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Overheard in NY:
The cyclist, passing a pedestrian crossing, runs into a man, and they both fall down. -"Geez, are you lucky." The cyclist says. -"What do you mean by lucky ?" The pedestrian angrily asks. "I got hurt really bad." -"Ah, you're lucky because I recently lost my license. I usually drive a bus."
The car centric culture and the American tendency of blaming one the most vulnerable road users are the main reasons why you see threads like these.
It's sad but I'm optimistic that future generations will realize that the current model is unsustainable and a change of mentality will slowly take place.
What is this "car centric" culture you speak of? The one that enables people to travel long distances without taking months. The creation of the automobile is a massive achievement. I get the idea of being green and trying to get away from pollution and depending on foriegn oil. But I think people in NYC are in a bit of a bubble. Here using a bike is feasible in some cases, but if you live anywhere else in NY, it's very much not.
My parents live in Albion, NY. It's very small town 40 mins outside of Rochester. You NEED a car. There is no way to get a good paying job in Albion. You have to work outside the area. And I doubt my 57 year old father wants to bike for an hour and a half. Step outside NYC and see that cars are HIGHLY important to people lives.
I commute most days and generally get around by bike, and I've developed some personal rules.
-I think it's fine for bikes to go through red lights when the intersection is completely clear. That means no pedestrians in the crosswalk and no pedestrians possibly about the enter the crosswalk. As the person in control of the bike, you often feel confident of your ability to navigate through a bunch of pedestrians without hitting any. But even if you're right, the pedestrians will not share your confidence and will be startled or frightened, and then angry. So unless the intersection is completely clear, no running lights. Related: no waiting in the middle of the crosswalk with your bike.
-Absolutely no biking the wrong way. If cops handed out tickets for only one thing, I think it should be this. No one, pedestrians or driers, is looking for traffic coming the wrong way. Nor should they have to. I see people do this all the time and I hate it.
-Use lights at night.
Some other points that people have brought up, like "weaving through cars," are a little trickier. In many places, you really have no choice but to do this. For example, if you are in the bike lane on the left side of an avenue, but need to make a right turn. You have to get over there somehow. As for staying in the bike lane--I do when I can, but often there are so many obstructions that I end up spending more time outside the bike lane than in.
edit to add: no biking on the sidewalk! This is so obvious, but I see people do it anyway.
Yes bikes have rules, and technically they are the same as they are for cars, but I think they shouldn't be as strict. Being hit by a moving object that weights at most 80 lbs is not the same as being hit by a one that weights half a ton.
People need to use common sense and consider the effects of their own actions on others in deciding how to behave on a bike – or pretty much any other time for that matter.
For example, it’s not cool to ride the wrong direction in a bike lane as you are endangering cyclists following the rules who are pushed out into traffic. Likewise, it's not cool for pedestrians to cross in the middle of the street while endangering the safety of motorists and their own.
Cyclist red light running to me falls into the category of a victimless crime. If a cyclist runs a light and no one’s coming, who is harmed? The moral sensibilities of the people sitting in their cars at the light? Please. Where’s the habeus corpus here, people?
I think it is a noble goal to have every road user obey the law and get along great, but unfortunately we live in a society where the needs of one class of road user are prioritized at the expense of more vulnerable road users.
Cyclists are consistently hit, threatened, maimed, their air polluted, environment degraded, and then we say, oh you must EARN the respect of the car driving classes and they may offer you a few more crumbs off the table.
This is a little like saying to oppressed minorities, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps†or “if you only acted in x, y, z ways you’d be equal, and all the -isms would vanishâ€
You know what- look at crosswalks- pedestrians running red lights is rampant.
Why isn’t anyone running a campaign to “improve the image of pedestrians†or raise the lowly image of the pedestrian as a “social out group� Of course this sounds ridiculous, about as ridiculous as this ‘cyclist bashing' campaign would sound to the Dutch, where cycling is a normal part of life that practically everyone engages in.
New York and the U.S. in general needs a change of mentality before we all get stuck in a gridlock that this car-centric culture is guiding us to.
You know why bicyclists don't use some of those bike lanes? Get yourself a bicycle and ride the 9th avenue bike lane through Chelsea some morning, it will be an educating experience if you survive. What you'll find is potholes and manholes and drain grates on the surface. People walking in or across the bike lane. A group of people milling around in the bike lane. Garbage trucks running down the bike lane. Pushcarts being pushed down the bike lane. Police cars and police (who hate bicyclists and will make **** up to try to get them imprisoned) in the bike lane. Wrong way bicyclists. Construction. Homeless people pushing shopping carts. It's not a bike lane, it's an obstacle course.
