On Rule #59: Hold Your Line
Anecdotal research suggests that people are being let off-leash without adequate training to perform basic activities such as walking on sidewalks or through airports and busy city centers. I’m assuming this expands to shopping malls, but I never go there so I can’t be sure. It’s easy to blame the mobile phones which apparently grow from our hands, but even when no phone appears to be involved, the same problem exists: people wander about without any apparent awareness that anyone else might be in the vicinity.
Take, for instance, the gentleman who wandered off the Plane Train at SEATAC airport the other day. As he detrained, he stopped to investigate which of the 4 identical escalators best satisfied his fancy. I’m not one to criticize someone’s escalator scrutiny – you can’t over think these sorts of things – my issue is with the choice to stop just outside the exit of the train, completely unaware that he was blocking the way for the other passengers still left on the train.
It isn’t that these are bad people. We’re a product of our society and society teaches us that being a self-absorbed asshole is the right way to go about your life; there’s no limit to what you can accomplish when you don’t give a flying fuck about how those accomplishments impact other people. Which brings me back to my original point: we’re not getting the right training in order to avoid being assholes.
Riding a bike in general and riding in a group in particular teaches you all sorts of things about external dependencies and the trickle effect that our actions have on those around us. Rule #59 extends beyond just riding in a straight line, but to riding predictably and informing those riders who are dependent on you of dangers and obstacles. Cyclists develop a situational awareness that becomes second nature with practice.
I therefore propose that we modify our free-ranging policy to include a provision that mandates all humans be required to take a bicycle racing class and spend significant time riding in a group at speed before being allowed into the wilds of society. Don’t change your line when walking on a sidewalk without peeking over your shoulder. Don’t stop dead in your tracks without checking if someone is behind you. Don’t take a right-hand turn without warning when driving in the far left lane. Don’t block doorways. Don’t knock people in the head when you’re walking with a 2×4.
And for the love of Merckx, take off your headphones.
Been there, experienced that. My VMH is particularly guilty of “let’s stop here because it’s convenient for me but not necessarily for anyone else“.
A-Merckx. I am constantly finding myself muttering “hold your line” under my breath in reaction the oblivuousnes of my fellow pedestrians.
Can we make this a remedial class for all incoming freshmen? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been riding through campus on the #2 (Looking fantastic even in work clothes, of course) and almost hit some kiddo who decides that RIGHT HERE is the appropriate place and time to make a 90 degree turn without looking back and proceed out into the road. Of course they can’t hear my cries since they’ve got Bieber or whoever the kids are listening to these days blasting at full volume. Merckx help me.
My absolute favorite are the joggers/runners on the local( Burke-Gilman) trail who decide that they have hit their turn around point and do a 180 degree turn without looking…and then get mad at the cyclist they just nearly killed as said cyclist should have telepathically known the all important runner was turning around….
Sorry Frank, it’s a grand idea but since most people are morons, it’s doomed to failure. They (non-cyclists) are blissfully ignorant of their stupidity, continue to expand their numbers and culling has legal implications.
However, I do think cyclists make better drivers, since we are more prone to drive like we ride. Except for that squirrelly dude on the group ride.
I took a good opportunity this evening to hold my line on the inside right next to a Pedalwan learner. He realized that he must also hold his line or… get more than comfy with me. No words spoken — “see” the line, “do” the line.
@Ccos
I tell my wife and son that my bike handling always comes into play driving well on the road — especially when “shifting” my son’s 5-speed.
Another spot-on article Franck! Situational awareness is lacking in so many of our fellows. But the greater bafflement is those who stop seemingly purposefully to add to the human blockage in a mount/dismount area or queue. As you raised SeaTac: what is so bloody difficult about walking on the damned escalator?
These guys have it worked out;
Take off your headphones ALL THE FUCKING TIME!!!
If you can’t hear me screaming behind you that I’m passing you (if you’re a pedestrian) or you can’t hear me call out an obstacle or anything else on a bike, then you’re just fucking dangerous and I hate your face.
From time to time, I see a commuter rider wobbling all over the road, riding wide and cursing every car that goes past him and shaking his head. really giving cycling a bad image.
Take a closer look at him and there’s headphones plugging his ear holes! I really want to whack him over the head with a frame pump at what he’s doing.
@Steve G
Can’t you see they’re wearing headphones?
You’re a funny man Frank.
Another great one Frank. Often times I think people just don’t care. We cyclists know the value and advantage of working in a group, staying with the group, and the consequences of dumb moves in a group. Many of those clueless slobs not only can’t ride bikes, they can’t ride bikes.
