Dear Cycling Community…
Written by Boston Biker on Jul 19
Dear Cycling Community,
Riding your bicycle over into the cross walk to run a red light doesn’t make it less illegal. In fact it puts you in conflict with pedestrians, makes it more likely you will be struck by turning cars, is still illegal, and also takes longer. So long in fact that I often find myself passing you as you try to merge back into traffic after the light has turned green and you are stuck in the cross walk like some kind of confused drunkard.
Please for the love of all things holy, if you simply must run a red light follow these simple tips.
1. Come to a complete stop (If stopping violated your rules of red running at least slow down enough that you can complete step 2)
2. Look both ways
3. Cross quickly IN A STRAIGHT LINE!
If you simply must break the law, because that extra 10 seconds are vital to maintaining your time, or because your 100 year old rust bucket of a bicycle will seize up if you stop grinding, or because you have a power meter, or because you are simply ignorant of the laws of this fine state, then please do us all a favor and do so in a straight line, as safely as you can, and do it as fast as possible.
I am really getting tired of having to ride way out over to one side to allow you to merge back into to traffic, I am sick of watching you almost hit pedestrians, and I can no longer take the shock to my heart as I watch you nearly get plastered by turning cars. If you are pissing me off this badly I can only imagine what the motorists and pedestrians are thinking.
To put it bluntly, if you are going to break the law, do it with some class.
Yours In Cycling
Boston Biker
PS. A much finer solution would be to stop at the red light with me, we could have a chat, it would be fun.
PPS. If you are going to go into the cross walk get off your bike and run across, it might be good practice for Cross season.
PPPS. Running red lights doesn’t make you faster, being faster does.
Tags: cross walk, rant, red lights, stupid
Posted in advocacy, bostonbiker | 29 Comments »
By Katie
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
Yes!! Another cyclist pissed me off this morning when he
1) crossed via crosswalk instead of riding with traffic
2) cut through traffic cones marking a construction area that closed half the street
3) cut in front of me as I traveled through with a green light.
It pissed me off, because not only did I have to watch for oncoming traffic in the one-lane, two-way construction zone, and the usual pedestrians, but I also had to watch out for *him* because it wasn’t clear where he was trying to go.
By Erik
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
Co-sign.
(also, re: no. 3) I’d like to see fewer curb-huggers also. These are those cyclists that ride as far right as possible, weaving into gaps between parked cars, out of the bike lane at intersections, etc. I think they do it as a courtesy to give passing cyclists and cars more room, but it’s too unpredictable to be helpful, IMO. Just ride in a straight line and let me figure out if there’s enough room to pass you on the left.
By Peter Smith
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
Dear Boston Biker,
Please mind your own business, and save your venom for dangerous drivers.
Best.
Peter Smith
By Erik
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
@Peter Smith: He would mind his own business, except it would mean crashing into these people: “I am really getting tired of having to ride way out over to one side to allow you to merge back into to traffic.” Shouldn’t the venom be for anyone endangering people, not just dangerous driver?
By CYCLER
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
I’ve got to say, of any 5 bad interactions I have with another road user 2 of the five are with another biker being stupid, so it’s not all about dangerous drivers. I’ve had a lot fewer issues with cars since I’ve adopted the “pass me once” no filter policy in downtown combined with more commanding lane position.
By CYCLER
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
Oh, and I love that photo- that’s exactly how one feels dealing with a dipshit on a Monday morning.
By Longwood pedestrian
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
In the past year that I have walked to work, I have been hit by bikers going through the red light at the intersection of Longwood and Brookline 6 times, and almost hit more times than I can count. It’s a busy intersection–one where pedestrians cannot cross except when all four ways are stopped. I wish more bike riders in Boston would stop at red lights. I hate feeling like I can’t cross even when it’s my turn to.
By William Furr
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
It occurred to me this past weekend that there is a “knowledge vacuum” in American culture about how to ride a bicycle.
There’s lots of cultural knowledge about how to drive a car; it’s embedded in our cultural consciousness and even non-drivers know many things about how cars are driven. It’s to the point where some traffic laws now have cultural taboo status.
There’s very little common cultural knowledge about how to ride a bicycle. Hence the degree of curb hugging, various types of red-light running, wrong-way riding, cowboy mounts in traffic, etc. one can witness on any given day.
This is not to say that drivers, as a rule, are good at driving cars, because they’re clearly not, also by observation. However, proportionally more drivers know what to do in a given situation and do the sensible thing than bicyclists.
The difference in cultural knowledge means the gap between a knowledgeable driver and a thoughtless driver is smaller than the equivalent gap in cyclists. Hence the wide variety in cycling behavior in various situations.
It’s also interesting to think that even with passed-on cultural knowledge about driving, along with street design and law enforcement, our society still requires a test before allowing a driver out on the roads and classes (Driver’s Ed?) are strongly encouraged. Appropriately so, as cars are very, very dangerous when operated wrongly.
