A road ragin' Prius in Boulder / Cyclists

Sorry Rob, that doesn't work here and is just plain false. If you had to wait for a passing zone, there would be 50 cars backed up behind riders. We would never get anywhere on our mountain roads. The law is clear and with most lanes being about 12 feet wide, there is ample room if the cyclist does what the law says. When the road is not wide enough, I wait and that does not bother me. When they purposely impede traffic which is against the law, that bothers me. I am not a vigilante and have never done anything to endanger a cyclist but the two bozos I described were stupid, discourteous, unsafe AND breaking the law. If all cyclists followed the law, there would be a lot less discord between them and drivers. End of story.

Dave

 

Look, guys, this thread began because a guy in a Prius was driving aggressively and unsafely, exhibiting an attitude that he and only he had a right to the road, and generally being an @$$hole.

Yes, I agree that his behavior was reprehensible.

So I have a little trouble with the guy who said, "Pull up within about a foot of them and blow your air horn, causing [the cyclists] to crash."

Now HE'S being an @$$hole.

Maybe there are, in fact, a FEW cyclists who disregard the laws of the road, safety rules, and common sense. Maybe there are a few motorcyclists who do, too.

So you think that they give ALL bicyclists/motorcyclists a bad name?

Then what does "Cause them to crash" say about ALL Ferrari drivers?

I'm a cyclist. I'm also a Ferrari owner. No, I don't have a Prius.

Within ANY group, there are going to be some jerks. Get around them as soon as it's safe and go on with your life.

No matter what you're riding or driving, you have an obligation to keep yourself and others around you as safe as you can. You wouldn't want some other driver to "cause you to crash" by, say, throwing tacks out on the road in front of you.

My point is the same as it's always been: We all have to share the road, so exercise respect, courtesy, and common sense - no matter how mad some jerk might make you.

 

Rob,
I don't know why anyone would do it which is why I felt compelled to have a word with them. Even if it was a safe place, they were still acting unlawfully by riding two abreast in a traffic lane with traffic overtaking them. The statute is very clear on this. Regardless, if it had been a safe place, I would have just passed them and not given it a second thought. This happens fairly frequently around here. It is a rare occasion but just about everyone around here can recount at least one similar experience. People in Boulder county, where cyclists have a reputation for being confrontational, can recount even more. And I have never tried to pass closely to cyclists. If a cyclist is on the far right edge (as required by law) and you have a 12 foot lane which is narrower than most, there is a good 4 foot margin even if the car does not cross the centerline. Regardless, I always give them a wide berth. FYI, there is a new Colorado law that requires motorists to give a minimum of 3 feet. Needless to say, enforcement is problematic but I'm sure it was enacted in response to those who do purposely get too close to cyclists.

I also agree with Bradley that drivers have a responsibility for the safety of everyone that might be in their vicinity, even if others seem less concerned for their safety than I do.

For the life of me, I don't see why you are arguing.

Dave

 

Well, go ahead and time yourself. From a dead stop to 25 miles/hour. Let me know. I hereby bet one beer on it. I will use my everyday driver you use your everyday bike. Should be interesting. I know my time to 25 is well under 2 secs (I'm under 3 to 60), but I'll check. You can use launch control on your bike, as I will use it on my car- only fair.

 

I think that Rob's claim was intended to be about reasonably common cars... not top-fuel dragsters, or whatever you're driving.

Also, even against your car, I'll bet it'd be closer than you think. I've never had a car beat me off the line if I don't want it to.

 

City of Dallas signs around areas of heavy bicycle traffic here state that cycists have the same rights to the road and responsibilities equal to those operating other vehicles.

Cops here need to start giving them tickets for running red lights and stop signs, and failing to signal turns. This could be a major revenue source.

I don't see motorcycle riders breaking these same low-speed traffic laws. Their big problem is speeding and weaving in/out of traffic; these riders usually tend to be the young guys on Japanese crotch rockets.

The old fat guys on Harleys are the most law-abiding motorcyclists...their main offense is noise. I have no room to criticize them. I'm an old fat guy in a Tubi-equipped V8 sports car, and it's noisy.

 

I don't know about CO, but in Tennessee, where I currently live, the law says bicycles (as well as motorcycles) can approach a red light and treat it as a stop sign. In other words, they can proceed through a red light after stopping.

 

Most don't even pause here. Must be the Dallas mindset.

 

Yeah, that's just a good way to get hit.

 

Just to add some evidence to support the view that it is not always motorists who are being inconsiderate to cyclists, and that our two-wheeled friends can sometimes behave with the most extraordinary lunacy...

I've twice been involved in collisions with cyclists, actually.

