These are the top five most obnoxious things that drivers do to bicyclists. Also keep in mind that I tow a baby behind me when I ride, making some of these offenses just appalling.
5) When drivers do the right thing, follow the law, be courteous, whatever, but then act like it was a huge burden and they are doing you a huge favor. For example, a driver pulls out in to the street too far from a parking lot so they reverse. I smile and wave and then they sigh and roll their eyes.
4)When drivers do not know that bicycles have to follow the same laws that they do and expect the cyclist to yield to them just because they are in a car. It is amazing how frequently I have to yield to turning cars to avoid getting hit by them, and how often cars at lights try to turn right before I can go straight! Motorists wouldn't do that with pedestrians, so why do they do it with cyclists?
3) When drivers do not see me because they are doing something else. They are usually talking on the phone, which is illegal here, but I have seen people do all kinds of things from eating to doing make-up that I have to watch for when I am biking.
2)When drivers use the bike lane to park in or pass turning cars in. Most of my ride has a parking lane AND a bike lane, but for some reason lots of cars cant fit their car into the parking lane and have to take up the bike lane too. I am also amazed by how many times I see cars sneak around leftboud vehicles by driving in the bike lane.
1)Dangerously reckless or aloof behavior. This has actually happened, while towing Autumn... I really hate it when cars drive in to the bike lane right next to me giving me about a foot of clearance and honk and yell trying to scare me because they think it is funny. Seriously? I know I look like a nerd with my orange safety vest, but get a life. That is dangerous. I also had a parked car open their door into us as we rode past. Needless to say Autumn learned some new words that day.
ok.
Thats all.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteFor long time I rode a bycicle here in Lisbon.
This was mostly in the late 80´s.
Then a license requirement was issued and I stoped riding.
Nowadays I find really dangerous to ride a bycicle here. Many drivers prefer to risk hitting a cyclist (or a motard) instead of waiting a coouple of meters to do a passing by (don't know if this is what you call).
I can also tell you that I've never seen so many drivers passing red lights like one sees today, even with the green light already set for people.
Of course that the less law according thing that bikers do is to go inbetween cars, but that's a normal thing and as long as they make themselves visible.
When I change lane (when driving a car), I find it important to use the turning light, because I may not see a vehicle comming through due to a dead angle and this way the other driver is prepared.
With the new approved law, I'm thinking about buying a scooter (here we call them vaccuum cleaners :-) ).
Ah! I've always respected red lights when riding my bycicle.
Have a nice weekend,
José