Monday, September 09, 2013

Do bicycle riders own the road?

Sometimes the fuckers act like they do own the road, and don't have to obey the rules of that road.

Some of my favorite people ride bicycles, but I hope that they don't do what I'm going to describe.

I was southbound on a one way street, and planned to turn east (left) at the light.  I see a bike and rider come up along side me, of course I was in the left lane so I could turn left...so he "split traffic" even though one lane of the traffic was stopped (parked at meters), and he stopped right next to me.  I was first in line at the light.  The light turns green, I get a green arrow to turn left, and the bike feller wearing spandex tight enough to show the pucker of his bunghole took off too.  I guess he didn't see my turn signal, or more likely, didn't care.

The dumbass should know better than to be in the blind spot, right?  Green light, I go, I turn, he yells "HEY!".  I continue to go, although stopping quickly might have been fun if he'd crash into the side of my bus.  But I have kids to deliver, so I keep going.

My problem with this?  There's not a defined crosswalk on that side of the intersection, he had no walk sign, he was riding the bike across the intersection.  If he wants to be in traffic and be respected like a vehicle in traffic, shouldn't he obey all the laws and rules of the road?  

If in a crosswalk, bicycles are supposed to be walked across the intersection.  If in the lane of traffic, the bike should be in the lane, not off to the left of it, trying to pass/creating a 3rd lane only big enough for the bike. 

Lots of them wear shirts that say something like "give me 3' of space, please".  But then they put themselves in a situation where they don't have 3' of space, but will make it out to the motor vehicle's fault if there's a problem.

Later on, a girl with spandex tight enough to show something more interesting than that dude's cornholio stood up to pedal across the street in the crosswalk and kept looking to see if I was going to run over her.  :) nope, didn't run over anyone today.