Ballenxj

Are we presenting a good impression to motorists? I happened across this video on youtube, and think this might be a good discussion starter.

Oneder

They are both kind of idiots. The cyclist is not obeying rules really but he is not even in the car's way or being particularly dangerous. Certainly not enough to make a video about it or start yelling at him.

I remember one time I was driving on the freeway and this guy on a bike is on the shoulder while I am trying to turn off. The guy just runs right across my lane as it turns off, and when I honk the horn he gets all mad. Before then he did not even look before just zooming out from the shoulder across the lane turning off the freeway. I cannot even imagine what the ef this guy was thinking of and if I had been less alert or even had just come off the freeway a little faster he would have been dead.

mr_bill

Who is this "WE" you are talking about?

You might want to watch more of DashCam Driver's content. The vast majority of the time he is honking and swearing at other people driving cars.

So are people driving cars presenting a good impression to motorists?

-mr. bill

Maelochs

I observe or ignore traffic laws based on what I consider to be my sufficient intelligence and experience.

Imagine a continuum--at one end, a person sitting at a broken red light until his car runs out of gas, and the other, said person running said red light at full speed while non-stop traffic is flowing across his path.

I think I am smart enough and experienced enough to understand safety, courtesy, and I do at times consider myself as a representative of the cycling community ... and at other times, that is less important. Safety, courtesy---not annoying other people Unless they are excessively sensitive---the type looking to have problems---drivers (and other cyclists and pedestrians) don't have any problems with me.

As for this video ... I won't even watch it. This person is posting to get hits on his site--and For No other Reason. he would post porn or fistfights or dog fights .... instead he posts himself yelling at other people. It gets him his jollies. He won't get my support.

mcours2006

There are stupid cyclists. There are stupid motorists. The percentage of stupid cyclists and motorists is probably in representative of the proportion of stupid people in the world.

Motorists view cyclists doing stupid things the same way they view other motorists doing stupid things; they think, WTF? What a effing idiot!

Cyclists view motorists doing stupid things the same way they view other cyclists doing stupid things; they think, WTF? What a effing idiot!

What do you need a video to know this?

Daniel4

As annoying as some cyclists may appear to be, cyclists are on the bottom of the list for what annoys motorists the most.

According to the Expedia Road Rage Report 2015

"Fifty-one percent of Americans report that they loathe sharing the road with bad drivers, more than cyclists, buses, taxis, joggers and walkers combined." Combined.

So if you disagree with this report, it's highly likely you're one of the bad drivers everyone else loathes.

Ballenxj

The "we" I'm referring to would include you and I, along with everybody else riding a bike. I have not watched any of his other videos, this one just popped up because youtube thought I might like it? I thought it would be a good conversation starter here. I think it worked?

Maelochs

Only problem is ... if this thing gets a lot of hits, it will encourage more of the same ... and when YouTube's algorithms start identifying the tags (cyclist, bad cyclist, whatever) then more of those will pop up of everyone who used any search term of watched any video even slightly related to any of those terms ... and then "bad cyclist" videos become a"thing" .... last thing we want to do is encourage this sort of thing.

Ballenxj

Good point. They must be testing the waters when they threw that one at me. I have never searched for anything like that.

AlmostTrick

I don't ride like that, so you can take me out of "us".

I clicked on the video earlier this morning, (but didn't watch the entire mess) before Maelochs posted his wisdom. Now I wish I didn't click on it.

Agent Cooper

Us who? I drive a car and so do most other people who like to ride bikes.

The guy on the bike in that vid was doing something dumb. I'd have honked at him too. He's not the global representative for all "cyclists."

There are no "motorists" and "cyclists." Just people. Individual people that are responsible for their own actions. Some are smarter than others.

Lumping people into imaginary, monolithic blocs is unrealistic and not very helpful in any situation.

Ballenxj

You can always put a thumb down for the video?, I think that would totally reverse the effect of his click bait? And I'm sure most of us don't ride like that.

Milton Keynes

I'd probably have honked at that cyclist too if he'd stopped in the middle of the lane I wanted to turn into. Or, if I were riding with him, I'd have asked him where the F he thinks he's going.

That being said, it's not fair to say that it's justified for motorists to hate cyclists because one guy did something stupid like this. Plenty of stupid people doing lots of stupid stuff on the roads whether they be in a motor vehicle, on a motorcycle, on a bicycle, or on foot. I just hope the cyclist in this video doesn't end up a statistic.

Dchiefransom

Bicycles are not vehicles in California. Ca CVC Definitions 670. The guy needs to get his laws straight. It looks like he needs to go around finding people's faults on the road. How long before he buys a used police cruiser and uniform and starts pulling people over?

genec

But they have almost all the same rights and responsibilities of motor vehicles. See CVC 21200

AlmostTrick

I wouldn't have. I drive and ride a bicycle, but for some reason dangerous/impatient motorist behavior aggravates me way more than anything cyclists do. I suspect part of it is due to the much higher level of entitlement many motorists have shown me they have.

sirkaos

+1
So what is that saying about "living in a glass house?". So lets follow this driver around and dash cam his posterior and make sure he doesn't glance down at his phone, forget to signal and potentially right hook a cyclist, change lanes with no signal, coast through a stop sign, on and on.
What would happen if he engaged with the cyclist in a bit more user friendly attitude? He presents himself as being level headed and the road dash cam sheriff, but he knows he is recording the incident, so of course he is going to sanitize his own language....

Cyclist was lazy and inattentive to the cars around him for his own safety, His focus was on the light and only what was in front of him. A recipe for getting run over... Since the cyclist never indicated what his intentions were, nobody knows what to do around him. Sigh...

mcours2006

Situation like that where you're going straight through the sensible thing to do would be just to stay put and wait for the light..oh right, I said sensible. Too lazy to unclip, perhaps, and I can understand if there wasn't anyone behind making a right turn...but come on.

mr_bill

Last I knew, honking at someone to get out of your way for a right turn on red was a 200 CAD fine?


"We" leave such a bad impression on motorists, don't "we"?

-mr. bill

bogydave

Typical to see this kind of videos, they get watched,
Video:
Biker signals & waves to motorist & motorists waves back,
Both go about their day smiling

Kumbaya videos never go viral

News Flash:
"Kumbaya news" gets low ratings

mcours2006

Really? C'mon! Where? I've had one DB do that to me, even saying I gave cyclists a bad name because I was waiting for a green light and he wanted go right.

nayr497

My city is booming in population growth and I'm seeing more and more cyclists not giving themselves the best possible chance to get hit, which is how I ride since I know most motorists are distracted.

I also noticed more and more roadies riding in full black kit without any lights, which I find to be incredibly stupid on open roads. Again, I try to keep my odds as strong as possible.

But then again, I say most motorists break the law every single time they operate their vehicles. Frustratingly, I think most probably don't even know it. Hate the low barrier to driving in the U.S.

mr_bill

Calgary. So there are at least two.

-mr. bill

Oneder

If it were a car then the driver would have to wait, too. The driver was just angry because he had to wait. It was no big deal to anyone remotely reasonable, if anything it was a good demonstration about how some people get road rage over the slightest possible thing. I see cyclists do some dumb things especially on MUPs where they tend to be super idiotic, but this guy does not even make it as a blip.

mcours2006

Two of what, cities or DB's?