Thread: Cyclists who ride in the street...

It irks me too. With my anxiety, I envision them hitting a rock and crashing, then my car squashing them. I pass as quickly and safely as possible.

I LOVE how in some areas over-seas (Sweeden *SP!* was one such place I believe) have an extra lane JUST for bicyclists. I thought about how much more active people probably are and healthier to boot.

Yeah, it annoys the crap out of me when I'm driving, but I do think they're perfectly entitled to do it. Though a bit more consideration might be on it's place.

Yeah, I agree that they are entitled to (kinda), but it's just so annoying. Like I said, it's like walking down the middle of the street, at your own pace, and forcing the traffic to go around you. I lived my entire young life riding my bike on the sidewalk, just like everyone else - or actually maneuvering myself around traffic, instead of the other way around. But, now, when I'm the one driving, it's like all the cyclists are practically giving me the finger and saying "HA! DRIVE AROUND ME BITCH!" Lol.

I ride on the sidewalk lol, I'm always afraid of getting smoked by a car.

Another very important thing I forgot to mention: When this happened today, I didn't even think about what area I was in. In the past few years, the state had just spent however many millions of dollars to build this 20-something mile biking/walking trail that crosses through about 4 cities. It's about 10ft wide, freshly paved, and bicycle-friendly. These guys that I had to make my way around - because they were riding in the street - were riding parallel to this nice, new bike path that was right next to them. It's not like riding on a old, broken sidewalk - which I can somewhat understand, but this thing is brand new! I mean it is literally like 4 feet from the road!

You should have passed them by driving over the bike path in your truck. On a more serious note...that law change where bicycles had to share the road with cars sucks.

Man I was thinking of starting the same thread...

My city is quite dangerous to cyclists, a few seem to get killed each year. For some reason that doesn't deter some suicyclists from using busy roads instead of the extensive array of bike paths.

If you're a cyclist, use the bike paths. You'll never win against a 2000 lbs car.

If you're an idiot and you demand to use the roads, here are some tips that might extend your life expectancy:

• Go in the suburbs, not the city. Roads are wider and less busy there.
• Stick to quiet roads or less busy times. As a cyclist you are always in the way. Rush hour is not the time.
• Stick to wide roads that have room for at least yourself and a car in the same lane. If I have the choice between hitting a bicycle or an oncoming car, I'll hit the bicycle.
• Move over as far as you can when a car goes by.
• Don't cycle on winding or hilly roads where we can't see you until the last second.

A good case study is the main road from my house to the city. It's very narrow, has lots of turns and hills, gets busy in morning/afternoon and people drive at 90 km/h. Does this really seem like a good road to bicycle on? I still see some there all the time, even though there's a huge park with a few hundred km of cycling paths about 10 minutes away ...

Originally Posted by Spartiate

A good case study is the main road from my house to the city. It's very narrow, has lots of turns and hills, gets busy in morning/afternoon and people drive at 90 km/h. Does this really seem like a good road to bicycle on? I still see some there all the time, even though there's a huge park with a few hundred km of cycling paths about 10 minutes away ...

Now, I don't know your area, but are you sure these people aren't commuting?

Also, as a cyclist your guys road rage only makes me enjoy riding on roads even more.

Originally Posted by Catbus

Now, I don't know your area, but are you sure these people aren't commuting?

Yes, they're always wearing sports gear with no bags or anything. Even if they were commuting, it wouldn't be a bright idea. Doesn't make it any less dangerous if they're going to work or not.

Originally Posted by Catbus

Also, as a cyclist your guys road rage only makes me enjoy riding on roads even more.

Feel free to tempt fate against my 2000 lbs hunk of metal.

Yeah man, those 10-15 seconds you might end up spending behind a cyclist just piss me off, there's literally nothing more annoying.

Oh wait.

Originally Posted by Marvo

Yeah man, those 10-15 seconds you might end up spending behind a cyclist just piss me off, there's literally nothing more annoying.

Oh wait.

By that logic, it wouldn't bother you if, for no reason at all, people habitually just walked out into the street, at their leisure, and you were constantly being forced to dodge them while on your daily commute.

If that's the case, then you and I just disagree.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

By that logic, it wouldn't bother you if, for no reason at all, people habitually just walked out into the street, at their leisure, and you were constantly being forced to dodge them while on your daily commute.

If that's the case, then you and I just disagree.

