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Ca new law favoring bicycles


Eomund

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In wa there a laws regarding bikes on the road. Bike lane or sidewalk a lot of places but the bikes are allowed to use driving lanes as well. No more than two next to each other and their expected to follow the laws same as cars do. I looked at all up beforehand when I was biking to work. And if they're riding in pedestrian lanes and using crosswalks they have to walk across the roads to have right of way at intersections.

 

I followed the laws same as if I was a car when biking. Hit two cars while I was doing it too. Had to stop for the first one due to no longer having a bike to ride and somehow not being tangled up in it but standing and facing the wrong direction. Girl was more freaked out about me hitting her than I was the dent I had just put in her Mercedes.

 

Second one stopped for a bike that was riding across the crosswalk illegally and if he had hit him I would of stayed witness to state that fact.

 

I've been a jackass rider and a safe rider both. While being a jackass I expected no leeway from cars. In a reciprocal type of person and expect what I deal out

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wasn't there another fuck California thread yesterday or so?  Can we combine these? :)

No not unless you add the other 22 states involved with this new law.I try to give the cyclist his space.Its the ones that ride the white line that arent going to get 3' of space from me.The worst ones are the Lance Armstrong wannabes that think they own the road.If i ride on the street i do not claim this right of way BS.I look out for my own safety and do not trust todays drivers to be responsible for it.

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 Every day some fucking asshole wizzes past me just 2 1/2 feet away, and you just know he didn't see, or notice, or care that his two ton POS would cream me. Most pull over to the left side of the lane and when possible some pull right over in the on coming lane. That's nice and I appreciate it but to those that neither slow no pull over and blast past me you can suck cocks in hell. With your mother.

 

 

Happens all to often!

A couple months ago,out riding with the kids.( I always take the outer of the "bike lane" just because of stuff like this)

Some pecker head in rig,was way to close, if I would have moved a inch,woulda been game over.

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Car drivers have a license and pass a test....... and they may know the laws but still drive like douche bags. What good would this do a cyclist????? Pass a test pay a fee and still be a douche.

 

License fees may support roads but only 0.0000001%. They don't 'pay' for the roads. What about pedestrians? Do they need to pay or get a license too? Bikes save gas that cars can use.

 

 

Lou try single file with them ahead of you so you can yell at them... if you know what I mean. Trucks are big though and I respect that they have to allow for drivers in the other lane too and have to 'thread the needle' between them and a cyclist on their right. Same with cars and inexperienced drivers. and idiots

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seems the majority of replies are filled with cyclist hatred. you'll find this to be true on any forum, blog, enews article comments

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pretty obvious online but also my experience for many years as a hardcore cyclist you take your life into your own hands

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starting out people just didn't see you but up until about 10 years ago you could tell rage-filled motorists wanted to flatten you

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why i only ride mtb off road now and fear having to get across city streets just to get to the trails

 

 

having said that i think the new law is just another revenue generating excuse for cops to write tickets

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I think people commuting by bike is generally a good thing.

 

The problem I have is all the weekend recreational riders that CHOOSE

roads with no shoulders that are windy and full of blind corners.

 

I think they bring the wrath on them selves.

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Portland is a Mecca for all the liberals in any form. The majority of bike riders dont follow all the rules and think they own the road. Stop signs, turn signaling, middle of the road....not to mention all the meth heads that dart in and out of traffic......fucktards...And the couriers downtown....you ride the road, you need to pay dmv fee's. I have been hit several times as a bicyclist and I personally watch out for them. I have also had a dickhead hit me in my 80' 720....I was turning left onto a one way and pulled over immediately to park. This jackass comes flying down the hill on a 10 speed and hits my front passenger fender, flies over....somehow, my fault? Fuck him! Cops should start giving out the same kind of tickets to bike riders for not obeying the laws. Word would get out, and less accidents would happen. 

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No not unless you add the other 22 states involved with this new law.I try to give the cyclist his space.Its the ones that ride the white line that arent going to get 3' of space from me.The worst ones are the Lance Armstrong wannabes that think they own the road.If i ride on the street i do not claim this right of way BS.I look out for my own safety and do not trust todays drivers to be responsible for it.

 

 

They do this on our road ,,they are all in a long line doing their thing,, which is great,.. BUT then the front one will pop out into traffic and slow down so the rest can go by all tour de France style,, . THAT is infuriating to no end. 

 

Other than that i say they should definitely be road taxed ,, even if it was a token amount,, to pay for the bike lanes like we as gas guzzlers are paying for but can't use.

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Cars, who the roads were built for, now are treated like 2nd class citizens in a their own domain.

 

Uuuuuummmmm, I think you have that backward.  Roads were not built for cars.  Before yon auto-mobile, there were was a great velocipede movement in all developed nations.  These "cyclists" as they came to be known, hated riding their wheeled contraptions through the rough and rutted dirt roads of the time.  They (groups like the League of American Wheelmen and the Good Roads Society) pushed, influenced, petitioned and in some instances outright paid to have streets smoothed out so that they could have a comfortable, pleasant ride from point A to point B.  They even went so far as to lobby for a national road system in the US, instead of having all roadways paid for by states and municipalities.  It paved the way (ugh, lame pun) for and basically morphed into the Federal Highways Administration.  This of course would later influence the creation of our current interstate highway system.

 

The fact that we have modern roads to drive on at all is owed a gigantic debt of gratitude to 19th century cycling enthusiasts and manufacturers.

 

Basically, bicyclists were lobbying for better roads for a good 20 or 30 years before those young whippersnappers, the automobilists (automobiles, of course themselves being an extension of bicycle manufacturing technology in many cases) began lobbying for the same thing.  Oh, and many of the 19th century, road improving cyclists ideals centered on building better roads for everyone to share.

