Bike justice

[luigi49]

cyclist get justice from a tailgater .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap9_jxEr_JA

[frugalnacho]

Good.

[captain and mrs slow]

That guy was booting it wow!!!!

[Eric]

That makes me want to get a fast bike.

[Beric01]

Good to see.

I've definitely had some drivers rage at me for no good reason. I always follow every traffic law, including all lights and stop signs (are cyclists really such wimps that they can't even start from a complete stop?). I always signal my movements. But some drivers just seem to have it out for cyclists. I don't get it - we're technically reducing traffic on the road by not driving.

[frugalnacho]

Good to see.

I've definitely had some drivers rage at me for no good reason. I always follow every traffic law, including all lights and stop signs (are cyclists really such wimps that they can't even start from a complete stop?). I always signal my movements. But some drivers just seem to have it out for cyclists. I don't get it - we're technically reducing traffic on the road by not driving.

It's not that, but it seems like a huge waste of energy to come to a complete stop when I am going slow enough to clearly see all directions of traffic.  Why waste all that momentum if there is no danger? I regularly ignore stop signs (as long as there is no traffic).  If there is other traffic I follow the law. 

[luigi49]

Good to see.

I've definitely had some drivers rage at me for no good reason. I always follow every traffic law, including all lights and stop signs (are cyclists really such wimps that they can't even start from a complete stop?). I always signal my movements. But some drivers just seem to have it out for cyclists. I don't get it - we're technically reducing traffic on the road by not driving.

It's not that, but it seems like a huge waste of energy to come to a complete stop when I am going slow enough to clearly see all directions of traffic.  Why waste all that momentum if there is no danger? I regularly ignore stop signs (as long as there is no traffic).  If there is other traffic I follow the law.

I agree.

[gimp]

I also run red lights on my car if there are no other cars. Come on, I can see everything clearly! Why should I stop? Just a waste of gas, if you ask me.

[Eric]

I also run red lights on my car if there are no other cars. Come on, I can see everything clearly! Why should I stop? Just a waste of gas, if you ask me.

??

[RyanAtTanagra]

I also run red lights on my car if there are no other cars. Come on, I can see everything clearly! Why should I stop? Just a waste of gas, if you ask me.

It's a matter of degree.

First off, I don't think anyone is going to argue that it's not a dick move for a bicyclist to blow through a stop sign when there are cars already there waiting to go.

But for those angry at bikes not stopping when there is no reason to stop (no one else at the intersection, or even if you would be the first one to the intersection with stopping)... Do you come to an absolute complete stop at all stop signs in your car?  (If you do you're a vast minority).  Why not?  Do you still expect bicyclists to?  If you don't expect them to come to complete stops, do you think they should at least roll through at the same speed as cars?  If so, why?  Is the lack of safety the same for both?  Are you comfortable with tractor trailors doing the same rolling stop as a passenger car?  Doing a rolling stop carries a risk.  Hopefully a calculated risk, but still a risk.  Is it the same risk level for all 3?

This is something I think about both when I'm rolling through stops and when I'm stopped waiting for a car to go and another cyclist blows through past me (at which point I yell after them).  I agree we need to follow the rules of the road, but to what degree?  Cars don't even follow the rules but a lot of it is just accepted as normal (or even expected) if done safely.  On a bike our danger to others is significantly less.

[gimp]

Do you come to an absolute complete stop at all stop signs in your car?

I'm a young male. Usually with out-of-state plates, though that will finally change. You bet your ass I do. And I get honked at for doing it, once in a while. I got pulled over once for going through a yellow (well, it was green when I went through, yellow when I got out of the intersection)... during 9am rush hour on a major road and about four cars went after me. (I won the ticket.)

Here's the thing. I fully agree that as a biker, you probably won't kill someone by running a stop sign. But the truth is, if I run a stop sign at 20mph in a car, chances are I won't kill anyone either - just fuck up their car. Just as a bike can run a stop sign and dodge pedestrians, I can do it too - but cars are harder to dodge. So, those are the usual consequences for running a stop sign - fucked up car. And if you run a stop sign and end up hitting me, or vice versa, same thing - you fuck up my car, except now I also probably have to deal with the added guilt of a dead person under my wheels. That, and I bet there's a lot of paperwork involved... and then there's the car washing to do. Pain in the ass.

So in the grand scheme of things, I'd much rather have a fucked up car than a fucked up car and a dead guy.

I drive a lot at night. Midnight, 3am, whatever. God, I've sat at red lights, at completely empty roads, at intersections that were 50 miles away from the closest town and had one car every thirty minutes during the day, for five minutes. Coulda just went. Didn't. Bad habit. Bad consequences.