OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Cyclist groups in Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville say their members are being targeted by drivers. Surveillance video released by East Bay Bike Party shows one car driving right next to two cyclist, then the passenger door opens trying to hit them.
Those fuckers bring in on themselves. Almost all bicycalist I encounter seem to be angry as hell. I always swing wide for them out of courtesy. A lot of the bastards will swerve right toward me. Or get in the middle of the road and, try, to no let you go by. I say try cuz that shit don't work with me.
ReplyDeleteYeah whatever.
DeleteThey have equal access to the roadway.
Change the law if your feelings are hurt.
Physics doesn’t care about your 100 pound bike. How about common courtesy and don’t be an asshole.
DeleteI agree.
DeleteWhen they’re splitting lanes at a red light, if they miss judge the gap. They’re handlebars scrape a nice groove down the side of your car. They just peddle off, leaving you with thousands of dollars in repairs.
That’s why people are trying to stop them from passing while stopped.
Those roads are paid for with taxes from the sale of motor fuels. Psycholists don't pay a dime towards that. They are not motor vehicles, they can stay with the rest of the pedestrians.
DeleteThe other cars have "equal access" too, but don't generally act like entitled A-holes and deliberately disrupt traffic flow.
DeleteBut, they drove to that beautiful country road in their Tesla with their bike on a rack in the back.
DeleteOh, wait. Teslas don't pay taxes on motor fuels.
Never mind.
Jeremy R, you actually argue that they don't pay for the road?
DeleteAre you arguing for more taxes?
Do you think a guy on a bicycle always rides a bicycle, that they don't own or drive a car or don't buy gasoline?
Or that car drivers don't ever ride a bike? Or fuel taxes are the single source for monies to build and maintain roads?
What about walking along a sidewalk? Do you mean a pedestrian is freeloading because there isn't a walking tax?
Fuel taxes pay only a share of the monies for roads. Some states have put, or try to, fuel tax into the general fund.
They also don't pay excise taxes on tires, registration fees, licensing fees, etc. I have a whole rant on this subject, but it's too early.
DeleteMaybe them naughty car drivers will try it on the Oakland Chapter of the HA's
ReplyDeleteBicyclists not motorcyclists. Try to keep up.
DeleteSorry, back in Ireland & the UK BMWs, Hondas and Ducatis are called MotorBikes.
DeleteDrivers want to hit cyclists because they are invariably assholes....they ignore traffic laws, block traffic flow and act as if they own the roads. No sympathy for any of them that get creamed by a vehicle.
ReplyDeleteMany Cities want to claim Bicycle Friendly. Cops can't ticket them so they become Road Terrorists. They are targets in Miami. I know a Mayor who owns a Bicycle shop, imagine the driving tension in that town.
Deletejwj, my first ticket ever was a speeding ticket on a bicycle. I could have won in court. He ticketed me for 45 in a school zone. But I hadn't yet entered the school zone when he pulled me over. But I was a know nothing kid and didn't tell my parents.
DeleteOh boo hoo. I've had beer bottles, bags of trash, oranges, bananas, even a full milkshake thrown at me. Some people think its sporting to try to hit a moving target from a moving vehicle.
ReplyDeleteI just make note of their vehicle so if I seem them later on.
But packs of bicyclists not riding single file on a public road - especially a two lane with no shoulder - are pushing their luck as if daring vehicles. I notice the same behavior from motorcyclists.
At least motorcyclists are keeping up with the traffic flow. Bicyclists are either going slower (most of the time) or faster (at lights and stop signs) and are inherently either disrupting traffic or illegally passing because of that.
DeleteIn CA, lane splitting is legal. My brother who rides tells me the cager is automatically at fault in the event of an accident.
DeleteIts very typical that bikes race well above the traffic flow when splitting lanes. This especially at bottlenecks. All it takes is two assholes, one in a vehicle, the other on a bike, vying for the same space at the same time.
Last year a biker about 400 lbs on a hog tried to start with me. I wasn't buying it so he intentionally scraped the side of my truck. I was in my 4x4 truck which is covered with brush marks. Still, I thought about it. A flick of my wrist and he'd be dog meat on the asphalt. But it was a bike rally and I would have been pummeled by 500 of his new best friends.
" My brother who rides tells me the cager is automatically at fault in the event of an accident." Shows the stupidity of the typical biker. Bitch, this is MY lane and I am NOT obligated to share it with you. Fuck outta here with your two wheeled compensation.