 

tl;dr bikes made good roads first, not automobiles

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I have conflicting thoughts about this. On one hand I can see the slippery slope with the imbalance of responsibility and vagueness of this law. I agree however with what is motivating this. I know there is a need to protect the safety of cyclists on the road, promote bicycling as a viable alternative to driving, and promote new ways of thinking. There is no reason why we can't emulate places like Holland that have more cyclists in urban centers than cars. There has been huge political battles in San Francisco over space on the road for all the fucking cars. Many parking meters have two hour time limits, in some highly impacted areas it's $4 an hour for parking on the street, and even then it's not uncommon to drive around for 40 minutes looking for a space. razing the cost is a stupid attempt to push against an equally stupid resistance to change. Obviously our thinking about transportation needs to change in SF, but our geography and infrastructure are huge limiting factors for many people. Municipal public transportation vs private transportation carries social and practical implications of status, safety, reliability, comfort, control, flexibility and the list goes on. This is all a reflection of our culture more than anything else.

For 22 years the SF Critical Mass ride has made a political statement by gathering cyclists together on the last Friday of the month and riding through the city during rush hour. Critical Mass organizers have held fast to the idea this promotes public relations and awareness for cyclists, but during this "celebration" they do not observe the rules of the road such as stopping at lights, or staying on the right side of the street. It doesn't take an undercover detective to see the intent is to shut down traffic by creating gridlock throughout the city. And let me tell you, it's effective. On a C-mass day it could take as long as an hour and a half to get from the down town financial district to a highway onramp. In the beginning there were fights in the street, cyclists getting run over, and there was no way for the police to control this because the route is never published. For many years this created deep animosity between drivers and cyclists, and any bike rider back then can tell you, it created a very dangerous environment. 22 years later though, bikes have their own lanes on many major down town streets, and drivers have become more aware of the cyclist in the city. It's unfortunate, but this is what it takes to change culture.

People know Mcdonald's is unhealthy, cars pollute the air, and riding a bike will improve our fitness, but damn, change is DANGEROUS. Right?

In all reality though, this comes down to a matter of enforcement. As we all know there's a law in California requiring us to register our bikes, but when was the last time you were pulled over for no bike registration? If however this law is enforced and the outcome is improved safety and more cyclists, I'm all fucking for it. Today, would I let my kids 9 and 13 ride their bikes to school? Hell no, but I am getting pretty sick of driving them there because it really cuts into my Micky-D time in the morning.

Here's some questions I still have, why would they pass this in closed door session? What is motivating 22 other states to do this? Could this be a method of avoiding liability of the state's negligence in protecting cyclists thus placing all liability on the individual driver? In other words you can't hold the state responsible if there's a law requiring a 3' buffer, eg if a driver hits a cyclist they in fact broke the law.

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Uuuuuummmmm, I think you have that backward.  Roads were not built for cars.  Before yon auto-mobile, there were was a great velocipede movement in all developed nations.  These "cyclists" as they came to be known, hated riding their wheeled contraptions through the rough and rutted dirt roads of the time.  They (groups like the League of American Wheelmen and the Good Roads Society) pushed, influenced, petitioned and in some instances outright paid to have streets smoothed out so that they could have a comfortable, pleasant ride from point A to point B.  They even went so far as to lobby for a national road system in the US, instead of having all roadways paid for by states and municipalities.  It paved the way (ugh, lame pun) for and basically morphed into the Federal Highways Administration.  This of course would later influence the creation of our current interstate highway system.

 

The fact that we have modern roads to drive on at all is owed a gigantic debt of gratitude to 19th century cycling enthusiasts and manufacturers.

 

Basically, bicyclists were lobbying for better roads for a good 20 or 30 years before those young whippersnappers, the automobilists (automobiles, of course themselves being an extension of bicycle manufacturing technology in many cases) began lobbying for the same thing.  Oh, and many of the 19th century, road improving cyclists ideals centered on building better roads for everyone to share.

 

tl;dr bikes made good roads first, not automobiles

If you wanna be pedantic, do it right. Roads were originally built for foot traffic and horses. Bicycles came about later, even after such roads were built.

 

Our current road and highway system were built for cars, using the road taxes car owners pay. No matter how you put it, the roads we have now, were built for cars.

 

As far as the license arguement, I understand beefs in both directions. I don't believe in government control in these matters. At the same time, I don't, and can't agree with a law that's completely one sided, and will most certainly be abused. The body condom wearing Lance Armstrong cyclists are my main grievances. People just riding their bikes from point a to point b are usually well behaved and adhere to the rules. The ones who ride in spandex ride in the road, don't get out of the way most certainly on purpose, and get nasty towards cars because they feel they have a 'moral high ground'. Giving them free legal reign of the road is where my problems lie.

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I have a dumb old 1970s Peugeot road bike that I love to ride (and being a grown man riding a pedal bike on an open road here in redneck country is always taking your life into your own hands) but even I get annoyed with the crusader/martyr biker types who purposely ride as close to traffic as possible and then get overly offended if you pass them with less than six feet of distance between your car and their bike. "Share the road" ought to be the motto of motorized and non-motorized vehicles alike but you have asses on both sides who want to start crap.

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Ya, I have my space and the road isn't crowded at 6:45. Besides it's likely the same drivers every day and they must be used to seeing me, got no complaints. Wouldn't want more bikes on the road. They have this 'Ride To Work Week' and the blue rinse set people who have no business riding, get out once or twice a year for the free coffee at 9:30 (like who rides to work at 9:30???)  They get in my way, so glad when that nonsense is over every warm June.... I'll be out there in the dark of January. Most of the ride is a walking/bike path and a few quiet blocks in town. I like it like that.

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