Not only do many cyclists not think traffic laws apply to them, but where they have to share with pedestrians many display the same disregard for the safety of pedestrians that they claim drivers show towards them.
In other words, it's bullying. Today I was delayed by a lone cyclist, I didn't risk his life or risk hitting another car to get past him. I just accepted that he has the same right to be on the road as I do. I got home a few minutes later than I would have done otherwise and saved the same few minutes not being bored with nothing else to do.
Cheers for your charitable, patient, and friendly attitude.
RIP Dan Spira, one of the faster guys in Denver at the time of his death: https://www.bicyclecolorado.org/join-us/donate/remembering-d...
Thanks to Bicycle Colorado's advocacy, perhaps I won't have drivers intentionally trying to side swipe me next time I ride through stop signs in a safe (and legal!) manner.
The cyclists that bother me are the ones riding fast and recklessly on the running trails around town. They can be a significant hazard to the joggers.
Oh, they're not all like that, I'm sure. It's enough of them that I end up just sticking to recreation areas and stay off the main line that runs through the metro area.
Nonetheless, a significant number of cyclists constantly force pedestrians to yield to them, and almost always point to the name when the subject comes up in online discussions. Maybe a third or less of cyclists give audible warning when passing pedestrians, even though the aforementioned law also requires that and a pregnant woman was killed on that path after being run down from behind by a cyclist only a few years ago. (Interestingly, there's a strong gender divide on that one, and I think you can guess which gender is significantly worse.)
So anyone who tries to say claims about cyclists breaking the law are "myths" is simply not telling the truth. The vast majority of cyclists are sane and considerate. Some of them, such as the ones I've worked alongside on maintaining parts of that path, are even better than that. But there's also a substantial contingent of "bike bros" who absolutely personify the worst stereotypes. I see them every day. Real cycling activists (not those merely claiming the mantle here) don't deny that reality, or try to exclude pedestrians from the discussion. They try to educate and improve everyone's behavior, including their fellow cyclists'. That's how we'll get better bicycle-related laws and infrastructure - not by an entitled few putting their hypocrisy on display any time cyclist/pedestrian interactions come up.
Bikes and pedestrians are low-speed, low momentum, and low likelihood impacts.
It was the most harmless thing and actually kind of funny because they were both caught off guard and immediately started apologizing to each other.
Just goes to show how severe a pedestrian impact can be, be careful out there.
https://www.bicycling.com/culture/a32257789/vehicular-cyclin...
published some stats back in the 1980s that pointed to remarkable high risks from hitting pedestrians, parked cars, other bicycles, dogs, and everything other than the fantasy cyclists have that a driver is going to crash into them from behind either from obliviousness or as a hate crime. (My worst bicycle accident was when I was riding in a thunderstorm at 1 am had no visibility and hit a parked car.)
He was influenced by the dangerous bike lanes of San Luis Obispo and experiences in California and the Northeast.
More recent statistics seem to show that drivers in the U.S. South are astonishingly bad and really do crash into cyclists from behind.
Yes, I stopped road biking because of them. I'd deliberately stay in the shoulder (just right of the white line) and they'd swerve into the shoulder next to me. At times they also crossed into the oncoming traffic lane to fuck with me. Not a pleasant experience to share the road with those morons.
Cyclists crash into pedestrians at high speed all the time going down hills and going around corners.
In my mind it is a perfectly fair bit of judo to firmly grab the handlebars and dismount them forcibly if they are endangering the public this way.
These days, I almost always ride on the street but sometimes will cut over to the sidewalk in the case of a one lane bridge, dangerous intersection or a traffic jam. I always stop for red lights and usually wait for them to go green. In the case of rush hour traffic, there are certain intersections that are particularly dangerous. At these intersections, I often get cut off drivers who pass in the intersection and turn in front of me.
I've learned that stopping for the light and proceeding through mitigates these circumstances.
Cyclists imagine they get killed because somebody comes up behind them and runs them over either out of ignorance, hate or both.
That really happens in Georgia, Florida and places like that but in civilized places cyclists really get killed at intersections and when they transition from being invisible to being visible.
Bike paths were built in San Luis Obispo, CA and got a reputation for being astonishingly dangerous because from the viewpoint of cars bicyclists would "come out of nowhere" and they couldn't brake in time to stop them. Oppose that to a bicycle that is operated like a vehicle and is visible and predictable like all the other people.
The first thing many people note about the Netherlands is that they have separated bike lanes, but the most remarkably thing is that all of the intersections are designed with many different transportation modes in mind. Separate paths that connect randomly to the roads are dangerous, but separate paths that form a meaningful composition with the roads are priceless.