Are the "niceholes" getting worse?
 

It seems like they are where I am. I'm not sure if this is due to moving before the start of the season and taking a different route or not, but it seems like there are more of them now and they are more agitated when I don't pull out in front of them. Is anyone else experiencing this too?

I'm commuting through a school zone now during dropoff. The school is on a corner of one entry to my neighborhood so I can't avoid it without a mile detour out the other. People definitely behave differently when there's kids everywhere. I maybe get the sense that they think I'm capitalizing on that. They'd be right! Other than that I haven't noticed a change.

Had a guy on the opposite side of a un-signaled divided highway intersection try to wave me into traffic last week. That hasn't happened in a couple years. Mostly I get over-yielders at stop signs and they seem about as terrible as always.

interesting you bring this up - the past couple weeks I've had quiet a few drivers wave or try to wave me on
- one I was behind a BMW (yes! a BMW) at a stop light, he's turning right so I'm hanging back. A hand comes up out of the sun roof and he says I see you - you can go - i'm just kind of like "thank you, but no, I'm good"
- under the freeway nearby the side walks cross the on / exit ramps (really bad planning, but it's something....) - and I'm waiting on the sidewalk waiting for a long line of traffic to go on the freeway. A pick up truck drivers stops - holds up traffic and starts waving me on - sheesh! so I hustle across quick like so things can get moving pronto
- on a local MUP that crosses some busy roads I thought I saw a break in traffic (both ways) coming, so I don't hit the walk button - but then a car stops anyway! - and traffic from the other direction stops!

-- WHAT IS THIS INSANITY!?! -- :troll:

I've noticed it as well be I tend to think its because all our schools are now back in session so there is an increase in traffic for me now both in the morning and the evening. Plus in the evening, our HS cross country runners are out and they utilize the MUP's plus there are other students out and about as well for after school activities. With that, I notice a lot more people stopping to wave me and others through at crossings.

I still see a mixture of people slowing to a crawl and the ones that just stop, but it seems like more people are convinced the best thing to do is for me to pull out in front of them and can't understand why I don't want to take that risk. But what used to be a rare occurrence is happening a lot more frequently now, I hope it goes back to being rare.

I don't have people waving me on, but lately, the taxi drivers, who used to offer no courtesy, yield when they should be doing so. I'm still getting used to it.

Last week I had a passenger in a car try to wave me ahead.

Meanwhile the driver's face was buried in a cell phone looking up something.

I was like "No...I'll wait until you guys go since the actual driver is paying no attention whatsoever"

Okay...I just said No. I didn't give the whole reason. Regardless, the passenger seemed insulted that I didn't take her recommendation to go in front of the car with the distracted driver.

Around here I don't think most drivers have had to interact with a bicycle on the road before. I'm sure they've seen them on TV. I end up playing traffic conductor, pointing at people and directing them what to do when they have the right of way and won't take it; mostly they get the hint and do the right thing and it's all very amiable. If even that doesn't work I'll get off the road and dismount to make it clear I'm not going until they do.

Every once in a while a driver or a pedestrian waves me through. I do appreciate these scarce times of kindness as I wave back at them with a thank you.

Sort of off topic, and not all that important, but this is something I used to wonder about while riding and needing something to occupy my mind during the commute to my previous job.

I regularly rode past signs in a residential area across from a large park with athletic fields that say State Law Requires Motorists To Yield To Pedestrians In The Crosswalk.

Note that it says IN the crosswalk.

What if they're just NEAR the crosswalk? What if they're standing there with body language indicating they're waiting to cross the road, looking both ways, and waiting for a break in traffic? Or what if they're walking toward the crosswalk but aren't quite there yet?

Of course drivers should stop. I'm not suggesting otherwise. But I used to ride by and think about what might happen if one didn't stop for someone and got pulled over for failure to yield to a pedestrian. "But officer, I obeyed the sign. They weren't IN the crosswalk. They were only NEAR the crosswalk!" I wonder if that would work in court, due to the ambiguity of the sign language.

I also appreciate a driver or pedestrian waving me through, but only if I have the right of way. If not, I signal them to go ahead. There is just too much chance that someone else is not yielding the right of way in that situation. I have had pedestrians in crosswalks, in the process of crossing, stop in the road and wave me on. I will not continue until they are safely across and out of the crosswalk. I stop and dismount, if that is necessary, to show them that I am yielding to them.