Oh, this has to be my pet peeve. It’s drivers around here that take the cake on this one however. Oh that and generator/boom box users in camping grounds if we are talking not giving a rats about how your actions effect everyone else in general.
Paragraph #3 – GOLD!
I concoure withyou on the final paragraph so long as it’s not with the bunches around here. For some unexplicable reason in the last 12 months obsticales are increasingly not being pointed out. When they are, never by the entire bunch, just one or two about a third wheel and then never again. It seems the front riders figure they’ve seen the pothole, so the rest will. Surprised by the hole the next rider calls “HOLE!” but never point it out and gawd knows what happens from there. I will always and include the location but it is never repeated.
I yell back “no point in yelling “hole” if you don’t also tell us where!” but my pleading has fallen on deaf ears. The incidents of crashes is on the rise and my participation in the rides is on the fall. How hard is it to yell “Hole middle” or “branch left” becasue when you are riding in close quarters at 40km/hr in pitch black it certainly helps.
And the shopping cart morons who stop in the middle of the aisle, a child to either side, fully oblivious? Same ‘it’s all about me’ culture.
@Puffy
We had a guy that used to occasionally ride with us that did this with his phone. Apparently the groups disdain of headphones meant he needed to turn up the volume on the iphone to listen to music and serenade us with whatever crap he liked.
Needless to say he doesn’t get invited on rides any more.
The group leader that sings on slower rides we haven’t managed to stop yet (although it does force the addition of V from the group until he shuts up).
Nice one Frank. We’ve all become too self absorbed to give a flying fuck about anyone but ourselves. Which is sad quite honestly.
I’m guessing that all this tech and instant updates to things takes the old skool act of actually chatting to the person next to you about the days events away. Like everything, it’s all about balance and being aware that someone around you is in exactly the same boat as you.
And I’ll keep wearing my earbuds on rides. I know what’s going on around me. I explain that this way: if I was deaf, could I not ride a bike? I’ve tuned my other senses to be aware of my surroundings, and besides, if you’re relaxed when the semi coming up from behind (which you couldn’t avoid even with 20/20 hearing) you’ll get less hurt. I’ve actually tested this, and pretty sure I’da been more fucked up if I hadn’t been listening to Zep when the car that ran a stop sign crushed me. (legal: I in no way condone, recommend or endorse anyone to ride with tunes in their ears. You may get killed, and I won’t be held responsible. So there.)
Nice article. Being self absorbed is one problem but lotsa people also seem to lack any sense at all of spacial awareness. Could be upbringing, genetic, stupidity or cultural. I used to think people growing up in more densely crowded environments (not being racist here – just sociological, demographical or whatever the proper term is) should reasonably learn to be more spacially aware, right? but that doesn’t seem to pan out. Yep, stop dead on the footpath in front of me, walk out of doorways without looking etc.
Agree worst are joggers/walkers with headphones on shared paths, or a gaggle of walkers (how do they even talk to each other?) with unattached dogs.
BTY there is a safety suggestion by a minister of one of the fair states of Oz today of licences for cyclists, for a FEE of course. Like paying for a licence is going to stop some car hitting me.
There has been a similar discussion going on about the lack of racing knowledge and etiquette in my London cycling club forum.
One of the conclusions being that where there used to be one or two club rides on weekends and people would mix and learn, now there are four or five each day because someone wants to go at 0730 not 0800 so they start their own ride. Smaller rides, less exposure to experienced people, the senior riders don’t get to know people and are then hesitant about making comments or suggestions.
@Scaler911 Agreed on earbuds. I wear them only when I’m riding alone and only here in Dubai where there is very little need for me to interact with cars and traffic. I’m mostly on hard shoulders and rarely have to go into lanes or expect vehicles to stop or go around me so it’s just a matter of making sure I am aware of them when I have to interact. If I’m going to be collected it will be some idiot driving on the side of the road at 120km/h – knowing about it would make zero difference.
@Brianold55 Based on living in a country with a 40% population from India and surrounds I’d say the opposite. I think it’s only when you have the luxury of space that you feel obliged or able to respect it.
@ChrisO Thinking of some of the worst offenders here, I think your theory may be better than my original one
Genius Frank but not only will the hater be moaning about having the rules imposed apon them but they’ll start to bang on about how your megalomania has moved onto society as a whole. Keep it up, I had been thinking that I was the only one having these thoughts and that it was a symptom of early onset old fartdom.
Was the gent at the airport also trying to trip people up with one of these wheelie suitcases? Major annoyance in crowds. But not as bad as single mother of five trying to get their evil offspring and two monster suitcases across London on the tube at rush hour.
