Troul 

those laws & ordinances are merely suggestions.

gear64

As are most ordinances these days. In practice all speed limits are the lower limit.

dkatz1

Directly related is when the person coming at you is: a cyclist. EVEN worse, a cyclist on an e-bike.

dmanthree

Yeah, saw only a few of them. even worse than the idiot pedestrians.

dmanthree

Had something similar with a teen on a bike at an intersection. Looked right at me, cut right out in front of me. Hit the brakes, dragged the rear wheel, and let loose on him. They just don't care.

dmanthree

Runners always face traffic, and in this case there's no sidewalk. But running in the middle? Stupid.

urbanknight

I kind of figured that was Ironfish’s point. Sarcasm is hard to detect in type.

tomato coupe

I think the double-but and exclamation were pretty clear indicators.

urbanknight

dmanthree might disagree

willmarksni

Pavements, bike lanes, share lanes, asphalt. I can only dream. I live in Ireland where many of our roads are just about wide enough for two cars to pass each other without clipping their wing mirrors. I have been shouted at for cycling considerately on a shared path, that we will refer to correctly as "Cycle Route 93". Apparently bikes shouldn't be allowed on Cycle Route 93 (for no apparent reason by the way - there was no incident or near miss or inconvenience, just a cyclist passing a pedestrian very slowly and with space). On this thread I must say running on a cycle lane, and putting cyclists in traffic, because you prefer the surface, wouldn't wash where I live - it would be socially unacceptable.

OBoile

I run a couple of times a week. Always use the sidewalk unless passing someone (COVID distancing). People that use the road because its "softer" are a bit silly IMO. The difference is extremely small. If you really cared, you would run on the grass and/or buy shoes with more cushioning. Both of those would make a far, far, larger difference.

But, in the grand scheme of things, really not much of a big deal IMO.

gofish44

If a runner is going to use a bike lane marked on the road, I'd much prefer they do so in the way you describe -- running toward me, so at least they are likely to see me or my blinking front light as I approach, particularly important if they are using headphones. The more dangerous situation that occurs daily where I ride is a runner using a bike lane and travelling in the same direction as the flow of the traffic. They have little to warm them of my approach and I am forced into traffic every time. Don't even get me started on cars/trucks parked in bike lanes when there are alternatives available.

rsbob 

Absolutely love your beautiful country, at least the southern half I have driven. Have to say any serious cyclists in your country has to have brass orbs. Talk about seriously narrow roads, lanes, donkey paths. You have to courageous and maybe a little crazy to spend hours on your roads. While I was there for three weeks, a cyclist was killed on the Ring of Kerry.

I rented a pretty small car and there was many a time I held my breath when passing an oncoming vehicle. One pass was at 1 mph and our mirrors cleared by 2”. You are a noble man.

rsbob 

How ironic when the proverbial shoe is on the other foot. I AM right because I AM right until I am proven wrong, but then I am still right.

Road Fan

I think I would tend to fade my bike toward the traffic lane and stay on the line, and slow down or even stop to enable the runner to move over to pass me with clearance.

Road Fan

Quothe the driver: "But, the traffic lane and the shoulder are for CARS, not bikes.

Sy Reene

IMO you have this backwards. If runner is going the same direction, you can indeed slow down to their pace until you can safely go into the car traffic lane to pass. When they're coming at you, all you can do is come to a dead stop (and the runner would have to likewise if there's really not enough room for both of you to pass each other without going into car traffic). Otherwise it's a game of chicken, and you have the uncertain hope the runner will jump up on the curb at the last moment.

urbanknight

I came up behind an inline skater who was behind some runners also going the same direction. I slowed down, determined that the skater was going the same speed as the runners, and called my pass. Without looking, she suddenly swerved to the left just as I got next to her. I stayed up but she went down, so I stopped to make sure everything was ok. That's when I noticed the earbuds in both of her ears. "You need to take the left earbud out so you can hear people calling their pass" I said. "I'm ok. I'm not hurt." was her response. For that reason, I prefer the runners going against traffic. At least I can just stop if they keep trying to play chicken with me. In the end though, we don't get to choose which direction they go and just have to deal with it the best we can.

work4bike

As I've said before, I really hate MUPs and stay off them, in favor for the road and joggers in the bike lanes don't bother me at all. However, skateboarders....that's another issue.

I was riding home today on a semi-residential street (it's residential, but also a heavily traveled thoroughfare). About 50 feet ahead of me a skate board (w/o the occupant) comes jetting out into the road.

I imagine somewhere some cyclist has been hit by one of these missiles


.

dmanthree

It's a bike lane, up to them to get out of the way. Maybe run on that 8' wide sidewalk?

friday1970

We saw a 19% spike in pedestrian deaths for 2020 in Michigan. Traffic was down big time. So either distracted pedestrians, or some Death Race 2000 stuff was going on that no one invited me to.

Road Fan

Maybe some of us do not know who has the right of way, but I certainly do! If you are driving a car and are properly crossing an intersection, and another car enters to cross in front of you at high speed, would you refuse to brake just because you are crossing "in the right?"

But in the situation outlined it's not about "right" anymore. I assume the bike lane is not protected from traffic incursion, by a raised curb-like barrier or a line of bollards. The cyclist and the band of runners are on a collision course in potentially close quarters. I see only a few possibilities.

1. The cyclist yields his space to the runners and moves closer or into the lane of motorized vehicles.
2. The cyclist yields his space to the runners and moves onto the grass verge, close to the grass verge, or onto the sidewalk.
3. Neither party yields and a human-to bike collision occurs. A wide range of possible consequences suggest themselves to my imagination, all with unpleasant to hazardous consequences.

While if I am the cyclist I would feel I am "in the right" by asserting my right of way, the consequences of a collision are not acceptable to me. I would yield, I am not that proud.

burnthesheep

The modern thing is zombie pedestrians. Glued to a device. Could be a phone, a Garmin watch, zombie'd out with headphones, etc.....

Literally not much different than "slow mover" zombies at that point.

dmanthree

OK, my point is that the runners and pedestrians don't belong in the bike lane in the first place since they have their own space! Just use the damned sidewalk!

livedarklions

I don't know what it was like where you are during the height of the lockdown, but around here, everyone seemed to have the same perception--there's barely any cars on the road, but a lot of them were being driven by people acting crazy. I don't think I've ever seen speeding like that, the lack of traffic just seemed to encourage it.