Incident 1: (6.5 years ago)

First time was when I was waiting to left onto a main road (UK, we drive on the left), indicator on, and waiting for a gap in the traffic. There were cycle lanes as well on both sides of the road, and I was keeping my eye on them too. As for the footpaths, I glanced at those and made sure there were no pedestrians nearby... gap in the traffic, so I went for it. Crunch! A cyclist hit me head on, flew over the bonnet and into the side road I was turning out of, and a car turning in nearly ran over his head. I honestly never saw him. My reactions were pretty sharp, so jammed on the brakes immediately and throughout this whole incident my car had only moved about 2 feet. An eye witness said the cyclist (who hadn't been wearing a helmet) had been listening to a headset, leaning back on his seat with his hands off his handlebars, and riding off the footpath to use the cycle lane going in the wrong direction to try to get around the nose of my car. After the accident, I offered him a ride to the hospital and perhaps suggested we should get him a paramedic, or call a police officer for documenting the impact. The witnesses and the driver who nearly ran over the guys head exchanged details while the cyclist decided he was leaving. We took his details and then allowed him to leave. Later in the day, a relative of his (presumably his mother) came by my house demanding money to fix the bike. I refused and pointed out that I wasn't going to pursue the idiot for damages to my bumper as he was only 17 (I was 20 at the time). She then started saying she was going to look into claiming back loss of earnings from the kid's summer job. So I went down to the police station, reported the incident and handed over all the details of everyone involved, including my accounts of both the incident and this conversation at my house. I then borrowed the family lawyer and went back to the cyclists house to have another conversation with his relative. I provided copies of my testimonies to the police, introduced my lawyer, and told them that this gentleman was on retainer with our family and that we were prepared to ensure lengthy legal proceedings followed by an expensive counter-suit plus costs if they continued to threaten me for payments. Never heard from them again.​

Incident 2: (4.5 years ago)

Second time, I was going through a green light at an intersection, and a cyclists flew through across my path (running a red). I slammed on the brakes, but couldn't lose enough momentum to avoid clipping his rear tyre and sending him sprawling. My sudden stop also meant I was also rear-ended........... by a police car! The cyclist, who hadn't seen the police, got up and assaulted me when I went to check on him. I just backed up and used open palms to deflect his blows. The police arrested him on charges of assault, with everything recorded on the dashboard camera of the cop car..... aaaaaaaaaaaand... the helmet-mounted camera of the cyclist!! The helmet camera even caught me saying "Are you OK?" as the only communication I had with the cyclist, so it was pretty cut and dried really. My appearance in court wasn't required for the conviction. Serves him right, really.​

While I'm sure there are many law-abiding and cautious cyclists on the road, many here in the UK seem to use their vulnerability as a shield of righteousness and very seldom have I seen them actually obeying the traffic laws. So many times when turning left at traffic lights, with my indicator on, I'll glance in the side mirror to see a cyclist undertaking me in the gutter. It's just insane, and unless you have video evidence or a plethora of witnesses saying the cyclist was behaving stupidly, then the bias of the system is to place blame upon the motorist. Red lights are always ignored by cyclists, and they'll flit on and off the pedestrian footpaths whenever it suits them. It strikes me as common to have a cavalier attitude to sharing the road and then blaming incidents on the car drivers when it all goes wrong.

Motorcyclists are little better, and weave in and out of traffic here. A few weeks ago I was nearly hit head-on by one who was attempting an overtaking manoeuvre over a blind crest, which was also a blind bend, on double centre lines (prohibiting overtaking). Full emergency stop by both me and the car he was overtaking, and he only just made it through the closing gap. It was a country road, so there was no run-off area either side... just lots of trees. After squeezing through, the other drive and I looked at each other with an alarmed "bloody hell!" expression and the motorcyclist was doing a wheelie into the distance. Some people just have a death wish.

Sadly, cyclists aren't required to pass a test prior to road use... motorcyclists on the other hand have no excuse! What all this has taught me is that two-wheeled road users are wholly unpredictable and as a sane motorist, you need to be extremely alert for imminent stupidity on their part.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Good.

I always stop at the signs. Sure, it takes energy to get going again, but the cyclists (we) cannot claim 'we are the same as a car' AND 'we don't need to obey traffic control devices'

 

Those officers ar now needed in the Whiterock area.

 

The feeder streets and surrounding neighborhoods are where the problem exists.

 

A cyclist on a bike has a horrible power to weight ratio, even a big sprinter can't put out 2 hp for a 0-25 run. If he could, his power to weight ratio would still be a miserable 90 lbs/hp.
A Honda Civic would kick his butt at 15 lbs/hp.