I imagine that unless you’re a Cyclist, it is quite difficult to understand what it’s like to ride a bicycle on the open road amongst traffic. It is a vulnerable feeling to be riding along a road with limited or no escape routes, surrounded by vehicles who outweigh you by several orders of magnitude. Particularly when you take into consideration that the driver likely does not hold your safety in the same esteem that you yourself do, but that they in all likelihood consider their Instagram feed to be of equal or higher priority to the task at hand, which in this case hopefully involves not hitting cyclists.
For as many sketchy encounters I’ve experienced between myself and a motor vehicle, I have found that only in rare situations do the drivers have any real malice towards us as we pedal along; normally the problem with vehicles are those of inconsideration and a lack of appreciation for the plight of the Cyclist; using the bicycle lane as a turning or passing lane, for example, is an case of ignorance, not malice. The good thing about ignorance is that it is curable through education, assuming the afflicted party is willing. The bad news is both are equally deadly to the Cyclist.
In the spirit of communication and in the hope that communication might lead to education, I humbly submit the following observations:
- Observation #1: There is no Venn diagram that shows the intersection between human, car, and bicycle as a “win” for any involved party. Best to avoid this, irrespective of who is at fault.
- Observation #2: As we are move along together in traffic, the best practice is to move predictably and consistently; I will do my best to do the same.
- Observation #3: If we’re both at an intersection, chances are that I can’t see you inside your car window to notice you kindly waving me through; treat me like any other traffic and we’ll all wait our turns. No one likes a Seattle Standoff at the stop sign.
- Observation #4: We take much longer to stop than you do, even in dry conditions. If you pass us before slowing abruptly, we are going to be in a very bad situation very quickly. Leads to observation #1 above.
- Observation #5: At a stop light, I may turn to look you directly in the eye. This is simply to make sure you see me and to reassure myself that you know I’m there. It is not to intimidate you, although I do appreciate how badass I look in my super hero outfit and my dope-ass shades.
- Observation #6: The bicycle lane is not a turning/merging lane and neglecting this fact will lead to an impromptu empirical study of the legitimacy of Observation #1.
- Observation #7: If you are following (im)patiently behind me while you wait for the right time to pass me, give me enough room so I don’t have to listen to you rhythmically hitting the gas pedal every time you think there might be an opportunity to sneak by. When you do decide, move quickly and assertively; don’t hesitate. Most of us don’t carry toilet paper.
- Observation #8: If I’m riding in the middle of the lane, it means it isn’t safe to pass me, not that you should squeeze into the gap between me and oncoming traffic.
- Observation #9: If I look back at you while I’m riding and move to the side, then that means I know you’re there and you can pass as soon as you’re comfortable. If I then also wave you through, it means I feel it’s safe to pass if you also do.
- Observation #10: Yelling at me will not discourage me from riding my bike. Also, I do, in fact, pay taxes so don’t hold the fact that I’m not also burning fossil fuels against me. In return, I’ll only yell at you if you scared me to death, but I promise to feel bad about it later.
Share the road, and let’s all return home safely to start it all over again tomorrow. Vive la Vie Velominatus.
frankThe founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking.
As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it.
Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen.
Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.
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@Rob
Wow. As a new rider who is otherwise not qualified to post I must say that I guess I did not realize how lucky I am.
In about 1,000 miles of short commutes to my office I have not even come close to experiencing what you get every day. Just wow. I don't know if I would actually have gotten into this sport had it been that hairy at the start.
@Ron
I tend to mock the upset motorists by yelling "You're not a car", "Get on the sidewalk!", "Your tail light is out!". These statements confuse their simple minds and they have to ask themselves hard questions like, "Am I a car now?" I also find the most effective tool for vengeance is a schrader core remover. It's non-destructive and down right effective... they're also lightweight and can be easily incorporated into a multi-tool if you make your own.
We can only hope that the human parasites operating these machines are soon replaced by computers with improved cyclist detection and avoidance algorithms. I am eagerly awaiting autonomous vehicles and the day that non-autonomous vehicles are banned from the roads. Then they can carry on texting and selfy-ing and we can find something else to complain about... hopefully something with less consequence associated with it.
@extra special and bitter
10-4 to that… though I can't help but think of
https://youtu.be/PjjNvjURS-s
@Hank
Hank, if you ride you post! We all started riding as adults with no experience. I remember my first night riding the bike home from Condors on Grays Inn road, London to Fulham and how nervous I was.
Miami is special, the nice thing about it is that it is so close to America. Seriously, it's not that I feel threatened here, in a funny way for all the bad driving, Miami Beach and the east side of Miami proper don't make me nervous. Today by coincidence I rode to work with out one incident, a first! - coming home tonight I did have to call one guy a dickhead and he had New York plates... The irony.
40 years ago commuting in London I do not remember any run ins with motorists. But then I was pretty much alone on the bike and it was a slower less crowded place. Also cars took care.
30 years ago in Boston my team mates and I would chase down a car about every 6 months to school the driver in etiquette.
Bottom line, I really do try to ignore the bad drivers, they are sort of like litter, there is just too much to do anything about it. As for being a good citizen put me back in London circa 1975 and I will obey every light, signal my intentions and never ride on the sidewalk (pavement for UK). But here in Miami where it is like the Wild West I feel free to act just like the cars and if I piss off a few nice drivers then at least I know they are angry and paying attention to me and not texting, watching a movie on their phone (really!) or just too infirm to be driving at all.
@Shaun
You're obviously not familiar with @Frank's research methodology...
@Rob
Thanks for that info. My take from Southern California is that there is a wide variance in the streets. Much of SoCal was constructed with a combination of the love of cars and quite a bit of spare land, so there are some pretty good sections where even without a dedicated bike lane you essentially have your own lane. There are some bad sections as well, but I can avoid those.
I also got that Varia rear facing radar as soon as it came out. Obviously you still use your actual eyeballs but I'll take every conceivable edge that makes sense since I'm the one on the bike.
Rear facing radar? Overkill, surely?
@Mikael Liddy
That's also just the weight. You need to consider the moving mass part of the equation...........
@Rob
"Miami is special, the nice thing about it is that it is so close to America. "
It's geography like that that makes the world work so well.
Like the taxi driver one year taking us from the mountains to Denver. He "Where are you guys from?". Us "UK". He (after a bit of thought) "So is that over the Altantic or the Pacific?".............
@chris
That's a helluva EPMS that kid's got there! The beret is a nifty touch - a young Paul Smith perhaps?