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

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Same here. I never seem to get yelled at/honked at more than when I'm in the left lane waiting to turn left. Or on the Alewife Brook Parkway on the left side of the road so that I can go straight through the Mystic Valley/Alewife Brook rotary instead of turning right. I swear sometimes I want to stop the driver right there in the middle of the road and ASK them if they'd rather I just swerve across their lane instead.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

a lot of drivers don't know all the rules of the road. which is a pity, and a safety issue for all of us.

as well, a lot of cyclists don't know these rules either :P

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[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

as well, a lot of cyclists don't know these rules either

A lot of them either don't know them, in general, or don't know they also apply to bicyclists at all times.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

"don't know" is also short hand for "they know, but: they don't care and break/bend the law, actually have no idea, etc..."

it's bad enough as well for the motorcycles out there. all these mixed vehicles need to get along better.

most of it, imho, is a sense of entitlement. "i gotta get where i wanna go, outta my way"...

be safe!

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[m00n.livejournal.com]

Bicycling in Boston is unique, though, in that you will often (as in, regularly multiple times on the same trip) find yourself at a red light where there is obviously no traffic at ALL on the intersecting road. Knowing that you can run that light with impunity makes it a difficult temptation to avoid, and as someone who does it all the time, it's hard to see how it actually hurts anyone provided you respect the fact that oncoming motorists do have the right of way (and treat them accordingly--not making them slow down or swerve to avoid you, etc.).

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

i see the same thing with cars. especially the police ;) red light? whatever.

it's worse on right turns. seems a lot of people aren't even doing California turns, they just blow right through, which leads to antics.

the left hand turners are the most special though.

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[m00n.livejournal.com]

I can safely say that in the greater Boston area, I have *only* ever seen cops do that.

And there's never an excuse for not looking. But it's important to keep in mind when talking about the relative importance of car drivers and bicyclists obeying things like red light laws that the consequences of disobedience are *not* the same, legal consequences aside. If a car hits another car, there is going to be significant property damage involved and probably a significant risk to life and limb. Cars go a lot faster than bikes and they weigh two tons. If a car and a bicycle collide, the injuries are going to be ENTIRELY on the side of the bicyclist. It is not very likely that a bicycle will exactly T-bone another bicyclist because the size of the road makes panoramic visibility at that speed very good and there is a lot of room to maneuver. But even if they do collide, they are both likely to fare a lot better than if either of them had collided with a car instead.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

THIS. I am retardedly adherent to the traffic rules as a vehicle (bike), and have been outright laughed at by other people who ride their bikes in the city. It's already a risk, at least if I get hit, i know I was doing everything I could to be a good rider.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

I do the same thing, too, and have gotten comments from some drivers about it.

At Mass Ave and Beech Street (just north of porter square) a driver asked me if I were turning or going straight (at the no turn on red intersection), so she knew if she needed to hang back before turning.

Thanks!

I also thank bicyclists I see stopping and following the law, when I'm driving, if I pull up next to them at a light.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

That's nice of you! I'm overly-adherent as well except for when I screw up.

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

That was my ethos until I came to the US, and specifically Boston,
where so many rules make no sense.

Stop signs where none is needed. Stop signs 15ft back from the place
you actually need to stop or yield. Traffic lights based on timers so
holding up traffic for nothing at all...

I break the rules, but when doing so always consider myself at the
bottom of the right-of-way ladder - give way to everything
else.

Also (on somthing of a tangent), around here people's behavior at
crossings or stops actually puts hurdles in the way of obeying the
rules. When people have the right of way - specifically peds waiting
at a crossing or cars waiting at all-way stops - they often wait for
another party to arrive and come to a complete stop before they'll
move. They should just carry on, providing the other party
would be able to brake and avoid an accident. I don't get what the
problem is. I have some empathy with peds fear of injury, but they
even wait for a bike when they would be well out of its path before it
arrives. This forces the other party to choose between following the
law and coming to a complete, and unnecessary, stop, or flouting the
law and breezing right past them. It's infuriating and a little
passive-agressive: "Look how put-out I am by other people who might
not stop - I have to wait to be completely sure".

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I break the rules, but when doing so always consider myself at the
bottom of the right-of-way ladder - give way to everything
else.

This.

And surprisingly in Boston, this still leaves you "breaking the law" dozens of times per ride with no consequence whatsoever.

They should just carry on, providing the other party
would be able to brake and avoid an accident. I don't get what the
problem is.

Lack of trust in the wherewithal of other operators. And in a country where a senile blind epileptic can have their license renewed by grandfather clause without even being required to take our 2 minute sorry excuse for a road test, it's no wonder they feel this way.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

I'd rather piss off a driver by -not- stepping into the road when they were actually slowing down, than be wrong in believing they saw me. I've seen too many drivers slow down, then SPEED UP AGAIN as they approached a crosswalk. If I can tell they really truly mean it, they are slowing down so as not to hit me in the crosswalk, I don't force them to stop, but I know too many people who've been hit or nearly hit (including myself) when they theoretically should have been safe.

And don't get me started on people YIELDING their right of way to other vehicles at intersections.

I hate New England drivers /so much/.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

waiting for things to cease moving before you cross the street is something moms teach their kids at a very young age as the story goes.

it's annoying, yeah, i've been in both scenarios with the whole 'well are you going to go or am i?!' (worse bullshit at 4 way stops for cars though, i assure you, omg!) but also safe. when i worked in kendall i took the T to work and bizarrely, in one of the few places where this actually A BIKE LANE, i was routinely nearly run down by cyclists who felt like using the sidewalk instead, were cutting through the little fountain park thing, and especially when i had the light to cross, and they didn't feel like they should stop at the red light like cars do. i guess getting hit by a bike certainly isn't as bad as by a car, but i like to be in just the same or better physical condition when i get home each day ;p

i'm SO with you on the having to stop much further back than where you can see to safely proceed though, what the hell.

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

Hey, I do that waiting at crosswalks thing a lot, instinctively - it's not passive aggressive, I actually do sometimes worry that the other party will not stop.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Yeah but the drivers add insult to injury by believing that the roads were mainly put there for the benefit of the drivers, and that the bicycles are there at the drivers' discretion.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

it seems that every user of the road seems to think it was put there for themselves ;)

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[m00n.livejournal.com]

Well I know I do. ;-)

[rax.livejournal.com]

And only the cows are right.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

or the ones with good lawyers and insurance

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[lbmango.livejournal.com]

+1!

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

As duly reflected in state law (http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/90-14.htm), no less.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Which is odd considering the relative risk of injury to life and limb.

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

Sometimes being a cyclist on rotaries is scary because I just don't trust drivers to, you know, not kill me even if I follow both laws and common sense. But hey, I'm not from New England so rotaries make me tense even in a car.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Which, by the way, is exactly why they are such a good idea!