On Jul 18, 12:38 pm, Peter Cole <peter_c...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Ed.Toro...@gmail.com wrote:
> > On Jul 16, 4:18 pm, Peter Cole <peter_c...@comcast.net> wrote:
> >> I never bother to slow down, never mind stop, for right turns or "T"
> >> intersections -- why go to the trouble? You're not actually taking up a
> >> lane. Otherwise I treat reds like stops (pause, look & go), and stops
> >> like yields (slow & go). My bike's heavy, but not 2 tons and I'm strong,
> >> but not 200hp.
>
> > Yeah, you're one of the bicycling twits who add to the danger of my
> > ride. Idiots who do a swooping right turn right through a red or a
> > stop sign. Generally without a care, and certainly not looking to the
> > left before doing their swoop.
>
> Not me. I don't go anywhere I don't have a sight line, legally or
> otherwise.
To quote you again:
> >> I never bother to slow down, never mind stop, for right turns or "T"
> >> intersections -- why go to the trouble?
That sounds like a swoop right-hand turn through a stop sign or red
light. I see swoopers like that often enough.
> What's your beef? Dangerous cycling or illegal cycling?
My beef is with dangerous cycling, including but not limited to right-
turn swoopers, wrong-way larrys, red-light runners, stop-sign runners,
black-wearing lightless iPod listeners riding at night, the dudes who
draft you on busy city streets; this is also illegal cycling. I am one
of the faster riders out there, so I have to get around the slower
cyclists. But it's not illegal to be slower, nor is it particularly
dangerous; the onus is on me to get around them.
> They're not the same you know. Lot's of really bad (dangerous)
> cyclists/drivers out there obeying the letter, if not the spirit, of the
> law.
It's a little difficult to imagine how dangerous someone can be while
obeying the letter of the law. Of course, if they're bad and dangerous
if they're obeying the law, how on earth will they ride/drive if they
disobey the law? Not safer, that's for sure.
> Believe it or not, avoiding collisions with bikes is way easier than
> with cars -- I thought that would be obvious, but you guys seem to be
> doing a lot of crashing into bikes & kids -- maybe you ought to rethink
> the way you cycle.
I don't believe that avoiding collisions is easier when cycling than
when driving. Most cyclists realize that they have much more incentive
to avoid even a minor scrape because it will hurt a lot more than a
minor scrape to a car's paint.
Just because you haven't been in a collision recently doesn't mean
that you are riding safely. Fortunately, most of the time, when we do
something silly it's not enough to cause an accident--often because
other road users do their part to avoid the collision. So when you
swoop out from a side street into my path, 99% or the time I can hit
my brakes or swerve and not hit you. It's the 1% event, when I can't
avoid the collision, that's going to hurt. And it's your fault,
because you ran the red light or stop sign. As you so blithely admit
to doing all the time, as quoted above.