I’m not sure that compulsory group ride training is the way to go for the general public. It would be cheaper and more efficient to issue cyclists with tazers for their time off the bike.
@Chris
Surely that wouldn’t be a problem because you and other people of a gentlemanly persuasion, such as the capital and especially the City is full of, would have offered to assist.
Presumably it was in conversation as you helped with her suitcases that you established she was single.
Otherwise I might have to press the Danger of Casual Sexism Alert button which has now been installed on the site.
People who stop and talk on stairs…
There should also be fast and slow lanes on pavements/sidewalks; not that anyone would follow them.
On a shared use trail near me recently painted bike ‘lanes’ have appeared. They’re quite narrow, both ways squeezed to one side with the other 75% width of trail for pedestrians. I was a bit suspect at first, seeing it as an implication that we were a problem, so I treated them more as advisory. But every single cyclist of any type automatically gravitates toward these lines, like we like the sense of order they bring – and perhaps in the vain hope that we can get going without having to weave between people.
Pedestrians, naturally, ignore them and let their kids wander into them.
@ChrisO Go on press the button. There are a bunch of tell tale indicators that women travelling with five kids and very large suitcases are single but to outline them here would end up in someone pressing the Oh My God He Couldn’t Possibly Have Said That button.
walking obliviously while staring at the glowing rectangle in your hand. We’ve all seen / done it.
Re MUP trails, sometimes it’s easier to just join the other vehicles on the road than dodge the strollers etc on the path. Love the two non-petite moms pushing the strollers abreast and taking up at least 87 percent of the path. Scoot by them in the remaining 13 percent before uncoming traffic and get glared at presumably for passing too close.
Yesterday on my afternoon ride I’m going down a minor road that is plenty wide enough for cars to pass in both directions and has a number of blind rollers. The road is busy enough to need to keep alert especially with the blind rollers. So yesterday not long before the afternoon “busy hour” much to my surprise I come over one roller an there is a chap running slap bang in the middle of the road. One of those WTF did he think he was doing moments.
@Teocalli I know, why run?
A shared cycle way, the mom on the phone pushing a pram, the dog on the leash, for once, but of the extending kind, fully extended, the toddler on a cycle stopped across the middle of the way then moving backwards because of the fixed gear. The mom yelling at the cyclist (me) because he was frightening the kiddy! Typical scene!
We need to continue to differentiate between cyclists and bike riders. After spending pretty much all of my winter training by myself, last weekend I decided it was time to get social and back to group riding and hooked up with a local group after my first couple of hours on the road. Holy cow, if their idea of group riding is how to cause each other maximum stress by cutting across lines on straight roads, intersections and roundabouts, not pointing out obstacles or making any effort to keep the group together, they can keep it.
I’m fortunate enough to live in a part of the UK where I can safely get from my front door to the office on the bike on MUP’s. Sadly I find it way safer (and quicker) riding the road. I don’t want to see that infrastructure taken away, because for the non-cyclist riding a bike for a wee pootle, it fills a gap and makes life safer. But for me on a road bike fully lycra’d up, I feel out of place there. I ride a road bike, therefore I ride the road. It doesn’t take a UCI ban for me to not want to go on the pavement with all the dangers there…
On the odd day I get the local Metro in to the city, the goons who decide to wait at the entrance to the platform blocking everyones way are a constant annoyance!
@ChrisO
I’m truly hoping your London club isn’t that bunch who like to think they own Richmond Park, have a reputation for running red lights, abusing other riders and flicking motorists the finger when riding events and not worrying about the Highway Code and giving way at intersections. Oh, but their kit looks flash, so that’s ok.
@Frank. This grumpy old man image you are working on is really believable! All points well made, but I am expecting reports of you doing your supermarket shopping at 6am very shortly. I also imagine you get tired dialling long distance?
Great article though.
Headphones are just the tip of this particular iceberg. Its the slavish obsession/addiction to smartphones and the need to look at them constantly while walking, riding, doing just about everything. Gosh, wouldn’t want to miss a terribly important text by a few seconds now would we? Smartphones = the new pacifiers.
@Carel
@Carel
On the way to my winter hill rep BOAT (Byway Open To All Traffic). Two mums with prams, 1 toddler, 1 dog occupying most of the width of the BOAT. There’s a recipe for an accident, thinks I as I approach. Next thing I’m passing them in the air upside down. So convinced they were the danger I failed to spot the patch of leaves covering a low curb………
@Mike_P
London Dynamo… no it isn’t them.
I’m with Dulwich Paragon, an altogether much more respectable bastion of civility.
