Drivers and pedestrians break rules to save time, cyclists do it for safety

> Marshall, Piatkowski, and Johnson asked bicyclists as well as drivers and pedestrians to analyze the factors associated with such behaviors. They used snowball sampling—meaning that respondents recruited other participants—for an online survey that presented hypothetical cycling scenarios along with multiple-choice questions about what the respondent would choose to do in each scenario. Survey takers, numbering nearly 18,000, were able to explain their rationales.

As both a cyclist and a driver, I aim for maximum predictability whenever I'm on the road. None of my movements should ever surprise drivers or other cyclists (who are paying attention).

Candidly, about 3/4 of my cyclist friends are intent on following the rules of the road. The other 1/4 are convinced that rules only exist for cars. I've seen too many close calls from people making illegal moves under the mistaken belief that it was safer to run a stop sign, or make a quick lane change without signaling, or otherwise behave as if they could out-maneuver the cars around them.

As a driver, my only close calls with cyclists have been when they skipped stop signs or assumed that the cars would yield to them at 4-way stops. A cyclist even T-boned my wife's car while she was driving the speed limit down a residential street because the cyclist assumed they could maneuver around her.

Cycling is dangerous. Don't make it more dangerous by adding unpredictability to the mix.

Which is about as scientific as my personal anecdote of being run over by a cyclist.

* Mount the foot path and then return to the road.

* Force me to use pedestrian crossings at roundabouts.

* Railroad me onto the side of the road when I actually want to make a turn (ie: force me to dismount and use a pedestrian crossing instead of using the correct lane for that turn)

* Vanish abruptly

But a lot of cyclists I see (in my city anyway) are just inconsiderate assholes who have no road etiquette. They run red lights, ignore one way systems, cycle on pedestrian paths, or (the very worst) cycle the wrong way on cycle paths.

And don't get me started on lycra clad (always male) cyclists who 'come at you' side-by-side on a cycle path that fits exactly two cyclists. I'm not sure if they expect you to slide into another dimension, but a loud, sharp c-word generally jolts them out of their idiocy.

I will never stop behind a car. That just is not going to happen. I don't want to be the meat on a texting driver stopped car sandwich. This means some amount of lane filtering/splitting.

I will ride my bike on a sidewalk to avoid traffic, even if there is a "bike lane" if I don't feel that lane is safe, such as when it is on a major route with lots of traffic.

I will not give you room to pass if there are parked cars on the side of the road. I'm not going to get doored so you can get to your destination 30 seconds faster.

When you're on two wheels all cars are trying to kill you. No other threat model makes sense.

This says nothing of the lack of knowledge on the part of drivers as to what motorcycles and bicycles are actually entitled to do and their willingness to be vigilantes to enforce their perception of the law, even when it endangers my life.

The worst of the rule breakers are the wrong-way cyclists: The ones who think that riding on the wrong side of the road is safer because they can see cars coming. They are wrong.

Riding on the wrong side, and on sidewalks, puts you in places cars would never expect you to be, and so they're even more oblivious.

If you're going to break rules, break the right ones and understand the impact fully.

The things I did do for safety (eg riding out far enough to not get doored, taking a lane to turn or avoid obstacles) generally weren't illegal. Although I could see this being different in a place with different laws that weren't worded in terms of safety.

Things are getting better I guess... in NY, "complete streets" was signed in 2011. I consider that pretty recent though. Even post 2011, there were projects near me that were already underway and getting completed that completely ignored cycling. -.-

Because bike lanes were an afterthought. Cycling is very unsafe.

Originally bikes were expected to ride on sidewalks. The problem arose was that sidewalks were unsafe. Pedestrians would just walk into the way of the cyclists and the cyclists would be hurt.

So politicians looking to raise tax revenues started making it difficult to ride a bike. Helmets are required, bans from sidewalks, 20km/h speed limits of bike lanes/paths. Many reflectors on the bike. Bell or horn on the bike needed. This is all to harass cyclists.

Now that bikes are on roads, now you have cars just driving into the way of cyclsts and hurting them; possibly even killing them.

Why are cyclists always being hurt by everyone else?

I'm sure 100% of people break some rule at some point, so saying 100% of the participants admitted to breaking some rule, is like saying 100% of people fart in public.

But, anyway, for the 18 months or so that I biked to work, I tried to follow the rules. Yes, I rolled through some stop signs. (Don't we all, no matter what kind of vehicle we're piloting?) The much slower speed on a bike makes it easier to look at all incoming lanes before you enter the intersection.

But, I've had close calls in a car with cyclists. I've had close calls on a bike with cars. I once went over my handlebars when some doofus bolted across the street on a bike without looking. People are bad at following the rules of the road. It doesn't matter if it's a car or a bicycle.

The tired straw man argument against cyclists has them saying "treat me like a car!" one minute and "treat me like a pedestrian!" the next. But really, I just want to be treated like a cyclist. There are three major classes of transportation, not just two [@].

Here are some road rules that I regularly break for my own safety:

> In most places, it illegal to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk. However, most roads near me have no bike lanes. My city (Atlanta) has a notorious problem with highway traffic spilling out into the city, and as a result drivers are viciously impatient and I've had too many close calls while riding my bike on major roads. I ride on the sidewalk when there is no other safe option.

> In some places, it is illegal for a bicycle to pass a red light, even when it's all clear. However, when I'm riding on the road, there is usually a pack of impatient drivers waiting behind me. If don't accelerate quickly enough, they will honk at me and/or pass me within inches. Usually, I can put a safe distance between myself and the cars behind me if I start moving a little before the light turns green.

> Regarding sidewalk riding again: My city has too many one-way streets. This is fine for cars, who travel a longer distance on average than I do. But for short bike trips, not being able to use the sidewalk would increase trip time by 3-4x. This is a problem solved by separated bike lanes.

Not to mention the fact that we rarely hold drivers accountable for their rule-breaking. As a bicyclist, my mistakes can are only lethal to myself. A driver's mistakes kill other people.

Here's also a list of dangerous traffic behavior that SHOULD be illegal but ISN'T, because the law is written for the convenience of drivers, not the safety of pedestrians and cyclists:

> Right-turn-on-red should be illegal anywhere there is a pedestrian signal. When turning on red, drivers are looking to the left for oncoming traffic, and rarely look for pedestrians to the right until it is too late. When the pedestrian light is on, there should be ZERO chance of being hit by a law-abiding car!

> Left turns should have a dedicated lane and signal. Left-turn-on-green puts drivers in direct conflict with pedestrians, for the same reasons as right-turn-on-red.

> Speeding is too pervasive, and speed limits should be strictly enforced. Failing to use a turn signal should also be ticketed more often. I would support camera enforcement if I didn't think it would leak into public spaces beyond just roads.

> Freight trucks and other vehicles pulling a trailer too often swerve outside their lane. This is extremely dangerous and should be punished.

[@] Really, their are four modes of ground transportation, but Americans don't believe in trains.

Ok... that is a very strange sentence. Time and energy (ie speed) are basically interchangeable (ie rolling through stop signs). So too are "safety" and "visibility" intrinsically related. Being seen by cars is like 90% of bicycle safety. The real question is whether lawbreaking for (time+energy) is greater than for (safety+visibility). The article doesn't give us that data.

The other options just invite broken bones and head trauma.