Moment of stupidity
 

Do you guys/gals ever make a mistake on the road, which make you think "I'm a jack*ss".

Last stretch of my 1 1/2 hour commute home. After a LONG train ride. My short stretch of the bike ride between train and home. Down hill. Calm residential streets. Many stop signs. I've developed the bad habit of running stop signs. Granted, i always slow down and approach with caution, but on this stretch, i honestly roll through about 5 stop signs every day. It's one of those stretches of road where it's kinda like a stop sign every other cross street. It honestly takes focus to remember which road is a stop or not.

This day in particular, after a hard days work, i'm daydreaming on the downhill. Next thing i know there is a car pulling from a cross street towards me in an imminent collision. I go into panic stop mode and blurt out "JESUS!", and the guy starts cussing me. I naturally cuss back, but then........"Oh my god, i'm an idiot! That was a stop sign". He pulls away cussing and i'm left there thinking about how much of an *ss i am. That's how cyclist get killed.

Any of you ever have a moment like this?

I know, i know.....obey the rules of the road. Point taken.

:innocent: I'll never tell...

...Ok, so I'll tell just a little bit.

One day while riding down a hill in San Francisco, I found myself behind some kid running practically every stop sign and gunning it just about all the way. Of course, he would slow down as he approached the stop signs, but would then quickly accelerate. Since he was in a car and I was on my bike, just as he would slow down, I would approach his rear bumper. We were both speeding downhill, all the way!

Well upon his last stop sign he slows, but he slows downs too late and goes well pass the stop sign, just as he notices the police, parked and waiting, just for someone like us, stop-sign violators. He then goes into panic mode and slams on the brakes (just like that would make any difference, he was already at least four feet beyond the stop sign). I then, run into this kid's bumper, with the cops in full view of what we had been doing for the past five or six blocks.

Therefore, we both got tickets...

PS.

I still can't believe that I was riding so wrecklessly. I also can't believe that neither of us saw the police witnessing everything that we had been doing for so long.

There was no damage to either my bike or his bumper...

1+. i NEVER TELL WHEN THAT STUFF HAPPENS lol

In my commute to and from work, I have a dozen stop signs and four traffic lights. I ALWAYS stop for the lights, most are on major feeder roads, but I tend to 'roll thru' the stop signs. I always approach slowly, and usually unclip my right foot in case I have to make a stop. Some of the stop signs, where I have a good sight line, I stay clipped in unless I see someone approaching, but these are lightly used roads. Yes, it's easy to forget to watch for the stop signs and get it trouble.

Tractor Tom in Okeechobee, FL

This is why I'm pretty strict with myself about road laws. Relaxing them is a slippery slope. I see people in large pickups blowing stop signs at 25 MPH. I doubt they started out that way, but they drive that route 3000 times, and nobody's ever coming that they need to stop for, and they've got other things on their mind, and they're just doing what they've done hundreds of times before.

My last moment of stupidity (12-8-09) resulted in a broken ankle.

I refused to turn around and take another route when I encountered glare ice, all the way across the street I used to get to work. Not even coasting across it worked. Putting down the foot to catch the slide-out resulted in a sharp and painful CRACK! on the inner anklebone. It was a tough one, because it didn't show up on x-rays for five weeks (saw the originals myself). But I DID get a reputation for being something of an 'iron man' for riding and working with a broken ankle all that time.

Well, I've behaved stupidly from time to time on both two wheels and four. But I can't think of anything that is as entertaining as a few of the stories here.

So...never mind.....

But I have been thinking for a while that maybe I'm a bit too lax with red lights and stop signs. I always, always stop for reds. But I'll often ride through once I'm sure that the coast is clear. For stop signs in my own neighborhood-25 mph residential streets-I'll often blow through the ones with good visibility. Outside my own neighborhood I slow down quite a bit, but then blow through when I see it's clear.

But that, of course, can lead to trouble.

Maybe I ought to be a bit more uptight.

The difference between cyclists who are going to survive and those who probably won't is being able to check your self when you've been a jack**s and learn from your mistake. I suspect there are a significant number who just figure the near-miss was somebody else's fault.

This is not really related to my commute, but there's a ride to dinner I often take with my wife in the summertime. She's a casual cyclist, at best, and doesn't have the instincts of someone who has been riding all her life. At one particular spot, we need to cross the service road of an expressway, which involves making quick decisions while cars speed by at near-highway speed. It makes me sweat every time, but I have a long safety talk with her every time we approach this spot and, so far, we're both still alive. When we get home, though, all I can think is "Man, that was stupid...never again!"

Used to roll through stop signs in a rather deserted part of the base I ride through. Empty lots, mostly deserted streets, plenty of visibility, until one day I rolled through one after slowing down somewhat, then as I passed the intersection I looked over to see the police station, where an officer stood by the back door, intently watching me, hands on hips. Oops...

Last week I rolled through a red light. I had been stopped for a train, 1 foot on the ground, when it left and the barricades went up I start rolling, flipping the unmanned pedal to get my shoe in the cage. Well, there's about 3 car lengths of road beyond the tracks where the traffic light is. I forgot that it's not green because everybody starts going when the train leaves, I'm looking at my pedal and by the time I look up and snap at what I'm doing I'm entering the cross street. Luckily no one was going to be crossing my path so I just kept going, but I felt like a dumbass and figured all the drivers who saw me thought I was a big **** head cyclist who did it on purpose.

But it's OK. I stopped twice at the next one.

yup. riding a bike doesn't make you any less human. everyone makes mistakes.

That's comedy gold right there.

Never. I'm perfect. :innocent:

Well, wreckless riding is actually a good thing! Everybody should be driving and riding wrecklessly :D

depends if we are talking 4 way stop signs. OP didn't mention.

Many times my stupid a** has been saved by - dare I say it - alert motorists.