Road Rules
Posted By April Powell in Square Pegs on July 31, 2007
I've been a big fan of bicycle transportation ever since I shed my first training wheels at age 5. I grew up in a small town, where I rode my bike almost everywhere I needed to go. But then I moved to Dallas. A city like Dallas is a lot harder to ride a bike around than my small hometown. So I'm sensitive to the local cyclists that ask motor vehicle drivers to "Share the Road, Y'all."
However, that said, I am not sensitive to local cyclists who want all of the rights of the road without accepting any of the responsibilities. I live just a couple of miles from White Rock Lake, and often drive my car on the roads around the lake. I try to give the numerous cyclists who also ride these roads as much room and respect as I would want to have if I were on two wheels.
But I get really hacked off when I see cyclists asserting their rights to use the public streets and refusing to obey any of the street signs. The times that I have seen a cyclist stop for a stop sign are so small that I could count them on one hand. So I was glad to see this sight at the intersection of West Lawther Drive and Lakewood Boulevard this weekend:
Just a little reminder that bicycles are vehicles, too:
I don't have that much hope that anyone will pay attention (the last time I stopped at that stop sign, the cyclist behind me blew right on past without even pausing), but the fact that the sign went up at all lets me know that I'm not the only one who's noticed that y'all cyclists need to heed your own exhortation to share the road.
Mike Orren, says:
April's consternation with the bicyclists who disregard traffic laws is probably compounded by my propensity to roll down the window and yell "On your left" as our station wagon passes throngs of them on the way home from Central Market.
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2 years, 4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
J_Mortimer, says:
Many cyclists are killed or injured by motorists who are not even aware of traffic laws regarding bicycles. I wish people spent the same amount of effort they do whining about minor inconveniences that are supposed to have been caused by cyclists on assisting people not to be, ya know, killed.
J
Anonymous
2 years, 4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
April Powell, says:
J_Mortimer: Are there a lot of special traffic laws in Texas regarding bicycles? My impression was that bicycles are basically covered by the same basic traffic laws that apply to motor vehicles. Can you link to a source for the traffic laws regarding bicycles? I love legal stuff!
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2 years, 4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
April Powell, says:
Actually, I found a source for Texas bicycle laws: http://bicycleaustin.info/laws/tx-bik...
I would argue that cyclists who break these (and other) traffic laws are just increasing their chances of getting hit by a motorist. Anyone who runs through a stop sign without stopping is risking a collision, whether in a car or on a bike.
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2 years, 4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
J_Mortimer, says:
April,
I'm not sure how your comments relate to mine.
The web page you provided contains a "Cyclist Rights" wallet card thing which seems to back up my point. Why would they feel a need to produce a cyclists right wallet card and the other kinds of legal information on their website? Partly because of the concerns I raised in my earlier comment.
http://bicycleaustin.info/laws/Cyclis...
J
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2 years, 4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Teresa Gubbins, says:
well april's post is very timely given the bicycle <a href="http://cbs11tv.com/local/local_story_213205745.html">dust-up </a> on Katy Trail wherein a cyclist (shouting "on your left") came at a couple with a box-cutter. in this <a href="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=12187868&blogID=294355959">myspace entry</a>, the woman's husband implies that guy was retaliating after the couple gave him "a taste of his own medicine"...
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2 years, 4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
April Powell, says:
J --
Your comment "Many cyclists are killed or injured by motorists who are not even aware of traffic laws regarding bicycles" made me wonder if you were postulating some cause-effect relationship between motorists injuring or killing cyclists and the motorists' lack of awareness about traffic laws regarding bicycles. Hence my inquiry about whether there were additional laws motorists should be made aware of.
Regardless, I don't think that any motorist should be harassing cyclists, whether they break the law or not. I go out of my way to give them a wide berth. I just get frustrated when bike-riders show less concern for their own well-being than I'm showing for it.
