bike ride blows stop signs

Here's five and a half minutes of a 13 mile local bike ride. The riders don't feel that it's necessary to abide by regulations and consistently blow through stop signs. 12 clips and few riders come to a complete stop or even a crawl at most of the signs.

Clip six has a motor vehicle to the stop sign on the left, out of camera view. That's the only reason that the group began to stop. The driver probably believes that all cyclists run stop signs, since that's what drivers notice most. Even though the driver had the right of way, after my stop, he waved me on. I've had drivers without stop signs come to a stop because they don't think I'm going to. That's just wrong.

The driver then performs a proper and safe pass by moving into the other lane until clear of the group.

Clip seven also demonstrates a dangerous aspect of unskilled group riders. You can hear, over the rumble of road noise, more than one rider shouting "clear" to indicate that other riders should endanger themselves by rolling the stop.

None of the riders in camera view are familiar with Vehicular Cycling, evidenced by the edge-riding, wrong-side-of-the-road-riding. In clip 7, you can hear "car back" shouted about four times. Such calls are meaningless if the cyclist is on a wide curb lane and more so on narrow roadways. If a vehicle is behind the line of bikes, it is required to pass safely by changing lanes, not by expecting the line of bicyclists to ride the stripe and to risk being struck by a close-passing vehicle.

In clip 8, you hear again the "clear" endangering signal, along with one more meaningless "car back."

Things get really ridiculous in clip 9, where another group joins up and the lead riders in that group roll a stop sign in front of crossing traffic, but "compensate" for it by continuing on the wrong side of the road. More "clear" calls might be heard over the noise.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• vehicular
• cycling
• bicycles
• running
• stop
• signs
• dangerous
• club
• riding

[valleus]

Bikes in San Francisco dont stop at stop signs they come at you like " youd better get out if my way" Why bicyclist feel so entitled and self rightgeous I dont know. Ive been riding my bike here for quite a long time.I stop at stop signs and slow down for others.

[freddotu]

@valleus, I nearly center-punched a person on a bike (those don't get called cyclists by me) two days ago, as he ran a red light at a major intersection. It would have been posted here, but the sun was flaring the camera and made the video useless. Some of this problem is education, especially in the USA, as bikes are treated as toys and not serious transportation. I don't think it's going to improve in my lifetime.

[Mattyvla]

what is it

[freddotu]

@Mattyvla, the vehicle carrying the camera is called a velomobile, a human powered enclosed all-weather vehicle.

[racoonpooon]

what the hell are you riding? a kayak?

[freddotu]

@racoonpooon, it's called a velomobile.

[jersey282]

You did rolling stops at those stop signs...isn't that against the law? Your supposed to come to a full stop right? O well...I guess we are all breaking the law.

Personally I like the sound of the laws in Idaho...

[Superdave1051]

Inconsistent laws creat this too. In Idaho a red light can be treated as a stop sign (all rules apply) and a stop sign can be treated as a yield sign. You can ride on the sidewalk and on the street legally

[freddotu]

@ibcoleman, I don't need friends like that, endangering other road users. Those type of people are called scofflaws.

[ibcoleman]

You must make friends easily.

[freddotu]

@NotSoOldHippy, laptopboone, it's a velomobile, often confused with a recumbent trike with a fairing. Some recumbents do use fairings, but for aerodynamic reasons, not anything to do with being low to the ground. There are many different velomobile designs. This is a WAW and there are Quest, Mango, Versatile, AAW, FAW, Go-One, and others. An internet search for any of those names or velomobile will produce many returns.

[NotSoOldHippy]

@laptopboone It looks like he's on a repose bicycle, almost. There's a cowling on some reposed bikes because one's much closer to the ground and things get kicked up.