The first thing that you need to know is that I live in a small University town and there are A LOT of cyclists and a majority of them are college students. Now at the beginning of this rant I need to clarify that I view this form of transportation as very effective, and environmentally friendly; BUT it needs to be done right or not at all.
Here in Idaho bicycles when on the road are considered cars with slight rule changes. This means that at stop lights they treat them like stop signs, stop signs they treat like yield signs, and you ride with traffic NOT against it, and not on the side walk. This also means you are not a pedestrian if you insist on being on don't expect cars to stop for you because they legally don't have to like they do pedestrians; and if you are crossing a crosswalk, walk your bike across don't ride. Just be smart about it pick up your local divers law book at the DMV and see what your state views cyclists as. And for heavens sake don't jump out in front of cars for any reason. It is your responsibility and theirs to watch our for your bike but mostly yours because you are hard to see and easily squishable. So even if you think you can make it in time before the car reaches you and they will step on the breaks even if you don't, don't assume, play it safe, be sane, and wait; that person in that car could be wrongly distracted.
Be Safe and Feel Free to Comment :P
I was just ranting about this to myself the other day. A young kid was riding down Mountainview toward the Middle School, in the bike lane next to me. We both stopped at the 4-way stop together and he turned right in front of me and rode through the crosswalk across the street.
ReplyDeleteLuckily I was watching for him to do this, as opposed to expecting him to go straight. It could've been ugly...
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