Still, there is no such equivalent for cycling. There are cycling safety classes; Massbike’s intro lecture class is great, and presumably the on-road classes are equally good. However, knowledge about those classes is sporadic at best and they’re sparsely attended.
People seem to think that riding a bike is as easy as hopping on and keeping your balance. In some sense, it is. But riding a bike on the streets safely and legally is another matter. The awareness that it’s even different, much less how to learn the requisite skills, seems to be missing.
I’m thinking of making a large, visible, brightly-colored, legible-at-a-distance sign to carry on my bicycle advertising the Massbike safety class. I could carry business cards to give to other bikers I see on the streets.
What else can we do to remedy this missing “cultural knowledge”?
By Roland
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
CYCLER, what is a “pass me once” no filter policy?
By CYCLER
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
On streets with parking on the right, I ride in a “commanding” lane position, about 4′ into the lane, essentially where the passenger seat is on a car. This means that people have to cross the line to pass me, – they can’t just squeeze through in the same lane. If a driver takes the time to wait and pass me carefully, I think it’s really rude, if at the next light when said driver is stopped, to suddenly decide to risk dooring and “filter” up through the little space next to stopped cars just so I can be first in line when the light changes, and then the drivers have to pass me all over again. In practice this means that people only have to pass me once, and I think it’s a fair trade for them having to pass me carefully not to make them do it again and again as can happen in city traffic.
I’ve also become a happier rider since I almost completely stopped filtering between stopped cars and parked cars It just always felt like asking to be doored, and rolling the dice that traffic would not suddenly start moving. In my experience it’s a bad thing to be in the blindspot on the right of a suddenly moving car. If there’s a stupid car-created traffic jam, sometimes I’ll filter, but I’m just as likely to become a pedestrian, detour around the blockage, and carry on.
@ William Furr- thoughtfully said. I think some kind of more culturally engrained cycling knowledge is part of the next step. I know that bicycle licensing is a hot button issue because it gets promoted a lot by people with an anti-bike agenda, but I for one would be happy to take a class and a test and pay my $20. I think the safe routes to school and associated bike safety classes for kids might be the first wave of education that we need for a more bicycle conscious future.
By Roland
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
Thanks CYCLER for explaining that. I don’t commute through Boston anymore, instead I go west of the city and I don’t really see much conflict. Just to compare notes, I’ve been avoiding filtering forward too, given the traffic I deal with it doesn’t buy me much anyway. Instead I’ve been merging into the lane of traffic when people slow down for a light, and hold my place while traffic is stopped, and merge back to the right when traffic gets going again (unless I’m taking a left turn.) I think its a good strategy and I don’t think anyone has been confused by it but I suppose its not the hyper consistency that some people think is necessary. I’m not cutting anyone off in the merge and I generally let all the nearby cars get in front of me anyway, so I’m not slowing anyone down.
By Dr. Kate
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
The stupid is burning – on all modes these days! As if the sheepedestrians ain’t bad enough with their jaywalking arses … I am sick of the noob jerks who try to squeeze between me and the parked cars because they are special cyclists you know – one gear, no helmet special! Gee jerk – ever hear of DOORING? That’s why I don’t get over and out of your “but mommy said I’m special” way – people have been killed that way, even if it was when you were in diapers. I also hate what my dad describes as “if your toe touches asphalt you lose” people, who cycle slower than a pack but still insist on passing everybody, running the light, and getting their arses beat to the next one.
By Dr. Kate
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
BTW, since most cyclists have a license to drive, I think people would have a much better idea how to behave – be they on bikes or in cars – most of our favorite problems might not occur with such frequency if we had a state that not only forced people to pass a comprehensive test of road rules knowledge to stay licensed AND that test included a section on cyclists.
By 100psi
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
i think making a large, visible, brightly-colored, legible-at-a-distance sign to carry on your bicycle advertising the Massbike safety class is a brilliant idea.
would you carry it one handed while riding? scotch tape it to your handlebars? wear it as a sandwich board?
either way, carry or wearing an large unwieldy object while on a bike navigating through city traffic is a great way to set an example of bicycle safety.
By John W.
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
@ William Furr. If you haven’t read Tom Vanderbilt’s TRAFFIC: Why We Drive the Way We Do, you should. You’ll discover that much of the cultural driving knowledge that gets passed on is BAD knowledge. In fact, one of the weirdest things about driving is how easily bad habits are reinforced because drivers (especially young ones) don’t truly learn from their mistakes. They learn how to avoid collisions, but not how to prevent the near-collision in the first place.
That’s what’s so dangerous about driving, and what I and other people have been writing about here and to the MBTA. The “near misses” far, far outnumber collisions. I’m pretty sure that everyone here has had a “near miss” with an MBTA bus. The have no record of these events, and have so far shown no interest in recording/studying them.
As for cyclists, I agree with others who believe the Safe Routes to Schools program will help build a safe-cycling culture, but the program’s expansion and benefits are certainly a ways off.
