Bicycles

[prog]

It may seem strange, given the reasons for it, but recent events have led me to read, write, and think more about bicycling, and I've decided that it's now not entirely unlikely that I will obtain a bike sometime in the nearish future.

An increasing number of friends have taken up cycling as an urban commute alternative over the last couple of years. And I used to do this same thing, way back in Florida, biking to school and around town every day, and I always enjoyed it. When I returned to New England for college (and all that came after) I just never thought of it again, even though I wouldn't start driving for another three years. Your guess is as good as mine. At any rate, I've lately become increasingly aware of all the time I spend walking, and as much as I love walking it'd be nice to be able to go a little faster when I wanted to.

I've started paying more attention to the (many!) cyclists I see every day as I walk around. I responded with skepticism when karlvonl commented earlier that most cyclists ignore traffic signals, but now the anecdotal evidence does seem to be mounting up. The majority of the cyclists I see seem to act as if they're just speedy pedestrians, looking both ways at intersections but then crossing at opportunity, no matter what color the light. I've never really noticed before, and I wonder if this is because most people expect cyclists to act thus.

For the life of me, I can't remember how I myself treated traffic signals back in high school. (I do recall that I rocked the manual turn signals something fierce, and this too is something I see many cyclists not bothering with around here.) I assume that all this stuff may be technically illegal but seldom enforced. The page on the topic at massbike.org basically takes the attutude "Aw, c'mon guys, you really should," and cites silly reasons for stopping (It gives you a chance to rest! If you blow through reds on your bike, you'll start doing it in your car!!).

Anyway, this isn't anything I'm gonna start tomorrow, but it's something interesting.

Comments

[rserocki.livejournal.com]

I see some bicyclists behaving okay and some cruise on ahead through a red light...

The most personally irritating thing I can think of is the time I was walking along a crosswalk at a stop sign intersection and a bicyclist called out to me to watch out as he careened past the crosswalk in front of me in about the middle of the street and sped past a stop sign to make a right hand turn without slowing down.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

it'd be nice to be able to go a little faster when I wanted to.

When you get rich you should get a Segway!

[nuns.livejournal.com]

I am happy to admit that there are a lot of morons riding bikes (just as there are a lot of morons driving and walking and rollerblading etc) nowadays, and that moronitude is probably the prevailing reason why cyclists blow through lights with a LookBothWays rather than a Stop.

That said: it's a simple fact that in certain circumstances it's safer for the bike to cross against the light than to wait. And it is in most cases possible to identify those circumstances by looking both ways without stopping. For example, if the cyclist has a red light and there is no crossing traffic, but there IS a motorist waiting at the red light to turn, it is demonstrably safer to go through the intersection while that motorist is stationary then to wait and cross in competition with the motorist.

I just want to make explicit the position that traffic law in many cases actually ENDANGERS cyclists, and that in those circumstances the issue of safety should supercede obedience to traffic law when identifying "correct" cycling behavior.

I can't think of any excuse for the behavior of the cyclist who hassled a pedestrian on the crosswalk, cited in another comment here, though. That's just stupid behavior.

[jaq.livejournal.com]

I cycled to work the last couple of days. Between home and work there are no traffic lights, but one junction with an all-way-stop. I dithered about whether I should stop, but it feels safer to slow down and look around but not come to a complete halt. Otherwise I worry I'm going to get hidden behind a car, and I felt that drivers aren't going to expect me to take my turn going through either.

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

Some towns are more 'friendly' to biking than others. Madison is rather friendly to it due to the large number of trail, paths, and services. Plenty of businesses also have bike racks nearby. I've seen some places, however, that really aren't that friendly toward bicycles -- both via infrastructure and the other people on the road unwilling to give a cyclist some leeway (and some going out of their way to cause problems such as honking at a cyclist or throwing things out their window because "bicycles are for kids and shouldn't even be on 'our' streets")

In high school I did get stopped by a bike safety cop for running a red light on bicycle. They gave us (brother and I) warning tickets.

I stop at red lights more today out of sheer survival -- in fact, starting at GREEN LIGHTS also requires a bit of caution as well -- you'll sometimes get the motorist making a turn and not noticing a bicycle coming up from behind. Some lights, however, use weight/metal sensitive street sensors and simply won't detect a bicycle. Some times you just have to blow through those.

[chocorisu.livejournal.com]

I try to obey road rules as best I can but I have to admit feeling pretty silly stopping at a stop and have three other guys breeze past.

Last time I was cycling to work regularly I locked my front wheel, flew over the handlebars and broke both arms. So don't do that.

[radtea.livejournal.com]

Speed is the big factor for me. I spent an hour running errands this morning that if I'd been in a hurry could have been done in fifteen minutes by bike.

On the downside, New England probably has a deal more rain than Florida. One my goals in the last bike I bought was to get one with fenders, as a bike without fenders is pretty much useless to anyone who bikes for utilitarian purposes. Number of bikes with fenders available in town: zero. The best I could do was find one that would take after-market fenders without too much trouble. But still.

[kyroraz.livejournal.com]

Somerville/Cambridge bicyclists piss me off for only one reason: So many of them choose to ride their bikes on the sidewalks even when there is heavy actual foot traffic. I understand their reasoning of perhaps not wanting to become road pizza, but I've had some close calls when walking home from work by bicyclists behind me zooming along the sidewalk.

I'm not even sure if riding on sidewalks is legal in these towns. I know some allow it, oddly.

[ahkond.livejournal.com]

I'm an occasional Cambridge/Somerville cyclist and I'm one of the few who obey the traffic lights. When I'm waiting at a red light there's usually a constant flurry of other cyclists zooming past me and into the intersection. I never ride on the sidewalk, I never go the wrong way on a one-way street, and so on. But this messes people up. For example, once I was waiting at a red light and a car driver started screaming at me that I should GO. I wasn't blocking anybody; it just blew their mind that I was waiting.