Blatant Anti-Cyclist Comic in Today's Paper

[mucknort]

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2012/02/08

"And that's why I try to run them over."

[Tim]

I got a buddy in San Francisco that blatently rides in the car lane when he has a 20ft shoulder just 10ft to his right.  I've stopped riding with him because of this insane behavior.  I think its a bit of inferiority complex.  Still stupid.

Good comic.

[waynemyer]

There are many times when it is more appropriate to take the lane. This idiocy undermines that bicycles are vehicles, that there are sometimes compelling reasons to take the lane, and there is never cause to initiate force against another.

[whittierider]

California law does allow taking the lane if it's too narrow for vehicles to safely pass you in the same lane, but that apparently is not the case in the senario illustrated in the cartoon.  Motorists tend to lump us all together; so cyclists who do not ride courteously and do not obey the laws give us all a bad name, and endager all of us.

[indyfabz]

Someone posted the cartoon to our local club's list. As one member noted, we have a lot of bike lanes in Philadelphia that put you in the "door zone." In some cases, you have to ride outside the lane to avoid the zone completely. On some streets, the second lane has been converted to a bike-only lane. Many motorists, especially drivers for FedEx, UP and the like, find these to be most convenient stopping places.

Can't wait to see what happens when Pennsylvania's 4" passing law takes effect:

http://www.saintlouislegal.com/2012/01/going-the-distance-pennsylvania-passes-four-foot-bicycle-passing-law/

[Pat Lamb]

Can't wait to see what happens when Pennsylvania's 4" passing law takes effect:

Hope you mean 4', 4" sounds like some of the yahoos around here!

[staehpj1]

Can't wait to see what happens when Pennsylvania's 4" passing law takes effect

Anyone else think 4' is excessive?

[gypsysue]

Maybe, maybe not, on the 4' law.  It does seem excessive, but about 10 years ago, here in Montana, a woman on a bicycle was hit in the head by one of those big wide mirrors sticking off the side of a motorhome, and she was killed.  The guy driving probably thought he was giving her plenty of room, and it was probably hard to judge the far side of his motorhome and mirror.

I live along the Northern Tier route and bicyclists all summer long insist on riding on the traffic side of the white line with vehicles flying past them at 70 mph.  It's nerve-wracking as a driver, even though I'm a cyclist.  Part of our section only has about 1' on the outside of the white line but some of it has 6' wide paved shoulders that are pretty clean.  Yet I don't see many cyclists besides myself riding out there.  People around here hate bicycles. 

I have a stupid daughter who rides a tandem with her 7-year old, pulling a trailer with her 5 and 2 year olds in it... in the middle of the lane of traffic in town.  I'd never take that chance with my kids, and I can't get through to her that she's putting them in danger out there.  People have called the police on her and written letters to the newspaper.  Doesn't matter, she continues to not only be in the lane of traffic but right out in the middle of it.  Whaddya do?

So regarding the comic, Yes I think it's rude toward bicyclists, and Yes I feel the frustration of drivers.  I wish we had bicycle lanes in the towns around here.  Though it sounds like they get misused a lot.

[Patco]

Just because a community paints a white strip on the side of a road and calls it a bike lane does not mean I will be using that lane. To often that "lane" is the part of the road that has broken and cracked asphalt, unfilled potholes, rocks, broken glass, leaves, and all sorts of stuff that has been pushed to the side of the road into the "bike lane". A car would move over into another lane when faced with a road conditioin that we face, more often than not, in the bike lane. When a communty paints us into a corner, so to speak, and does not keep the condition of the bike lane to the same level of the vehicle lane, forcing the bicyclist into the vehicle lane, then the community is placing the bicyclist at risk from drivers who are angry because we are not in the bike lane. The "cartoon" reflects that anger, and it is a misplaced anger.

[hem]

Anyone else think 4' is excessive?

In AZ we have a 3' law. But regardless of what the width is it doesn't mean anything if it is not enforced. The only practical thing I've seen is it gives the police a clear law to charge a driver with when they hit a bicyclist. And in many ways it is an easy out when it should have been a manslaughter charge.

[whittierider]

4' does not seem excessive to me, because the most dangerous place I remember being outside of a town was on a narrow, two-lane road on a mountain climb going up to a resort area and there were plenty of pick-up drivers pulling boats, and they obviously did not remember that just because the pick-up clears you doesn't mean the boat trailer's wheel or fender wouldn't kill you.  The trailers were much wider than the towing vehicles!  I never used my mirror so much in my life.  I had to use it to control the traffic behind me and not let them pass at all where it wasn't safe.  Since it was a climb and I couldn't go very fast, I'm sure they weren't happy about it, although they could see I was doing all I could to be both safe and courteous.

The bike lane near home however is simply the door zone.  Riding in it is just asking for trouble.  See the picture in the middle of http://www.labreform.org/blunders/b5.html , and the one right below it.

[jimbeard]

Yehuda
http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2011-09-24

[indyfabz]

Can't wait to see what happens when Pennsylvania's 4" passing law takes effect:

Hope you mean 4', 4" sounds like some of the yahoos around here!

Ooops!  Thanks for picking that up.

BTW...Philly has many one-way streets with parking on both sides. Many of those streets are not particularly wide. My block is one of them. I have to wonder whether a car could give a cyclist 4' when passing on street like mine.

[indyfabz]

Just because a community paints a white strip on the side of a road and calls it a bike lane does not mean I will be using that lane. To often that "lane" is the part of the road that has broken and cracked asphalt, unfilled potholes, rocks, broken glass, leaves, and all sorts of stuff that has been pushed to the side of the road into the "bike lane". A car would move over into another lane when faced with a road conditioin that we face, more often than not, in the bike lane. When a communty paints us into a corner, so to speak, and does not keep the condition of the bike lane to the same level of the vehicle lane, forcing the bicyclist into the vehicle lane, then the community is placing the bicyclist at risk from drivers who are angry because we are not in the bike lane. The "cartoon" reflects that anger, and it is a misplaced anger.

Have you ever seen this?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ

It's short. Watch to the end.

[gypsysue]

The only city riding I've ever done has been when I couldn't avoid a city on a tour, and like it shows in the video, there was obstacles in random places.  In one town in western Tennessee the bicycle lane had a seam running right down the middle where the pavement from the driving lane ended and the concrete for the gutter was at least a few inches lower than the street pavement.  The bike lane was narrow and you had to pick which level of paving you wanted to ride on.  Then at least once in every block there was a storm sewer grate that went all the way across the bike lane and a few inches past the white line into the driving lane.  It was a busy street.  I had to pick whether to stay in the bike lane and swerve around all the drain grates (and hope I didn't go off the edge onto the lower pavement and then hit the curb), or just stay along the edge of the driving lane.  The latter is what I did.

What kind of idiot would have marked that as a bike lane in the first place?