On another note, what do people think about the role that narcissism plays in all this? Some researchers have been studying its role in driving, and I wonder if, as more people begin to use bikes as transportation, the same problems of auto culture will be evident in bicycle culture (red light running as an example).
By i love espresso
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
i will try the pass me once no filter plan. though someone passed me frighteningly close on west mass ave the other day with many screams and threats along the lines of i’m ‘lucky he didn’t hit me’ because i was taking the lane.
By mtalinm
on Jul 19, 2010 | Reply
+1 on the pass-me-once-no-filter plan
I also wouldn’t mind licensing.
By J
on Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
Im with cycler, filtering to the front, most of the time, is a bad idea. The only exception is when the road is wide enough that a bike lane has been painted all the way to the stop line, or when traffic has been so slowed down (due to an accident for example) that I could ride at 5mph and pass the cars only once. Actually, there may be one other reasonable exception, that is, when making a right turn.
By DotDeb
on Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
If I have stopped at a red light, I always go if I get the pedestrian walk light (after looking carefully for light runners and turning cars). Any pass for that or are there no exceptions for red light running.
By Finnigan
on Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
DotDeb – you do risk hitting the pedestrian that you didn’t see, especially if it’s an all-ways walk light.
You also risk annoying others, some bikers and most drivers, who do wait for red lights.
By CYCLER
on Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
I’m glad to hear so much (ok 3 people) support for the “pass me once no filter” plan, because even among otherwise very conscientious city riders, I feel like a bit of a freak for doing it. I started doing it in earnest last winter – the first year that I commuted through the worst of January and February. When there’s a snow bank-ice patch on the right you pretty much can’t ride to the right unless you’re suicidal or have studded tires.
It got to be habit, and I kept doing it even when the weather improved, and I gradually realized that I was just a lot less stressed doing it that way. All I can say, is try it, you might like it!
By Herzog
on Jul 20, 2010 | Reply
I’m currently trying it too!
By zembruski
on Jul 21, 2010 | Reply
Eff that. I am going to do what I want on the road until there aren’t any more cars to get in my way.
I am not trying to earn respect from drivers, nor am I going to concede my right to bike to the municipality or state.
It’s honestly reached the point where compromise isn’t a viable option. Of course I avoid injuring other cyclists in the process, but I honestly think vehicular, occasionally aggressive cycling is the way to go about it until cars are off the streets.
By Jay
on Jul 22, 2010 | Reply
I’m curious as to how much grief you get from cars using the pass me once method?
By Jack
on Jul 22, 2010 | Reply
I’ve absolutely had it as well and it pains me to say but, where the hell are the cops? Saw numerous near accidents as cyclists blindly ran through red lights and played chicken with numerous other cyclists who were riding the wrong way in clearly arrowed bike lanes.
By Herzog
on Jul 23, 2010 | Reply
You get surprisingly little grief. I’ve made the pass-me-one method my lazy default mode of cycling and I’ve noticed it works quite well. The cars which already passed me obviously don’t get mad and the cars behind me have the duration of the red light to notice me and figure out how to get around me — they don’t get startled.
By Paul Schimek
on Jul 24, 2010 | Reply
Filtering through can be a reasonable thing to do when the alternative would be to wait through another light cycle (or two), as happens at the most congested Boston intersections. Or when you are turning right, or when the road is amply wide enough (bike lane or no).
Still it must be done slowly, and only when traffic is stopped, and with an eye toward opening doors on both sides and pedestrians walking between stopped traffic.
We definitely need to promote bicycling education more — I taught 3-8 classes every season in Boston from 1996 to 2004.
But we also need police enforcement. Give tickets to everyone who violates the law, including bicyclists. Wrong-way bicyclists, those not using lights at night, those refusing to yield when the law says you must — this means you.
By William Furr
on Jul 24, 2010 | Reply
@100psi: I have a nice cargo rack that could easily carry a sign on the side without a pannier. Side visibility isn’t the best, but it’s better than nothing. Just have to watch out for crosswinds.
Thanks for your support.
By William Furr
on Jul 24, 2010 | Reply
@John: On my reading list. Good point.
@Dotdeb: The walk signal is for pedestrians, not bikes. Please wait for the vehicle light.
@Cycler: “Pass-me-one no filter” does seem like the safest policy. I do it occasionally at some lights, but not on a regular basis. I probably ought to consider it more. The only places I really feel like I “need” to filter are when I would have to wait several light cycles to get through.
@zembruski: I’m really sorry to read that. No one here is trying to take away your “right to bike”. We just want you to obey the traffic laws for your own safety and more importantly for the safety of those around you. Secondarily, inculcating a culture of law-abiding riding among cyclists in Boston helps us when we get into conflict with cars, either through the local or state government, the police, civic organizations, even individual drivers. There’s nothing wrong with confident vehicular cycling, so long as you’re obeying the traffic laws while you do it.