Oh man, this hits close to home! I am the rare bicyclist in suburban Orange County, CA, riding my bikes for transportation.
Recently, I’ve was riding home after dinner and a driver squeezed by me by about 10”, even though there were two more lanes of traffic going in the same direction toward the gate of our gated community. I was mad, of course.
But that was nothing: he stopped after the gate, waited for me, opened his car window and yelled “you f***ing bitch, get the f*** out off the lane! Don’t you dare slow me down!”
I yelled back that he was the one violating the law: effective this year in CA cars have to not just pass by 3+ feet but must give the entire lane when feasible--and with surgery lane going the same direction it’s clearly feasible.
These people are the minority and when I posted about this encounter in my local Facebook group I received overwhelming support--but there was one guy who applauded the driver and said I had it coming if “a Range Rover runs you over.”
It's hard for people who don't ride bikes for transportation to understand the irrational rage we get from people driving. It's not everyone of course, but when you're on a bike, you know it can happen at any time. This is one reason traffic calming is so important. It uses engineering methods to manage expectations. Gets drivers anticipating a less-than-racetrack environment.
There’s nothing that says “I’m a badass” more than sitting inside a 2 ton vehicle and running someone off the road that’s using their own body, in the weather, to get around.
This is horrifying. I shouldn’t be surprised that people on that social media platform have such such violent, anti-social tendencies but I am, every time. Bicycling is a public good, a private good, every time, all the time. Period. Bicyclists pay taxes too. Share the road.
In the State of Washington it is legal to bicycle on the sidewalk. A much safer option than bicycling in dense car and truck traffic. Laws against bicycling on the sidewalk need to be eliminated.
Nah that just compromises pedestrians. The whole road layout needs to be reconfigured to safely provide for everyone, with private motorists the lowest priority.
The problem w/ bike/skateboard/scooter prohibition laws is that there are constant reasons to be on a sidewalk (construction, lane drops, speedy areas, nobody walking, etc). Designing networks to separate by speeds is in everyone's best interest.
This depends on the context. In general, it should be legal to ride on sidewalks. In the southeast, where I live, there are no pedestrians. The only people using sidewalks are bicyclists, technically illegally.
Oh man, this hits close to home! I am the rare bicyclist in suburban Orange County, CA, riding my bikes for transportation.
Recently, I’ve was riding home after dinner and a driver squeezed by me by about 10”, even though there were two more lanes of traffic going in the same direction toward the gate of our gated community. I was mad, of course.
But that was nothing: he stopped after the gate, waited for me, opened his car window and yelled “you f***ing bitch, get the f*** out off the lane! Don’t you dare slow me down!”
I yelled back that he was the one violating the law: effective this year in CA cars have to not just pass by 3+ feet but must give the entire lane when feasible--and with surgery lane going the same direction it’s clearly feasible.
These people are the minority and when I posted about this encounter in my local Facebook group I received overwhelming support--but there was one guy who applauded the driver and said I had it coming if “a Range Rover runs you over.”
It's hard for people who don't ride bikes for transportation to understand the irrational rage we get from people driving. It's not everyone of course, but when you're on a bike, you know it can happen at any time. This is one reason traffic calming is so important. It uses engineering methods to manage expectations. Gets drivers anticipating a less-than-racetrack environment.
There is a similar sentiment towards cyclists in Aotearoa New Zealand, too.
There’s nothing that says “I’m a badass” more than sitting inside a 2 ton vehicle and running someone off the road that’s using their own body, in the weather, to get around.
This is horrifying. I shouldn’t be surprised that people on that social media platform have such such violent, anti-social tendencies but I am, every time. Bicycling is a public good, a private good, every time, all the time. Period. Bicyclists pay taxes too. Share the road.
In the State of Washington it is legal to bicycle on the sidewalk. A much safer option than bicycling in dense car and truck traffic. Laws against bicycling on the sidewalk need to be eliminated.
Nah that just compromises pedestrians. The whole road layout needs to be reconfigured to safely provide for everyone, with private motorists the lowest priority.
The problem w/ bike/skateboard/scooter prohibition laws is that there are constant reasons to be on a sidewalk (construction, lane drops, speedy areas, nobody walking, etc). Designing networks to separate by speeds is in everyone's best interest.
This depends on the context. In general, it should be legal to ride on sidewalks. In the southeast, where I live, there are no pedestrians. The only people using sidewalks are bicyclists, technically illegally.