iconicflux

This past weekend I took my daughter on her first overnight tour. We rode about half on the WMRT and half on the C&O towpath. When we got to Hancock I had an incident happen that really shocked me.

We were riding on the road, crossing the WMRT right next to the C&O bike shop. Users of the WMRT have a stop sign in either direction whereas vehicles on the road do not.

My daughter who is new to road riding (she rides a Fuji Ace 24 w/ brifters & brakes on the flats) had a woman not even slow down at the stop. The woman's daughter who was slower than her almost caused an accident by riding right in front of my daughter. My daughter took evasive maneuvers (that I didn't even know she could pull off) in order to not hit the little girl on her 20" bicycle. I had no idea my daughter could brake to a stop and track stand for 4-5 seconds for the girl to get past her. (I ride behind my daughter when we're out riding so I can call out cars behind, help her know which gears to be in, etc.)

I told my daughter verbally that she did an awesome job and that woman should not have done that. The woman then yelled back to me that *she* had the right of way. I then yelled back to her that she was wrong and she actually blew a very large STOP sign. She kept riding away from us.

I've always ridden such that if there's cross traffic then a stop sign IS a stop sign. It really surprised me that this woman would be so callous in her disregard for her daughter's safety and very likely did not even notice the stop sign. In my opinion, she's very much the type of parent that SHOULDN'T be riding with her daughter as she seems to be a real risk to the girl's safety.

Aside from not yelling at the woman that she had blown a stop sign, what else could I have done? What would you have done in this situation?

italktocats

What to do?


Dont bother it!

trailangel

What is WMRT and C&O bike shop?

FBinNY 

You have to put nonsense like this behind you. I agree with you that the woman was in the wrong, especially because she had a child riding behind her. It's not that she ignored a stop sign, or about who had the right of way. It's that she ignored common sense. Regardless of the law or whether there's a stop sign, one always stops, or at least slows to where one could stop short, and checks for traffic before entering a roadway, whether from a driveway, sidewalk, bike path, or smaller road.

When people do similar to me, I don't argue right of way, I just call out "good thing I wasn't a car" and ride on without bothering to wait for a response.

Consularrider

Western Maryland Rail Trail and Cheasepeake and Ohio (from the canal) Hancock, Maryland.

bikemig 

Not trying to be snarky but why were you "really shocked" that a rider pulled a boneheaded move and then yelled at you for pointing it out? Expect the worst from your fellow humans and while sometimes you will be pleasantly surprised, you'll never be really shocked.

Scotti G

That is SO sad ...and yet SO true!

Keith99

Was the bike the lady was riding a Mercedes? If so then she had the right of way!

EDIT: Considering the Op was on a road as in with cars that can squash a cyclist he blew his chance to simply shout back, "hope you enjoy your Darwin award".

iconicflux

I was shocked because my daughter has better road handling skills than I expected her to have thus far AND it was pretty scary to me having her almost crash on her first tour. She's only 8 and although she has had her bike since xmas, I don't let her ride it without me being with her except for just small trips in the neighborhood. (She has a different bike for riding around with the neighborhood kids for the most part.)

I'd like to say that I wasn't shocked by the callous disregard for common sense but I try to be an idealist.

I've been thinking that the woman may have spouted off like that because she had face to save w/ her little one.

JoeyBike

Yeah...my expectations regarding other road/path users is really low, and they often live up to those standards.

Rollfast

I think you didn't need to use the a word about headgear in the title, personally. It's sorta just as classless.