Ever take a wrong turn?
Twice in the last few weeks, someone has turned into the Metro Tunnel at Convention Place Center while exiting the I-5 Express Lanes. The response by security is immediate: security sees the car turn into the station and run straight to the driver, gesturing for them to stop. They take down the license plate number, radio the information to somewhere, then escort the car out onto Olive Way. From a statistical standpoint, it’s been an even split with car type and gender. The first time I saw this happen was a woman driving a Mercedes. This time was a man driving a Geo. I will need to watch for more examples.
Speaking of wrong-turn drivers, I happened to see this last week in the Seattle Times Rant and Rave column:
Rant “To the other cyclist who ruined my morning bike ride to work by yelling, ‘It’s a one-way street.’ Yes, I was traveling the wrong way for half a block on a quiet, otherwise empty, Montlake street. You were not in danger or inconvenienced, nor was anybody else. Apparently, you have earned the right to be the cycle police. In the future, unless you or another person is in danger or inconvenienced, please keep your thoughts to yourself.”
Ok ok, so the “driver” was really a “cyclist” and it wasn’t a wrong turn. Personally I think you shouldn’t drive or ride the wrong direction down a street regardless of the length. Thoughts?
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It is nice to know that security for the bus tunnel are on top of people turning into there.
Regarding cyclists, I feel they need to either follow the rules of the road, or the rules of pedestrians. Far too often I almost take one out because they ride on a street lane and then switch to a crosswalk at the last second. If they are following the rules of the road, going the wrong way on (even a short) one way street would be illegal.
I strive to follow the rules of the road as a cyclist. Unpredictable (or illegal) behavior as a cyclist contributes to the animosity toward cyclists as a whole and endangers the rider and possibly those around them.
The reason so many people have problems with cyclists is that some flagrantly disobey the rules of the road - and when they do they stand out like a sore thumb.
Great to see another cyclist actually calling them out on it.
Just a thought on the ranter: If someone telling them a simple fact "ruined" their morning bike ride and then they felt compelled to write a rant because they were so ticked off about it, I think they have an anger management issue. Maybe there are some other big stresses in their life that they then projected onto this poor cyclist who was likely only telling them it was a one way for their own knowledge and protection, not to show some cycling superiority.
And I agree with the others that cyclists need to follow the rules of the road for their own safety.
Really, imagine someone driving a car saying: "Yes, I was traveling the wrong way for half a block on a quiet, otherwise empty, Montlake street."
Things like that aren’t really up to anyone’s judgment of when it’s okay, if for no other reason than because other people (who may not have your omniscient viewpoint) start doing it.
Cyclists should follow the rules of (slow) cars on the road, and pedestrians everywhere else.
However, as a daily bike commuter I have to raise a caveat. Most roads do a poor job of engineering the transition between roads and walkways, often making it very difficult for even the most well-intentioned cyclist to both follow the law and remain safe at intersections. I avoid this situation as much as possible by staying in the road as much as possible and taking routes that minimize road/walkway crossovers, but that’s not always possible. Before assuming that a cyclist is just being a scofflaw, it’s worth considering the specific intersection and how it’s designed. More often that not, poor road design is to blame and not anyone using the road.
Very good point Cascadian. There are a few areas where I jump on the sidewalk (yielding to peds, obviously) because the road is almost impassible.
I live in that neighborhood and know the street in question. Detouring around that portion legally is not hard.
I think what the Ranter forgets is that he is endangering pedestrians. I can just imagine someone sleepily crossing the street in the morning, looking for traffic from only one direction and then getting hit by the wrong way cyclist.
There is this person called a "social enforcer" - they are the person who calls other people out on all sorts of rule breaking. They are the people who pick the litter up and hand it to the person who just dropped it.
The advantage of a bicycle to such a person is it makes it very easy to (a) have moral superiority and (b) yell at someone without rolling a window down. I wonder if bicyclists have greater numbers of such social enforcers?
Thank you to the sane bicyclists that try to follow the rules of the road. Wesa is exactly right. It’s the riders that don’t follow the rules of the road that make people like me severely dislike cyclists in general. It’s gotten to the point now where I actually will stop and thank a cyclist for doing the right thing on the road (stopping at stop signs, yielding to peds, etc.). I really want to like you guys, I really do.
I was stuck behind 2 cyclists on a road that is 1 lane for a while and then becomes 2 lanes (northbound 10th by the Cafe Dharwin). As soon as the road became 2 lanes, one cyclist moved over to the other lane and the other one didn’t so I was stuck behind them still. Since that day, I just want to run over all the smug cyclists.
Wow! Someone inconvenienced you once for a minute, so you want to wreak grievous bodily harm on a bunch of other people who do the same thing? Mark, you so win at life.
As a person who rides a bike around a lot, I try to be as predictable as possible, which means that I follow the rules of the road. It seems like the obvious safe thing to do, to me.
I’m amazed at people sometimes. The ranter never even paused to think that what he was saying was, "I broke the law and someone told me I was doing so. How dare they!" Pathetic.
Then there’s Mark, who has used the behavior of two people to spread his hate to a community of thousands. Way to go! Just for the record, even though people have on many occasions come close to actualy crushing me as I was biking, I don’t want to kill you, Mark. Try not to be a bigot, okay?
Oh I don’t want to do anything worse to cyclists (only the smug ones, mind you) than I want to do to most of the people who work in the White House since 2001 or Fox News since its inception. Or to old people who try to use the automatic checker or write checks in the express lane at the grocery store. Or to anyone who works for a megachurch or thinks the world is 4000 years old. Or the people at Microsoft who made it a default setting to hide extensions of files that have a known icon. Or anyone who takes hyperbole at face value (those are the worst).
I want to run them all over, but in the end, I’m all bark and no bite. The point is that when cyclists intentionally act like smug assholes, they make enemies of people who would otherwise be inclined to support cyclists. And those two side-by-side cyclists who conspired to make me follow them at bike speed for about 10 blocks did it for me when they split up to use up both lanes when I thought I was finally going to get around them.
If I were biking with somebody, I’d do it single file and as close the edge as possible so traffic can get around me. It’s pure simple common courtesy.
I’ll have to agree with your last statement there Mark. If I feel I am holding up traffic for longer than…oh, a block or so…I’ll pull over and let the cars pass. I’d rather take a few seconds out of my ride than aggravate drivers.
Simply put, people need to be more aware of others. There are certainly plenty of bikers who do utterly idiotic things — we all see them — and who give the rest of us a bad name. And there are people who drive arrogantly and aggressively toward bikers. We all need to pay more attention and be more courteous.
That said, the point of the conversation seems like a false choice: Is the original ranter and asshole or is it the scolder who’s the asshole? The answer is that they both are. No one likes to be told they’re in the wrong, especially when they are. (On the other hand, I have asked other bikers to signal when they’re passing me on a blind uphill curve in the darkwith no lights. Doesn’t seem like THAT much to ask.)
Also — Totally agree with your last paragraph, Mark. Acting like you own the road on a bike(even though, technically, you do) is not very bright. Sort of like mouthing off to a cop; you just aren’t likely to come out the winner.