Although it's only current to 2005, there's a lot of interesting statistical information on cycling traffic fatalities <a href="http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSF2005/810617.pdf">here</a>. (My favorite statistic is that 27% of the cyclists killed by traffic collisions in 2005 had a blood alcohol concentration of .01 g/dL or higher and 23% had a BAC of .08 g/dL or higher -- who knew that drunk biking was such a phenomenon?) I don't know that the existence of a cyclists' rights card proves some motorist conspiracy to bump them all off. Significantly more pedestrians are killed every year. Perhaps someone should be banding them together in a campaign for their rights . . .
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twisteddog, says:
Unfortunately, Dallas' Critical Mass site expired last month.
I think the sign in the pic is aimed at both bikers and motorists, to keep them from killing each other.
It's just flat-out stupid for people on bikes to ignore traffic signs, considering they're on a less-than 10-pound vehicle and stand a good chance of getting slaughtered by a Hummer.
I also think drivers often over-react when they see a bike blow by a stop sign. There's a psychological element that makes them more startled, frustrated and prone to take revenge than if they saw another car do the same thing. Road rage is a scary thing to deal with if you're in a car, and even worse if you're on a bike.
Yelling "On the left!" from a passing car shows little understanding of what it's like to be on a bike in the middle of a busy street -- especially in a non-bike friendly town like Dallas where bike riders are always on the lookout for people who aren't joking, and do want you off the road. It's pretty easy to be startled and lose control, possibly falling into traffic. Please quit doing that.
As an aside: In cities that are more cyclist-friendly than Dallas (cities that have actual bike lanes and routes that aren't on major arteries) there are changes being made, including allowing bikers to only slow at stop signs and developing bike-specific routes with fewer stops.
The changes are being implemented because these cities recognize (after much lobbying) that 1.) cyclists are made to ride on roads designed specifically for cars and 2.) it is much safer to have traffic laws and routes that let bikers conserve the energy it takes to stop, start and get back up to speed.
There are other reasons, too, but the best one is that it makes bicycle commuting more attractive and reduces the number of cars on the road.
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2 years, 4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Teresa Gubbins, says:
isn't shouting "on your left" meant as a courtesy? i'm confused
it is weird how, when you're on a bike around car traffic, you're conscious of a totally different set of things. when i used to commute on my bike in downtown dallas, i'd get into the office and people would say, "i honked and waved at you!" where, i could hardly SEE anyone inside a car, since i was too busy keeping an eye on cars' BUMPERS. and cars honking only ever scared the heck out of me
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J_Mortimer, says:
April,
Again, I am confused by the relevance of the comments. Pedestrians aren't typically on the road so I cant see a comparison.
When was the last time you made a blog post on Pegasus because you saw a motorist run a stop sign, or red light, or engaged in excessive speed? My guess is you see that far more often; perhaps even daily. I would argue those activities are far more dangerous to more people and kill more people.
It seems odd to me to complain about that proportion of cyclists that engage in illegal risky behavior while at the same time not complaining about that proportion of motorists engaging in such behavior in light of the following facts. Motorists do it more often and the consequences are potentially more deadly to others.
J
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2 years, 4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
April Powell, says:
J --
Where do you think the majority of pedestrians who are killed by motorists are located, if not on (or near) the road? In their bedrooms?
My blog post about cyclists not obeying traffic laws was made specifically regarding the streets around White Rock Lake (which I frequently use as a motorist, cyclist AND pedestrian). Limiting my comments to that geographical area, I see just as many cyclists disobeying traffic laws as motorists, if not more.
If the City of Dallas had recently placed signage at the intersection of Lakewood and Lawther to explain and elaborate traffic laws regarding motorists (see photos above), I might have posted about that. But the City put up signage regarding bicycles. Sorry you find it odd.
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2 years, 4 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
April Powell, says:
twisted dog --
I'm sure you're correct that the sign is for the benefit of both motorists and cyclists. I, for one, wish that they could just co-exist in peace. I do disagree with you on a couple of points, though.
