmyname

Surprisingly and tangentially, I found the same thing with NYers and their stop-sign-on-the-school-bus-means-traffic-stops-in-both-directions law when I encountered it first. I absentmindedly kept cycling when a bus coming in the opposite direction flipped out the stop sign and flashed the red lights which meant everything else stopped. It was unquestionably my faux pas but nothing happened (it was a wide city street and no kids were getting on or off at that point), but with the waving fists and pitchforks being handed out to enraged drivers I thought I was in trouble! Needless to say, it was a good learning moment and I was doubly careful in the future.

Sixty Fiver

I find that riding with two little girls every day gets me a lot more room and respect... it must be the pink helmet and the ponytail.

pityr

I have noticed that they will stop for peds out here too. Might be because the cops have been known to run stings for that sort of thing.

to the OP, the cager that stopped isn't much of an *******...

Luddite

Pink helmets come in your size?