Cyclists with a death wish season

[mattm04]

Recently we had a warm spell in the high 50's-60. This naturally gets the cyclists out. IN my area, most of the cyclists/peds are respectful and follow the rules, however their are just enough idiots who make me cringe when ever i see one.

Example 1: A 4 way intersection with a light, each road has a left turn lane and and a right/straight lane. I am going north, al north bound lanes have a red (both left turn and right/straight) east/west traffic has green for straight/right. I see mr. idiot cyclist cruising by me at a good clip and just fly into the intersection. I hear tire screech, and look. A car mus have just missed Mr. IC by inches. This actually got the cyclist to stop and yell at the (most likely according to him) idiot motorist. And pedal off.

Example 2: Driving down a 2 lane road, going up a slight hill I encounter three cyclists riding one of these http://www.meta-bikes.com/images/MarcII455.jpg. Fine, but they were three across. They refused to even consider going single file, but kept going. Due to heavy oncoming traffic, I could not pass for 3/4 of a mile. By the time myself and a line of 20-30 cars passed a chorus of horns was heard.

[bhskittykatt]

My friend almost killed a group of cyclists who decided to blow through a red light. They apparently didn't see the cop who was behind my friend's car, who proceeded to turn to go after them.

[underemployeed]

In the town where my college was at, I anticipated stupid people on bikes, almost none of stopped at stop signs which really isn't a big deal if no cars are around. I Ford Ranger that has "4x4 off road" written on the side which means it lifted. I almost ran OVER a few bikes who, like mentioned by the OP will come flying into an intersection, usually without looking, the best ones where at NIGHT TIME and they had no lights on the bike or reflective clothing. On a standard car the biker is more likely to go flying over car. With truck it a lot easier to fit underneath (believe me, I could pretty much change my oil without needing to jack it up.)

I also love that if you honk at them you get the finger, which I always thought was dumb considering the amount of people who have road rage and being on bike is significant disadvantage if someone wants to chase you down and kick your face in.

but I do love that to a certain point the cops gave the guy driving the car the benefit of the doubt (as long as they weren't drinking) when someone would get hit because well college kids are dumb and randomly decide to dart into traffic.

[Magpie]

You mean that you get a break from them? Yes, we get fewer of them when it's snowy, but just when you think it's safe someone will be slipping in the slush on the sidewalk, ignoring the clear bike lane beside him (we're in a city, so sidewalks are dangerous as well as illegal).

[BlaqueKatt]

My friend almost killed a group of cyclists who decided to blow through a red light. They apparently didn't see the cop who was behind my friend's car, who proceeded to turn to go after them.

Yay A cop that doesn't look the other way for bicycle riding idiots that don't know/understand/follow the rules of the road! Dammit if you want to share the road share the responsibility and the rules.

Oddly enough there is a cyclist backed group that trains traffic cops on bicycle laws(most don't know them-I have a wallet card with my state bicycle laws on it from this group)-and oddly enough after training and crackdown on BRI's-the number of cyclists increases yet the number of accidents decreases.

[mattm04]

You mean that you get a break from them? Yes, we get fewer of them when it's snowy, but just when you think it's safe someone will be slipping in the slush on the sidewalk, ignoring the clear bike lane beside him (we're in a city, so sidewalks are dangerous as well as illegal).

MY town is a semi-rural middle/upper middle class area, by ordinance most res areas have to have at least 1 acre to build on. So most of the cyclists are recreational. From my house it is about 1.5 miles each way to the nearest convince store three-4 to a supermarket, 6 to a mall. It usually take a few weeks of good weather and cyclist out before the cops begin to deal with them. They do give tickets once they get going.