Personally, I feel much less threatened by a bicycle running a stop sign than a car. Even if I'm in a car, the other car is a lot more likely to kill me. I've come to expect the bikes to disobey the traffic laws, so I am not "more startled, frustrated and prone to take revenge than if [I] saw another car do the same thing."
Mike's comment about "on your left" was more hyperbole than fact. He was trying to be funny. The joke arose between us (that he SHOULD have done it to a pack of 20 or so cyclists that we just passed) because so many cyclists bark the phrase at us while we're walking our dogs on the path around WRL. The only thing more startling than a bike coming out of nowhere, blowing past an inch away from you at 20 mph, is that same bike blowing past while its driver yells "on your left" at you. I understand that the phrase is meant to be a courtesy, but it's just as disconcerting to pedestrians as I imagine it would be to a cyclist, coming from a motorist. Maybe it's because the person doing the yelling is manning a bigger vehicle? It doesn't seem nearly as aggressive a warning to me when used on the ski slope, for instance.
But mentioning cyclists on the path around the lake (as opposed to the public streets) raises another point: Cyclists at WRL could avoid both cars and the inconvenience of traffic laws by using the path. Most of the cyclists I see appear to be cycling recreationally, not commuting. Someone who's not actually commuting from point A to point B can choose his course.
Do the cyclists who use the street avoid the path because they don't want to put up with slower-moving traffic (like pedestrians), much the same way some drivers don't want to put up with slower-moving traffic (like cyclists)? I've always wondered about that.
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Mike Orren, says:
<img src="http://media.pegasusnews.com/img/photos/2007/08/03/loveis.jpg">
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Mike Bullock, says:
I love it when the peloton of 25+ reaches the St Francis, and Ferguson intersection heading to WRL. There is no way around them until you reach Alex Sanger Elementary. When you think that you can go around them by taking side streets. You end up right where you started, in the back as if you were the team support car.
The two-abreast rule does not apply here. That also goes for not impeding the flow of traffic. I may try yelling on the left? but I don't want to send someone into a ditch. (j/k)
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Rawlins Gilliland, says:
An email from someone calling themselves 'Landy' appeared in my 'In' box, quoting:
"The least of my concerns is a car running a red light or a cyclist doing same, but rather... being mowed down by an Ipod earplugged goon texting his insignificant other while racing out of no where at the speed of a lanced boil Armstrong (wearing CK cologne, but that's another post) when I'm walking with my adoptive family on a shared pedestrian path. You think I was born with airbags? Those blind-to-my-kind cyclists are barking up the wrong me! Their development should be arrested!"
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Mike Bullock, says:
I witnessed DPD writing out a ticket this morning, at the above pictured intersection. This time it was for a cyclist who failed to stop at the stop sign. Not to mention that as they were writing the ticket another cyclist did the same thing. I don't know if they got that person? But DPD could sit there all day.
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1 year, 5 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Joseph_Beuys, says:
"CYCLISTS FARE BEST WHEN THEY ACT AND ARE TREATED AS THE DRIVERS OF OTHER VEHICLES." -- John Forester, PE
...any other belief is simply an expression that bicycles are toy vehicles.
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Joseph_Beuys, says:
"Do the cyclists who use the street avoid the path because they don't want to put up with slower-moving traffic (like pedestrians), much the same way some drivers don't want to put up with slower-moving traffic (like cyclists)?" -- April Powell
April, you just hit the nail on the head (well, you did it last year, but what the heck).
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Pavel Lishin, says:
For the record, I appreciate the courtesy, but don't yell anything at me. If I hear yelling and don't know what it means, I generally think "ok, incoming death."
Also, I bike on sidewalks. I will never stop. If I'm on the road, I'm putting my life in the hands of every jerk who could pass a driving exam. If I'm on the sidewalk, so long as I make sure I don't ram granny, I'm reasonably safe - or at least, I'm responsible for my own safety, and not someone else.
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