Where I am, once they put a foot on the cross walk you have to yield. That why they have signs before them, so you know to slow down and and be ready to stop. Don't have to stop for bikes being ridden across though. Pushed, yes though.

i use to encounter this phenomenon a lot on my former daily route from our old house which included crossing a couple dozen 4-way stop sign intersections, but on my new route from our new place, i only have 1 such intersection on my 8 mile route. for all of the other intersections that i encounter, i either have right of way or it's controlled by a traffic light.

so for me, the problem is definitely not getting worse, but that's solely due to my lack of opportunity to encounter it.

I had someone yell at me as I was leaving the grocery store. (With a trailer full of food.) "That's smart!"

I've gotten so I just grit my teeth and accept the "courtesy". Folks just don't understand that if they don't slow and cause me to wonder whether they are actually going to stop for me, we'd all get through on our selected paths much faster. I do try to be nice and when someone stops to let me out, but the opposite traffic is heavy, I'll just wave them to continue. They do seem to get miffed when I don't accept their invitation to ride into danger. I've only had a few nasty ones in the last 10 years - motorists who slow down significantly and wave you on only to accelerate when you commit.

So I don't understand how or when good behaviour, politeness and allowing others before you has become unacceptable behaviour.

If somebody opens the door for you, do you snear back and slap his face?

I'd rather have a trucker give me his right-of way than blowing coal in my face.

Rarely happens here, although recently motorists are being fined for not stopping for pedestrians in the cross walk. (its about time)

Only in Shanghai though, almost everywhere else, whoever is biggest always has the ultimate right of way.

I've seen little old ladies butting in line in front of big white guys. I've also stopped this tall guy from trying to butt in line in front of me. This was all on a cruise ship from Shanghai to Japan.

Because it's dangerous to cede the right of way.

First off, it puts the slower bike in front of the faster car. That's just dumb.

Second, it prevents everyone else in the area from knowing what is about to happen. We have standard road rules and known rights of way rules for a reason. Its so when you pull up to an intersection you have a pretty good idea what everyone else near the intersection is going to do. Or at least what they should do and in what order. When you break those rules, suddenly no one knows what you are doing and you have created a dangerous situation for yourself.

The people who encourage this are called Niceholes for a reason. They mean well, hence they are nice. But their actions are inherently dangerous, hence...well you get it now (I hope)

No one wishes ill upon these people. We just want them to stop trying to circumvent the right or way rules.

I did encounter someone taking it to new levels yesterday. I was waiting to make a left turn. There was a driver across from me waiting to make a left turn as well. Although there are no turning lanes at this intersection, there's room in both directions for cars going straight to pass on the right. The driver across from me was giving me polite toots on his horn encouraging me to go ahead, completely oblivious to the steady line of cars that was proceeding through the intersection on his right. I shrugged and pointed. Got off the saddle and put both feet on the ground. HE PULLED FORWARD AND TO THE RIGHT TO BLOCK TRAFFIC! and then continued waving at me and politely tooting his horn.

I don’t know if they are more but my reaction certainly has changed over the years. Like just now, our canal MUP crosses a pretty small street. I stopped and did nothing even as a guy in a huge SUV was wiggling his fingers like to tell me to go. First of all drivers really don’t understand that with all their tinted windows it’s not easy to see, and second if I do go and he runs me over then I can’t prove what he did. So I just looked straight ahead, not acknowledging anything. I’ve been knocked down while walking along the road in front if my house and I know it really hurts. And I know on a bike that I will lose or just be dead. And in the courtroom this guy will deny everything. And get away with it. So no, I don’t respond to these “courtesy” signals.

Well, I'm guessing that those cyclists who blow through red lights and stop signs (lecturing the rest of us that they know hoe to do it properly), would be the last people who would criticize niceholes.

Unfortunately, on occasion I would be forced to become a nicehole on a bike by other cyclists.

In a couple months they'll get over it. Yes, they've been told specifically that now that the kids are back in school they need to be more careful. and apparently cyclists are pedestrians too.

I haven't seen any change, it's still really hard for somebody driving me to get people to see them, much less a bike.

Mind you that I live at a state border and next to an interstate.

That’s funny. Maybe 10 minutes before that incident I had seen a 20+ group of cyclists had turned onto the MUP and I remember as I turned off to use the restroom that I was happy to see them gone. I’m alive and resting easy and glad of it.