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

[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.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

It's one thing to go through a red light on a bike as if it is a stop sign, but it's a totally different thing to just ride across the road as if there were no intersection at all. I'd say if they actually made you slow down to avoid hitting them, that is unforgivable no matter what.

That said, considering the risk here is entirely on the part of the bicyclist, I'd have to say I don't see many bicyclists break the law in this particular way very often. Many cyclists run lights, but not that many do it without looking.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

I see a lot of bicyclists do this, mostly by glancing left and right to see if there are cars as they come up to the red and just going. More often than not I immediately see them almost get hit by the oncoming traffic lane that's gotten a green light in the meantime (case in point Broadway at Rt 16.) I used to drive to work until recently (different location) now mostly walk to the train in davis for work, and sometimes ride, and I've seen more daredevil riders (without helmets!) than I'd care to.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

yeah, in the end, cars go faster than bikes. taking a right on red in a car vs. car scenario is, imo, much safer than car vs. bike for a few reasons, but by the time you look, and go, a car could have come to the green and, since it's green obviously, continued to go and gain speed.

i can see in some scenarios, sure, don't be waiting there all damn day, but in a hilly & somewhat populated area, i don't know that i'd want to take my chances on a bike.

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

I wholeheartedly agree!! Why is there a double standard? How can bikers vehemently defend themselves as vehicles that deserve to be on the road (which I agree with) and then not follow the laws of the road?! You don't see cars stopping at a red light "like a stop sign" and then continuing. If it was supposed to be a stop sign, it wouldn't be a red light. I got into a fender bender at the porter square/mass ave/somerville ave intersection because I had to speed up in order to avoid a biker perpendicular to me, going through a red light. I chose to run into the car's bumper in front of me instead of the cyclist. I shouldn't have to make that choice. If you can't follow the laws of the road, you shouldn't be allowed on them.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Why is there a double standard?

The short answer is that there is minimal risk to anyone else on the road besides the biker if the biker breaks a law (other than "don't ride on the sidewalk" and secondary damage caused by a driver's evasive action of course). I believe if this were the case with cars we probably never would have bothered to come up with this whole system of traffic regulations in the first place.

As for your particular story, it sounds like you were worried that the bicyclist was going to run right into the side of you. Much as I know bicyclists in this city do some pretty retarded things, I strongly suspect you may have overestimated this bicyclists ability to stop or swerve around behind you. If you were truly on an unavoidable head-on-type collision course where you were about to hit the bicyclist with the front or front-right corner of your car, the only thing that could possibly have been accomplished by speeding up was forcing the bicyclist to hit, say, your door. If the bicyclist were already on course to hit your door I think they could have stopped or gone around you. I definitely see drivers mess up this estimation *all the damned time* when I am trying to bike around them on the road. They stop, or speed up, and almost always I have to make some dramatic course change to go around them.

As a general rule though I try to err on the side of going around them. At least that way if they decide to change what they're doing (stop, speed up, turn, etc.) and it's too late for me to do anything about it, I run into the side of them instead of being run over, which would be worse...I think. :-)

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

If the bicyclist were already on course to hit your door I think they could have stopped or gone around you.

Does it matter? The bicyclist stupidly ran a light and could have been injured.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

My point is that drivers often perceive that there is danger from this when in fact none exists.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

So what?

If someone's running the light, they've already shown a major disregard for everyone else.

You are, in effect, blaming the law abiding citizen for reacting to the scofflaw.

Wrong answer.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I guess that depends on whether you feel the law as enacted by the legislature is the only set of rules at play on the road. In practice if you are indeed careful, you can indeed go through red lights on a bicycle without putting anyone's life in danger.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

You can say the same thing about cars, so, I guess I don't need to stop at the red light next time, in my car, do I?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

To be perfectly honest with you, I think we'd all be better off replacing traffic lights with stop signs (or nothing at all, as in the Bohmte Plan (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18217318) mentioned by another commenter) instead of having people at green lights believe they can speed through an intersection without a second thought while forcing people at poorly timed traffic lights to sit there and stare at an empty road that is obviously safe to cross.

But if something *were* to give me pause, it would be the relative hazards of having a car (vs. a bicycle) cross an intersection against a light. If a bicyclist does it, the primary risk is with the bicyclist. No one other than the bicyclist is going to be injured in a one-on-one collision between a car and a bicyclist, and the bicyclist is likely to be injured quite seriously, so it is better to force a wider margin of error and a greater degree of predictability on the car.

But like I said above, I think traffic lights in general tend to encourage a dangerous sense of complacency and we'd probably be better off without them, at least in densely populated areas.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

The primary risk may be with the bicyclist, but that's not the only risk - other people reacting to the bicyclist become a danger to everyone else, because of the bicyclist.

[haptotrope.livejournal.com]

Why is there a double standard?

well, (not all are my reasons - though valid cultural issues):

1) bikes want to be "faster" than cars, and you can't be "faster" (and snotty about it) if you are following the rules.

2)Sometimes it is safer to ride slowly through on the walk signal (not blow the light completely) than it is to deal with the cars trying to accelerate to highway speed behind you... those few seconds mean that I can navigate the pile of potholes at Linnean and Mass Ave. before traffic breathes down my neck.

3)Also some bikes, and bikers are going too fast for the level of visibility they produce. Drop bars, and racing bikes, and skinny asses mean you are paper thin to anything but the sideways viewer. Speed variable determines the "sense" of speed responsibility... because you can go slowly like farm machinery without entirely disrupting the regular flow, means that you are in a constant state of "outsiderness" -- which makes one not with to apply all the rules to them.

4)The Same rules, same rights is a bike advocacy fallacy designed for policy. It was designed to make bikes fit the policy, and bikes are culturally rebellious, as symbols of "the worker" internationally, so the rules need to suit the ride, not the other way around. So aside from a Singaporean Draconian Ticketing system and a method of tracking punishment, breaking the law will be the cyclists's way.

Anyway, that's the cultural angle.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

1) bikes want to be "faster" than cars, and you can't be "faster" (and snotty about it) if you are following the rules.

Heh, about the only rule you can follow that would make biking slower than driving in Boston is if you refuse to pass drivers sitting in long lines of cars in traffic.

Sometimes it is safer to ride slowly through on the walk signal (not blow the light completely) than it is to deal with the cars trying to accelerate to highway speed behind you... those few seconds mean that I can navigate the pile of potholes at Linnean and Mass Ave. before traffic breathes down my neck.

Yeah, this.

[haptotrope.livejournal.com]

Heh, about the only rule you can follow that would make biking slower than driving in Boston is if you refuse to pass drivers sitting in long lines of cars in traffic.

It depends on how fast you ride. I go a comfortable 10-12ish mph and if i stopped for every single light, they would just about be even... and where is the righteous indigence in that?

Oh, and while I'm at it. Cyclists need some damned manners in regards to their own. I keep getting cut off by cyclists at lights, so that they can stop and try to pass me when they are going 5mph. I may have a fat ass, and i may be stopped at a light for the full duration, but unless you are in spandex, or a serious cardio bunny, I will likely have to pass you within 20 feet. Gah!

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I'm having a lot of trouble understanding this "I had to speed up in order to avoid a collision" part.

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

If you don't have enough time or distance to stop your car when someone rides into your path, your only other option is to try to move through faster and not intercept them.