No, my problem here is the hate towards cyclists. Sure, some cyclists can be annoying, I occasionally have to drive around pairs of cyclists who insist on occupying an entire lane, but the majority of cyclists are not constantly trying to fuck with you by not driving a motorized vehicle at high speeds. Of course, I'm from Denmark, and we have seperate lanes dedicated to cyclists, but even then we don't have this everywhere, which means you'll have to sit behind a cyclist occasionally, waiting for an opportunity to get around them, but that was the point of my previous post. You will often not spend much longer than a few seconds behind these people.
This thread has been nice, but in the majority of threads I see on forums, where the subject is cyclists, some Americans really come out and show their disgusting sides.
About being on the sidewalk as a cyclist, that just doesn't work. Maybe if you're a kid, but as an adult, you actually drive at a reasonably high speed, because the bicycle is in fact a method of transportation. Sidewalks are very uncomfortable to drive on, you have to dodge people and slow down all the time and I doubt it's very good for your bike over time.

It's illegal to ride on paths in Australia.

I've never obeyed that law. It's ridiculous. There's barely anybody on the paths, like maybe 1 person per km max (excluding cities obviously).
And it's not going to kill someone if you run in to them with your bike.
If something happens on the road though, someone could die, and not just the cyclist.

Anyway, yep they annoy me.
I mean seriously, you are going to die if I hit you. Move out of the way.
It's not even the fact that I have to slow down for a little bit, I really don't care at all,
I drive under the speed limit most of the time anyway.
It's the fact that I might kill someone and I'd feel fucking horrible most likely.

With that said, I'm glad they're saving the environment and all that.
I just want the government to allow and encourage them to ride on the fucking path.

It is very interesting that people's homicidal tendencies bubble to the surface when they are inconvenienced for a moment. There is alot of hate towards cyclists in America especially among rednecks for the reasons mentioned in the op among others. I have been riding my bike to work/school/friends houses for years and have experienced plenty of hate and have gotten hit by a car twice (first time was hit and run, the second time was a freak accident) and get cursed at daily but riding bicycles on the sidewalk is illegal where I live so what can I do? Also I dont ride on the roads to piss people off, I do it because I have to get to my fucking job on time.

I hate when I'm riding down the middle lane on my tricycle, and someone in a car cuts me off.

Originally Posted by sloth

I hate when I'm riding down the middle lane on my tricycle, and someone in a car cuts me off.

Ya me too, thats why I ride this bad boy around town.

Originally Posted by stormcrow

It is very interesting that people's homicidal tendencies bubble to the surface when they are inconvenienced for a moment. There is alot of hate towards cyclists in America especially among rednecks for the reasons mentioned in the op among others. I have been riding my bike to work/school/friends houses for years and have experienced plenty of hate and have gotten hit by a car twice (first time was hit and run, the second time was a freak accident) and get cursed at daily but riding bicycles on the sidewalk is illegal where I live so what can I do? Also I dont ride on the roads to piss people off, I do it because I have to get to my fucking job on time.

It's not illegal to ride on the sidewalk, here. And if the state spent $X to build a ridiculously fancy bike trail specifically for you, and you still chose to ride your bike in traffic, I'd consider you much more a douchebag than if you were just on your way to work, on a road with either no sidewalks or illegal ones. Not quite the same scenario.

It's not very pleasant to ride on the sidewalk when you're going 20-40 km/h on a bicycle without suspension. Read my other post.

Trains man, they never should have build roads and cars in the first place. If you design it right you can make a massive system of mini-trains that stop on every corner .
The kind you will find in paris that sometimes go over the cities in tubes or something.

Have you never wondered why the egyptians spend so much effort into making the pyramids? They did it for us ! It's a symbolic sign to tell us that we can build high into the sky but also deep underground.

Originally Posted by Marvo

It's not very pleasant to ride on the sidewalk when you're going 20-40 km/h on a bicycle without suspension. Read my other post.

Less pleasant than being hit by a car?

You seem to be concerned more about convenience when most of us are talking about safety.

Originally Posted by Marvo

It's not very pleasant to ride on the sidewalk when you're going 20-40 km/h on a bicycle without suspension. Read my other post.

Please read the numerous other posts I've made about the tri-city bike path that runs parallel to the street I'm talking about. Not sidewalk. Bike Path.

Oh, well in that case the bicyclists you're encountering are just idiots. If they chose to ride on the road when there is an actually lane bikes, they are just being douchebags.

The only safety problem is shitty car drivers who insist on driving around a cyclist in dangerous situations. Chances are they could wait another 5 seconds and drive around without creating a dangerous situation.

I'm a cyclist.

I hate it when cyclists do stupid things which make motorists hate all cyclists, even those of us who cycle well.
I hate it when motorists think I don't know what I'm doing on the road.
I hate it when motorists think they're two cars wide and can't drive around me so they drive as slowly as I cycle, and then drive dangerously around me out of sheer impatience.
I hate it when my friends laugh at me for wearing a helmet and say that if you're a good cyclist you're safe.

I guess cycling isn't so great for my stress levels after all...