DeleteI used to drive down Kelly Blvd, by the river in Philadelphia, during rush hour to get to work. The city spent a zillion bucks to build a bike path next to the road, but would they use it? No. You'd have 20 or 30 of the lycra-clad jerks out for a leisurely pedal with 50 cars backed up behind them.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen that. The only times I have seen more than about five bicyclists riding together was during a sanctioned road race. The highway patrol controlling traffic/clearing the road.
DeleteAround here (South Florida) all the main roads have bike lanes on the side. Drivers here are such a-holes that even if a cyclist respects the rules of the road, they are risking their lives. Yesterday I noted a group of cyclists in almost a single file, and the guy in front (the leader?) was IN THE VEHICLE LANE. And as I was in the right lane and I moved left to make more room, this a-hole just kept on keepin on. Idiots like that deserve whatever happens to them.
ReplyDeleteI've also seen cyclists riding down the side of the road LOOKING AT A CELL PHONE. Not just glancing - full on stare. Brilliant. Just wait for that front wheel to hit something smaller than a pebble. Oops !
I winter in Okeechobee, don’t see much “ asshole behavior” by either bikes or cars. When we visit Port St. Lucie, I leave my bike at home, there is no way that I’m riding in that traffic. I think some of the trouble comes where bikes and cars have to interface, i.e, when the bicyclist has to make a left turn, I believe that a bike is entitled to use the left lane as if it were a car. These days, I use pedestrian crossings at walking speed, physics is not my friend. For the record even when I was a young fellow wearing lycra on a road bike, I didn't like the aggressive young studs running amok, disrespecting everyone and everything. The “I’m entitled” attitude didn’t sit well.
DeleteWe lived in a city south of Tucson. The main thoroughfare has two lanes each direction plus a turning lane in the middle. Both directions have bicycle lanes. Then always empty parking lanes, plus extra wide sidewalks, rarely used. Where do the inconsiderate, it's-all-about-me assholes ride their bikes? That's right; in the driving lanes. Dodge Motors? Thank you for your dark black smoke belching diesel trucks. I love it when drivers step on it when passing bicycles.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing a comedy about these mafia guys that would pummel lycra wearing bike riders with wiffle ball bats as they were passing them. One of the funniest things I've ever seen.
ReplyDelete[laughs in Darwin]
ReplyDeleteSteve S6
I carry when I ride....
ReplyDeletePull a gun on me and the cops will be able to find me by the tire tracks across your idiot corpse.
DeleteHere in Williamson Co Tn, the Sheriffs are cracking down on the assholes not riding single file with wreckless driving citations. If they do not have their liscense -then the bicycles are confiscated.
ReplyDeleteThey ride in a bunch on the narrowest damn roads in Arrington/Triune.
Good On the Sheriff and Deputies! Respect for Rules of the road cuts both ways.
DeleteThey all think they're fucking Lance Armstrong.....
ReplyDeleteYou mean on drugs???
DeleteCA has requires drivers to give the bikes 3 feet of clearance. With a car door swinging out about that distance, it looks to me like the car is just checking to make sure he is giving the legal distance.
ReplyDeleteYes, cyclists have a right to access the roads, but also a responsibility not to obstruct traffic. When I see some spandexed ass in front of me, at 20 mph in a 35mph zone, I become less than congenial, especially if I consider that the cyclist might be trying to make a political point. Oh, so you carry? We all do.
ReplyDeleteGod help me, but when I find myself in this situation, I get up close and lay on the horn, and keep laying on it...until the cyclist shows some consideration.
There is this thing called Bike Across Kansas every summer where a huge group of these people get on their bikes and ride. They start on the west side and bike to the east side on 2-lane roads over several days with few bike lanes, if any. If you're headed out that direction, it's worth a lookit to see when this "event" is scheduled and their route because it's a shit show of whatever bad cycling behavior you can think of, and probably some you haven't thought of yet, in whatever area they're traveling thru. You have been warned.
ReplyDeleteMy little dog & I got tangled up with a idiot bike rider last year on a WALKING TRAIL. The moron came from behind & spooked the dog & got wrapped up in the leash. I got a few scraps the dog got a broken leg & the asshole bike rider got his ass beat & his bike probably still isn't rideable.
ReplyDeleteI knew I didn't need to read the link and just came down here for the fun.
ReplyDeleteWasn't disappointed.
If'n you watch the video, right at the beginning, the car does a brake check for the stop sign(doesn't fully stop). Mr Cameraman just blows right thru the stop sign to keep up with the car, and then the rest of the shite happens. Something happened off camera, cuz the door check was on bicycles farther down the road.
ReplyDeleteI ride both kinds of 2 wheelers, but the scofflaw behaviour around here pi@@es me off.