And now the largest British Cycling affiliated club in the country, including more than 100 women members.
@ChrisO
That is worth bigging up!
Train door blocking notwithstanding, it’s one thing to stop in front of an escalator, it’s a whole different level (don’t pretend puns aren’t awesome) stopping to decide where you’re going immediately after you step off, while a line of people are gently propelled into one another behind you.
The big problem that I have with those users who are oblivious is not the joggers/walkers with their headphones, or even the strollers. It’s the folks with dogs and retractable leashes. For all that is holy, if you’re going to use one of those things, PLEASE learn how to retract the fucking thing. If you can’t figure out how to walk your dog, I’m more likely to plow into the human, not the dog. I like dogs.
We do have some decent paved off-street paths/trails around here, but there are a few stretches that are so popular (particularly near Lake Michigan) that I will avoid them at all costs while out training, even if it means riding on less that stellar roads. If I’m out for a leisurely spin with Mrs. KW, that’s a different story.
This seems like the right place to ask: What kind of maths does one use to explain the phenomon wherein when you’re on a MUP (miles of it) on a nice weekday morning with few other users; you, the lady jogging with her stroller, and the old guy riding at you from the opposite direction all meet in the exact same place causing everyone to stop, go in the dirt whatever?
Or does that only happen to me…..
The law should required a bicycle test as part of the requirement for a motor vehicle license.
@ChrisO
I think this is closer to reality. When you have three trillion people buzzing around you, you have to cut it out if you want any sanity. Basically you care even less about space and others.
@scaler911
It’s physics….Sods Law.
Classic article, Frank. Chapeau.
Occasionally I enter/leave town on a converted railway/trail path. It’s nicely paved and quick. Walkers, joggers, dogwalkers, people on bikes, etc are plentiful. I treat all with suspicion but I try to be polite and give a heads up should when I’m coming up behind someone. Invariably it’s a waste of time as they have headphones on and couldn’t hear me anyway. The worst offender I ever came across was one of those pedal tavern things. Took up the whole friggin’ path. What it was doing there I don’t know.
I call ’em like I see ’em. Let’s be honest. Most Americans woefully lack self awareness. Common sense is decidedly uncommon. I work in hospitals, often needing to transport hundreds of pounds of equipment & implants via had cart. I’ve nearly crushed morons who stopped short in front of my cart without reason countless times in the corridors of every hospital I’ve ever been in. Just as I’ve nearly ploughed into the arse of countless unaware riders on the roads & bike trail who think stopping in the midst of the trail, for no apparent reason, a prudent decision. The daftness of the average Joe never ceases to amaze. These are reasons why I’m cynical & expect people to behave stupidly. The cynic is rarely surprised & never disappointed
There aren’t many “bike paths” around here, and I wouldn’t use them anyway. When non-cyclists mention bike paths to me, I say that they are more correctly called multiuse paths, with joggers, walkers, runners, cyclists, dogwalkers, rollerbladers or whoever else using them and are more hazardous than riding on roads. I also feel strongly that those paths reinforce many motorists’ notion that bikes don’t belong on the road.
@ChrisO @Mike_P Ah, that’s my lot in fact (London Dynamo). I like to think we’re generally fairly charming and thoughtful, as it goes. Not your experience, I take it? I’d disagree about our kit, however. I think it looks like the Thomson Local phone directory of old, but what can you do …
@blackpooltower
Meh, never had a problem with them myself and they have some good riders and racers who know what they’re doing. I certainly prefer to see them alongside me than a few other clubs.
But if someone says that about a club in London it’s odds on London Dynamo is who they mean, which speaks for itself really.
Whether it’s perception or reality is pretty much beside the point.
A-Merckx! I actually have a fantasy that I’ll share – before you are even allowed to apply for a driver’s license in the U.S. you’d have to commute by bicycle for two weeks. I really think that would make roads safer, cyclists safer, and maybe help drivers realize getting everywhere at the minimum of 45mph, no matter what the road conditions, is a privilege, not a right.
I sometimes ride through the local uni campus. It is amazing how many students can’t walk in a straight line.
Also, how about folks who act as if public spaces, like grocery stores, are actually vacation destinations? Just because you have fuck all to do today, doesn’t mean the rest of us have all the time in the world. Move it along, you can’t hold a UN meeting in front of the milk and eggs.
I’m also part of a local cycling advocacy group. Our city is growing like crazy, and we’re having more and more cyclists. Great! Oh wait, no helmets, no idea of riding defensively aggressively, and…earbuds. It actually puts me in the situation where I’m not always sure I want to encourage new cyclists.