To the woman I almost hit on my bike turning onto Buena Vista road

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I apologize for frightening you.

When you walked into the crosswalk in front of me, I thought that you would keep going into my lane, so I prepared to go behind you. Instead, you stopped to let me pass, and it seemed like I was aiming for you. You yelled at me, which was only reasonable.

What I should have done is to stop or slow down until it was clear whether you would be in my lane, and then either go in front of you or stop to let you cross. My bad, and again, I'm sorry.

Comments

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

Good on you for not trying to deflect responsibility. Everything would have flowed more smoothly if she'd just taken her right of way without question, but in the end, it was your responsibility.

I'm a biker too, and I don't believe in rigidly sticking to rules when they have no benefit (like stop signs which could safely be yields, red light with no traffic or pedestrians flowing - I know some people will disagree), but rule-bending always has to give deference to safety and others' right of way.

Occasionally I get it wrong too, and man do I feel embarrassed and angry with myself.

Not nearly as often as others get it wrong though and mess me up. It's amazing how someone can overtake a bike and then as soon as they pass the side window, completely forget the bike ever existed.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how someone can overtake a bike and then as soon as they pass the side window, completely forget the bike ever existed.

I actually got a side-to-side nudge from one of those on Monday - luckily there don't appear to have been any damages or injuries on either side.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I'm a biker too, and ...
Occasionally I get it wrong too, and man do I feel embarrassed and angry with myself.

yes. This.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Yep.

I've never been yelled at for any of the minor infractions (I am thoughtful and careful about them, but yeah, there's the occasional screw-up), but I get yelled at by cars all the time when I am completely obeying the law.

(On that note, just yesterday, a friend of mine posted about how bicycles shouldn't be on narrow streets.)

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

as a car driver, I find it painful when I see bikers "roll thru" their red lights and stop signs as you mention above. Seriously, that's beyond dangerous. There is one light, on school street and highland, where bikers on highland continually blow because they can't see the cars coming down the small school street hill. I can't tell you how many times I've almost hit idiots who blow thru that light, and other lights.

so bikes are a vehicle, and you need to follow the law too. As a car driver, I promise to not speed up to cut you off (those car drivers piss me off, are they trying to kill someone?), always look when I open my door and generally share the road with you. In return I expect you to follow the law. Its gotten to the point that I cheer bike riders who follow the law because they are so few and far between. I think I saw 1 out of 20 this week. That's not a good average.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

Not nearly as often as others get it wrong though and mess me up. It's amazing how someone can overtake a bike and then as soon as they pass the side window, completely forget the bike ever existed.

i have to say, tossing this in at the end of your comment is so, so frustrating. grimlocke did it in her ending comments, and someone else who's username i can't recall right now did it as well. all totally rational and understandable and then people just toss in something like 'but i mean obviously it's usually the other guy.'

where other guy is cyclist if you're primarily a driver, or vice versa, and then if you're a cyclist or a driver, change other guy to pedestrian, etc.

you'd think by now we'd all realize that, shitty as it may be, assholes exist everywhere, and it really has nothing to do with what mode of transportation you use.

[ron_newman]

I'm glad to see this post, and hope that the woman will see it too.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I think it's really unlikely, but I'm glad that it seems to have spiked some conversation.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Thanks for owning up!

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is a tricky one. I do think it's right to apologize as, technically, the pedestrian has the right of way in the crosswalk. Generally though I think the safest thing to do is to avoid this situation altogether. When approaching an intersection with pedestrians standing on the corner, try to be as close to the middle of the road as possible. That way you don't have to worry about highly unpredictable pedestrians at all (since there is basically a 50/50 chance that they will decide to stop and wait for you).

I bike a lot with my girlfriend who is still a little nervous about swerving out into the middle of the lane and I can tell you there have been at least a dozen occasions where I have completely avoided a conflict with a pedestrian that she has then proceeded to nearly hit in exactly the same way that you did. And this is true even though she is biking along only 15 or 20 feet behind me.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Also when in doubt, use your hands to indicate to the pedestrians that it is OK to go. A lot of times all they're really looking for is some acknowledgment from the bicyclist (or motorist) that you see them.

[pensivewombat.livejournal.com]

It's true, and i was about to post owning up to just this problem. Clearly *someone* beat me to it. :P

i find that i either stop completely and confuse the hell out of the people in the crosswalk, or i try to gauge how fast they're walking and try to stay out of their way, only to have them stop in the middle and look terrified.

My new rule is: i stop and wait. God knows i don't want to be THAT GUY... er, girl... er, arsehole.

[whaler.livejournal.com]

That's nice of you to apologize!

[beatniktea.livejournal.com]

You could've gotten of the bike and apologized in person :) I'm not trying to be a jerk, just a thought I had while reading this (but I'm not sure I would've either in your position...adrenaline rush and all that)

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

True. I had that thought as well but not until I was almost to Mass Ave so I decided to do this instead.

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

As a pedestrian who has been hit by cyclists on two occasions, I say thanks for this. We're all doing our best to coexist but sometimes it's confusing. (I'd much rather be hit by a bike than by a car, though!)

[teko.livejournal.com]

To the woman riding her bike directly into the center of a rotary, nowhere near a crosswalk, staring at me while, without slowing or stopping, insistently heading directly in front of my car: you are a moron. I slammed on my brakes, stopped just inches from you, and you escaped unscathed. I can only assume you were hoping for a large insurance payout. Sorry I couldn't help.

[ron_newman]

Was she entering the rotary while you were in it, or vice versa? Vehicles inside the rotary have the right of way regardless of their type or size.

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

It's hard to guess the exact situation from your description, but what does a crosswalk have to do with anything? Bicycles are vehicles with the same requirements as cars. They aren't supposed to ride over crosswalks.

If she was riding around the rotary in the same way a (slow) car would, it's your responsibility to let her. Perhaps that wasn't the case.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

http://survivingtheworld.net/Lesson137.html

:)

#

[squonk.livejournal.com]

Nice post! Very menschy.

[haptotrope.livejournal.com]

Being from the midwest, I believe pedestrian crossing the road should be like frogger. It bugs me to no end, as a pedestrian to have cars and other traffic stop for me.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

I can't stand it when people just jump in the road in front of cars, or don't wait for walk lights..but I also didn't grow up in a pedestrian right of way kind of town. Though I will say that Northampton MA, near where I grew up is over the top on Pedestrian rights even compared to here. I think people jump out in the road there just to watch the drivers jam on the breaks..

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Appreciated that you thought through the situation. As a pedestrian, I try to stay out of the way of vehicles when possible simply because it's polite and keeps the whole system moving faster. :-)

[winterhill.livejournal.com]

Me too. I try to establish eye contact with cyclist and make it clear I am NOT moving. Not that they are reading my mind, but you can generally tell if someone is Planted Firmly and Waiting for You to Pass.

As a kid, when I would state that I had the right of way as a pedestrian in a cross walk or some such, my mom would say, "Technically yes, but do you want to be right or do you want to be dead?" Good old mom.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

You sound like a very reasonable cyclist (a too-rare breed). Cyclists should stop for pedestrians in crosswalks just like cars do. So many times, while stopped for someone to cross the street, they are almost run down by a cyclist blowing by without looking, slowing, anything. If cars did that they would be stopped and ticketed. I'd love to see more cyclists become responsible, but it seems like they generally think they don't need to slow down for anything.