Drivers don't follow traffic rules. Bicyclists don't follow them either. And pedestrians sure as heck don't -- I was actually hit by a jogger a few weeks ago, while in the bike lane. He actually ran into the bicycle, then cursed at me. If you want people in any of these categories to follow the rules, you have to make it so it is advantageous for them to follow them. Following the rules shouldn't make you a chump to be taken advantage of by those who don't.
That stinks-I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Then that begs the question-why were lanes put there when the road is that bad? For those reasons I completely understand why you wouldn't use the bike lane. There's a huge park where I used to live and they cut down a car lane for the bicycle lane. Almost all the bike riders heading to the park are on the sidewalk.
I commute most days and generally get around by bike, and I've developed some personal rules.
-I think it's fine for bikes to go through red lights when the intersection is completely clear. That means no pedestrians in the crosswalk and no pedestrians possibly about the enter the crosswalk. As the person in control of the bike, you often feel confident of your ability to navigate through a bunch of pedestrians without hitting any. But even if you're right, the pedestrians will not share your confidence and will be startled or frightened, and then angry. So unless the intersection is completely clear, no running lights. Related: no waiting in the middle of the crosswalk with your bike.
-Absolutely no biking the wrong way. If cops handed out tickets for only one thing, I think it should be this. No one, pedestrians or driers, is looking for traffic coming the wrong way. Nor should they have to. I see people do this all the time and I hate it.
-Use lights at night.
Some other points that people have brought up, like "weaving through cars," are a little trickier. In many places, you really have no choice but to do this. For example, if you are in the bike lane on the left side of an avenue, but need to make a right turn. You have to get over there somehow. As for staying in the bike lane--I do when I can, but often there are so many obstructions that I end up spending more time outside the bike lane than in.
edit to add: no biking on the sidewalk! This is so obvious, but I see people do it anyway.
Question-I know this may sound silly and probably time consuming to do so, but if you're on the left side of an avenue and need to turn right, why not stop at the intersection at the crosswalk and wait for the light to change and then cross the intersection? Isn't that safter than having to weave between cars so you can shoot over to make the turn?
1. "Cyclist red light running to me falls into the category of a victimless crime."
2. "As the person in control of the bike, you often feel confident of your ability to navigate through a bunch of pedestrians without hitting any. But even if you're right, the pedestrians will not share your confidence and will be startled or frightened, and then angry. "
Exactly - the "victim" is more often than not the image of cyclists as a whole. Gets a whole lot of pedestrians pissed off with them, especially the more frail and those with kids. Its quite amazing how cyclists end up being so villifed in this city as compared to most other cities I've been to, but their own contribution to it is no mystery. The city tried to address this with its don't be a jerk campaign.
Question-I know this may sound silly and probably time consuming to do so, but if you're on the left side of an avenue and need to turn right, why not stop at the intersection at the crosswalk and wait for the light to change and then cross the intersection? Isn't that safter than having to weave between cars so you can shoot over to make the turn?
This is often not practical. Where do you wait? If you stop before or within the crosswalk, as soon as the light changes it fills with pedestrians and you can't get through. Plus, you're blocking the bike path while you wait. If you stop after the crosswalk, you're waiting out in the intersection, where drivers can become unpredictable. In either case you're kind of on the edge of everyone's field of vision and attention. Taking the turn lane makes sure that people see you.
I think one thing non-cyclists don't always get is the feeling you have, when you're riding a bike in the city, that you must keep moving. It's self-preservation.
This is often not practical. Where do you wait? If you stop before or within the crosswalk, as soon as the light changes it fills with pedestrians and you can't get through. Plus, you're blocking the bike path while you wait. If you stop after the crosswalk, you're waiting out in the intersection, where drivers can become unpredictable. In either case you're kind of on the edge of everyone's field of vision and attention. Taking the turn lane makes sure that people see you.
I think one thing non-cyclists don't always get is the feeling you have, when you're riding a bike in the city, that you must keep moving. It's self-preservation.
Yep, I hear ya. If you ask me, I commend anyone whose got the b*lls to ride their bike in the city.
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