Do you know how to ride a bike?

[elmo3]

[quote BigGuynRusty]I have "accidentally" elbowed several sidewalk riders in town. Oopsie!

BGnR
And damned proud of it, we can tell.

Moron.

[M A V I C]

[quote Racer X]what really causes problems, is when the yeahoo cyclist meets up with the yeahoo moms with the strollers, and no one understands the etiquette of the paths, like 4 abreast is idiotic.
The Mrs. and I joke we want to find some way to fine people on that path. It's clearly marked - pedestrians on one side, bikes, skates... on the other. Then you get the mom's with strollers going four wide mostly over the bike path and they don't even attempt to move out of the way.

[Racer X]

baby polo?

[ztirffritz]

I found that in my town there is no municiple code governing the movement of pedestrians, but bikes are considered motor vehicles. In other words, jay-walking is OK, but if I ride on the sidewalk I might as well do it in a car and have fun because the fine is the same either way, bike or car. I was on our town's Bike/Ped Committee for about 1 year. We spent 2 years developing a standard set of street designs which incorporated Peds, Bikes, and cars. The city council politely accepted our proposal and used it to line their garbage cans later. It just isn't a priority here. Seattle issues directives which say it would be wise to incorporate bikes and peds into designs, but no one does. Portland however has their laws written to force designers to accomodate bikes, peds, and cars. It works much better that way.

[kap]

Riding a bike on the sidewalk is illegal everywhere but in Los Angeles the law is not enforced because it is self-annihilation to ride on the streets! Also, though there are bike paths but the majority of them is leading to nowhere. Sometimes they lead right into a fast lane of a highway.

Riding a recumbent ... seen as an abnormality by many ... I have experienced more harrassment than a cyclist on a upright bike whether I follow the rules of the road or not. And I always do because I want to lessen the harrassment.

[mattkime]

I think the only reason why bicyclists get picked on is because they're not seen as being serious about what they're doing. If you need to go somewhere, why don't you drive a car? and if its a short trip, why don't you walk?

What? A cyclist did something stupid? A driver would never do that! A pedestrian would never do something dumb!

There are plenty of times when the flat application of rules just denies common sense. If there are huge empty sidewalks i'll ride there instead of with the huge trucks in the street.

I bend the rules quite a bit on my trip to work. So does the traffic along the way, including pedestrians.

Oh, and I always try to wave a "thank you" if anyone yields for me.

[Racer X]

I agree to a great extent about the first part of your post. It is very hard to differentiate between a poseur, and an ironman trainee, between a weekend peddler and a marathon biker. The only ones that stand out are the bikes set up for daily commuting, and usually only another cyclist can spot those anyway.

But when it comes to riding on the sidewalk for example, it is the same law being broken if you are on a bike, or in a car. Yet if a cop sees a bike and a car on the sidewalk, they will go after the car. If a cop sees a bike and a car blow through a stop sign or a red light, they will go after the car. That is what sets car drivers off. That the laws aren't enforced unilaterally, and that far more cyclists consciously break traffic laws than car drivers. If you follow a cyclist, and a car driver, the cyclist will almost assuredly break more laws than the auto driver. And since they get away with it, it just perpetuates the problem.

mentalities about autos and cyclists co-mingling vary drastically from city to city, and state to state.

[ho'ard]

[quote mattkime]I think the only reason why bicyclists get picked on is because they're not seen as being serious about what they're doing.
You're on the right track.

The real reasons cyclists get picked on:

1) They're vulnerable
2) They're visible and available, not anonymous behind tinted glass and two tons of steel
3) People have a need to put others down so they can feel superior
4) I N T O L E R A N C E for someone who's different, plain and simple
5) It's always easier to point the finger elsewhere. Roll through a stop in your car and you are 100x more likely to kill someone than doing the same on a bike.
6) Drivers know they're using way more than their fair share of resources and feel guilty about it. They feel accused and judged by the mere sight of a cyclist and feel the need to get a preemptive strike in in the name of mom and apple pie and all that is american.

[M A V I C]

howard, I get upset with cyclists and it's for none of those reasons.

[Racer X]

I agree Mavic, at least in our area.