First, let me say that I think we have far too many stop signs.
OK, so I’m heading south on Hammons Pkwy., and I stop at the 4-way stop and signal a left turn onto Cherry going east. A bicycle police officer is right in front of me going north on Hammons and signaling a left onto Cherry going west. As we are both stopped, a bicyclist going south on Hammons blows the 4-way without so much as slowing down.
I point and look at the police officer while trying to get my facial expression to say something like: “Wow, man…perfect time to remind someone about the traffic laws.”
The cop makes his left turn without so much as even faking mild interest in the fact that I tried to communicate with him.
Why bother? Why do I bother stopping at stop signs? We have too many. They are often unnecessary. The vast majority of bicyclists I see ignore them. Some people I’ve ridden with who should know better ignore them. Why bother?
Well, I think it’s safer. I also think it sends a proper message to car drivers that I am serious about being a part of traffic.
Hmmmmmm…
Comments 9
I found this post to be profoundly disturbing. When you add up the lack of enforcement when it is “just those silly cyclists,” combined with the news article threats and arrests against cyclists that get out of their place “out of the way,” with the accelerating fascination with separate facilities and laws mandating their use, the parallels are, as I said, disturbing. Haven’t we all gone down this failed dead end before? I guess in one way we’re much better off because most of us have the option of blending in by simply firing up the car.
Posted 14 Jun 2010 at 5:04 pm ¶I almost forgot. There ARE too many stop signs.
Posted 14 Jun 2010 at 5:06 pm ¶Cyclists are the only drivers who are least likely to be ticketed for breaking the law and most likely to be ticketed for operating lawfully.
It’s the pigeon deal. Do any disgusting thing you want, just don’t get in the way.
Posted 14 Jun 2010 at 6:22 pm ¶It’s difficult to know how to respond to something like this. I’m not at all sure I want the Springfield police to start issuing tickets. I would just like to have had the cop pull the guy over and explain to him that running a stop sign on a bicycle is an infraction equal to running one in a car.
Posted 15 Jun 2010 at 7:15 am ¶Every single day I see illegal actions by folks in cars and on bicycles. I follow more rules of the road on my bicycle than many of the cars on the road. There have always been scoff laws, the uneducated, and the ignorant in cars or on bikes, but until something is actually done nothing will change.
The only reason we have the compliance of automobiles as much as we do is the risk vs. reward equation. With cyclists we don’t have the risk side of the equation. It’s going to take ticketed cyclists going to court and arguing the relevance of the traffic laws to get things moving. You can lobby and write all the letters asking for signal change buttons in a place where cyclists can use them, but it won’t be as affective as having a judge throwing out a ticket on the grounds that there was no other option for the cyclist than to cross the street against the light.
Posted 15 Jun 2010 at 11:28 am ¶I too know this pain. After stopping and signalling to turn west onto Walnut from South last Friday, then taking my turn as a nice UPS driver signalled me to go ahead right across from me, I nearly collided with a girl on a cruiser who was riding on the sidewalk who had stopped at the stop sign, then continued going south on South without actually looking to see if it was her turn.
Then, on my return home, as I waited for the light at Cherry and Kimbrough to change, I watched as a young gentleman on a fairly nice bike (who also looked as if he should know better) came south down Kimbrough in the oncoming lane, turned south onto Cherry, which was alright considering thie light was green, EXCEPT, he remained in the oncoming traffic lane in the road with a significant amount on oncoming traffic. I mean seriously… You want to bike 15 mph into a car driving at you at 35 mph?
Ride in the street. Obey traffic laws. Seriously, this is why lots of drivers do NOT care to share the road with bicyclists.
Posted 15 Jun 2010 at 12:16 pm ¶Brandon… Yes, too many people out there on the roads are trying to get away with too much.
Marissa… That type of behavior makes it hard on all of us who are following the rules whether we’re on bicycles or in cars.
Posted 15 Jun 2010 at 1:15 pm ¶I’m amazed that the bike cop was following the law including signaling! As for the bike cops in Providence, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them obey the law. Seriously, they are always either on the sidewalk, biking on the wrong side, or blowing through stop lights, etc. My favorite example was when I saw three of them biking up a street on the wrong side. They ran through a light and then I noticed that two of them had their helmets slung over their handlebars. I guess that’s technically not illegal, but whenever I see that, I always wonder why their handlebars need so much protection.
Posted 16 Jun 2010 at 10:31 pm ¶I’d really like to see more states adopt the Idaho stop law.
Posted 19 Jun 2010 at 4:43 pm ¶http://vimeo.com/4140910