2nd February 2015, 12:38 PM
This has started to become a problem in my area. Now, I want to be clear. I grew up with a father who rode bikes all the time, such as racing. Outdoorsy fellow in general. Anyway, I'm all for the trend of more adults biking from place to place (even if that's not a realistic possibility for me at the moment). However, the trend around here has been to flagrantly ignore stop signs and just blaze on through. I've had a few situations where I had the right of way, where the crossing street ahead of me had stop signs but not the one I'm on, and someone suddenly cuts across. Stopping in time has been a very close call, and in at least one case the biker looked at me, like I'M the mistaken one. After calming my nerves I went on, but is this really safe? It seems like an invitation for disaster. I try to keep looking, but on at least one of these sorts of roads the surrounding area is full of wooden fences too tall to see over. Any bikes that came blazing there would be impossible to see. I've been forced to slow down significantly around ANY intersection, right of way or not, much to the annoyance of those behind me, because I don't want to take the risk.
The only defense I've heard is about "momentum", that is, they want to keep their forward momentum to "make it across safely". That sounds like nonsense to me. I rode my bike all the time as a kid, and I always stopped. I never had an issue making it across the street from a full-stop, and I was a KID. Here's the issue. If you pull to a stop, then have to work your way back up to speed, drivers will SEE you (assuming you properly looked to make sure the coast was clear before starting across), and they will slow down if you're going slow.
I mean, this is basic physics here. No matter what you think your "rights" are, if no one sees you and they're driving a 2 ton piece of metal at say 35 MPH, they CAN'T stop in time! Agh!
The only defense I've heard is about "momentum", that is, they want to keep their forward momentum to "make it across safely". That sounds like nonsense to me. I rode my bike all the time as a kid, and I always stopped. I never had an issue making it across the street from a full-stop, and I was a KID. Here's the issue. If you pull to a stop, then have to work your way back up to speed, drivers will SEE you (assuming you properly looked to make sure the coast was clear before starting across), and they will slow down if you're going slow.
I mean, this is basic physics here. No matter what you think your "rights" are, if no one sees you and they're driving a 2 ton piece of metal at say 35 MPH, they CAN'T stop in time! Agh!
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)