This video is making the e-mail rounds in Springfield now with admonitions and self-confessions. It’s nearly 10 minutes of atrocious behavior by bicyclists at intersections in what appears to be suburban feeder locations in Maryland.
(Video tip: If you’re going to use natural sound, fercrissakes don’t chew gum!)
It’s difficult for me to watch that and not make some stereotypical remark about roadies. I’m a utility townie (we have our own stereotypes, thank you). I’d like to think utility bicyclists are better behaved that this. But it’s just not true. The sad fact of the matter is that the majority of bicyclists I see — no matter how one might classify them — are just like the people in the video above.
It’s a good time to re-play my video of bad behavior at the 4-way stop at Walnut and South downtown. It shows all kinds of bad behavior from all kinds of bicyclists. (I’m planning to make some more of these, BTW.)
4-way Stop at Walnut and South – Springfield, Missouri from acline on Vimeo.
I’m torn about griping about this because the number of people using bicycles as transportation in Springfield is increasing. That’s wonderful! I no longer feel alone on the streets. It is a source of joy to ride downtown and see a dozen other bicyclists in a little more than two miles. That the downtown racks are nearly full much of the time makes me smile.
But I also feel surrounded by children. Children wearing expensive costumes and riding expensive road bicycles and ignoring traffic laws. Children on BMX bicycles riding on downtown sidewalks. Children on battered Walmart specials riding against traffic on their way to work. Children of all kinds riding as if all the world is a surface for their pleasure.
It took me a long time to grow up. Perhaps I’ve only reached adolescence (this snippy little screed is evidence of that). Those first couple of years that I used my bicycle as basic transportation were child-like years. I ran stops signs. I cruised downtown sidewalks. I rode as if the entire world was surface made just for me. I once told a salesman at a local bicycle shop that I needed a really tough bicycle that could hop curbs and other urban obstacles (aka traffic control devices) with ease because “I ride wherever necessary to get where I’m going.”
What an idiot!
I won’t claim that I’m no longer so challenged. Throughout life we move in and out of that state as we progress, if we progress.
Comments 5
I was passed by a roadie at a stop sign on Holland yesterday. Granted there weren’t any cars around, but “Cross Traffic Does Not Stop” is enough for 2 seconds of looking. I politefully waved. He did not wave back.
A good friend of mine Jim, also a reader of Carbon Trace, often jokes that I’m trying to challenge for the “Springfield’s Safest Rider” belt. I would say not Andy Cline’s, because he’s well below my weight class.
Posted 14 Jul 2009 at 10:27 am ¶I agree that we are surrounded by children. I just saw a guy Jay walk(bike) across 9 lanes of a road where the speed limit is 45mph. They spoil the general name of cyclists.
We people on bikes (you and me) take this offensive as there is a bit of bicyclist’s name to be saved. Motorists have lost it already. These people in extended-adolescent stages probably drive more often than ride a bike. That, is something to think about.
Posted 14 Jul 2009 at 10:49 am ¶I think you’ve nailed it when it comes to the adult/children mindset… many people ride as if their bike is a casual extension of themselves, so what’s the big deal if they ride in the sidewalk? or down the wrong way? surely that’s “safer” than riding in the road, and we were always warned to stay out of the road as kids…on the same note, people who do ride in the road and blow through intersections don’t realize it’s as dangerous as doing that with a car. Each of those riders is risking death by not behaving like any other vehicle.
Sure, I’ve been guilty of riding like a kid in the past, the same way I shot my mouth off or misbehaved like a kid before I learned some proper behavior that helps us all get along. Cyclists have to be just as willing to cooperate and behave as the motorists they fear, and maybe if we all rode with a little more confidence and discipline, our trip would be safer, whether made in a car or on a bike.
Posted 14 Jul 2009 at 11:22 am ¶anyone watch it long enough to see the one roadie address the camera guy and say “look im coming to a complete stop like we all do”.
and i submit to the jury unsafe bicycling example #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLzGj10fg2g&feature=related
Posted 14 Jul 2009 at 12:02 pm ¶Jim… Wow. That video is just insane.
Thanks to everyone for comments so far.
But… We see so much of this behavior, does no one want to defend it? (That is other than to note that we have too much of the wrong kind of traffic control, with which I would agree.)
Posted 14 Jul 2009 at 1:09 pm ¶