I-Like-To-Bike

You ever venture east of the Rockies, or ride in any city laid out before 1900? You would be amazed to learn that they are different in many ways than cities located the Sun Belt.

janzep

Glad you are OK. Sorry this happened. Bike lanes beside a row of parked vehicles are counter intuitive to me. Being doored is very bad, being struck from behind when instinctively swerving to avoid one is tragic. You need at least a three foot margin to be safer and if that requires you to "take the lane" then I recommend you do so.
On the larger attitudinal issue we need to remove the poisonous dialogue that exists between drivers and cyclists in North America as exemplified in many of the replies you received. This is what differentiates us from the Europeans even more so than infrastructure. How we can achieve that is fodder for another post.

BurleyCat

You end your post with:

I'm just baffled. How can you blame a cyclist for riding in the bike lane and not blame the careless driver who flings their door open? How do we change people's mentality?[/QUOTE]

Bikes, dogs, the beach. It's a great combination until you add cars and their drivers. Don't count on changing people's mentalities any time soon. Consider a child carrying bicycle trailer. Good second hand child trailers are affordable and will allow you to transport your furry friends to the beach with less distraction. You can't afford any impediments when dealing with cars and traffic.

drzdave58

I was riding down a bike path the other day and a woman was up ahead kneeling in the grass off the path doing something...I didn’t think much of it and was moving along at a good clip cause it was a downgrade...when I was about 10 from her something caught my eye on the other side of the path ..I realized it was a small dog...and there was a practically invisible leash connected to it right across the whole path...I slammed on my brakes and the woman stood up ...I said ‘are you f****ing kidding me lady?..your blocking the whole path with the leash!!’...she replied ‘you should have rung your bell”...ggrrrrr

sheddle

you build infrastructure to get more people on bikes, normalizing it, and also actually enforce laws against endangering non-motorists

it's not like this is a mystery or has never been done in the world before

Lemond1985

How about a 10 foot height restriction on Monster Pickup Trucks and SUV's? Probably too radical for many parts of the US, but it would be a good first step.

mr_bill

The OP posted a about city incorporated in 1886, riding on a road that was laid out before 1900, which is west of the Rockies. But whatever.

-mr. bill

phillman5

You can't!

RohloffRoller

Some say I rode too close to the parked car, so it was my fault.

Yes it was your fault. I would ride on the extreme left of that lane on the white line that seperates it from the roadway and keep an eye on my mirror for traffic coming from behind.

Mike

mjd420nova

As a youngster, six decades ago, I met the inside of a passenger door, luckily (??) the window was rolled down and I went through. Spent three days in the hospital, the week before Mothers Day. I know I will catch three kinds of hell for making my stand BUT
The Only way to be sure that driver getting out of his car doesn't do it in front of you is to ride facing the parked cars. You see them, make eye contact and they wait. Don't ever expect any driver to look first before opening the door. Look for drivers and be prepared to dodge, not always an option in traffic but better than smashing into them from behind when they step out. As a wee little one, I was taught that you always walk and ride facing traffic and even though it may be illegal, my OCD takes over and screw the cop who wants to be a dick.

I-Like-To-Bike

My comment/question was addressed to Maitreya from NM (not the OP) who posted that he was amazed that they have cars parked that way.

But whatever, posters from Boston do seem to post in mysterious ways, sometimes imagining discussions, sometimes posting irrelevant or obscure B.S. dredged up from frantic Googling in order to prove some cryptic point, oblivious to the discussion at hand.

KraneXL

All irrelevant minutia, and not the point. I provided one of several examples and included the date as a time reference. Anyone with an open mind would have seen that.

The technology exists, is recognized by the auto industry, and applied. That was the point. Your previous posts to the contrary have been invalidated. Now stop the juvenile sidestepping, learn from your mistakes, and move on.

mr_bill

-mr. bill

Miele Man

There is so much wrong with riding a bicycle AGAINST traffic flow that it's be hard to tell you all of it.

#1 . Drivers are NOT expecting you to be riding against traffic.
#2 . You might THINK you've made eye contact with a driver but the odds are the driver does NOT see you and that's because they aren't looking for or expecting to see a bicyclist.
#3 . You put any other bicyclist who is riding WITH traffic in the same area at risk.

I had a wrong direction riding bicyclist approach me whilst I was riding down a very busy main street here in town. I pulled over next to the line of parked cars and stopped. I was not about to swerve into another lane of traffic and thereby risk myself. I forced him to go around me and as he did so I told him that riding against traffic was very dangerous for him to do.

Cheers

livedarklions

To me the door zone requires a pretty simple set of options--either establish yourself in the traffic lane before you get to the row of parked cars, in which case I can ride fast or proceed very slowly if I can't ride outside of the door zone so I have time to stop or yell before I make contact with the door. That method's only worked for me since I started doing it in 1984 (after my one and only dooring close call on Magazine Street, New Orleans) , so I'll let you know if it still works for the next 35 years.

caloso

Your advice is to ride directly into on-coming traffic? That is really..... something.

I-Like-To-Bike

"The technology exists" is a statement as vague and meaningless as "They are out there".

Is the alleged application of "the technology" actually available to the public or does it exist only in press releases, where is it being applied, and at what cost, does it work as advertised, is it reliable, do many/any consumers actually have any good things to say about it? Irrelevant minutia, eh? Talk about sidestepping.

Any breathless social media reports yet of how "the technology saved my life when it prevented a door zone collision"?

Bicyclists expecting "the technology" to protect them from the hazard of door zone riding, or even reduce the risk from inattentive or careless bicycle riding in potential door zone situations are in for a very long wait.

livedarklions

Besides, I've already got it covered by my "rapidly ascending hoverbike" technology, which I will unveil any minute now. Everybody hold their breath.

I-Like-To-Bike

Hurry, hurry, if you want to be first to apply the technology, I read somewhere that someone said that Elon Musk will has fan boys lining up now for his version of this "technology" to be introduced any minute now.

sheddle

yeah, this is me. Generally I ride at a reasonable pace in the door lane to give myself braking time for any hazards, and take the traffic lane if it's a downhill. We do have a few downhill bike lanes in the door zone and I'm not going to risk those, especially on a bike with old single-pivot brakes.

personally I think non-buffered bike lanes by parking lanes should be deprecated in favor of PBLs and buffered lanes, but try removing parking in any city and see how long it takes for "small business owners" and "community groups" to call for your head.

Mitkraft

I completely agree with this. If the OP is going to get all hissy about someone else's unsafe behavior he needs to look at his own. You should NEVER have your dog running along beside you on your left (between you and traffic). That is just dumb and extremely dangerous for the dog. I wouldn't even do that in a neighborhood much less on a faster road as you appear to be. This is clearly one of those cases where you have talked yourself into believing that this behavior is perfectly safe when you couldn't be more wrong. If a cyclist does stupid stuff and causes himself harm then that's on him but when you put your pets in danger that's just not right!

Miele Man

CRIKEY! Looking at that second video makes me shudder. Talk about an accident waiting to happen! Besides which, in parts of the video the dog is running BEHIND you where you can't see it. Unbelievable that you believe this is safe in any area where there are motor vehicles.

Cheers

Newspaper_Nick

Do you really need to preach the same things over and over in all the threads in this forum? Bashing technology and expressing your disdain for the people who actually are trying to solve problems? And you bring nothing new to the table. Your nonsensical routine comes through a machine that you gladly hold in your hands, through wires and radio waves which are all a part of the same technological legacy that you hate, from the people who -"unlike you"- were actually "doing" something to change things.

I-Like-To-Bike

Sure why not? Responses in counterpoint seem appropriate and on topic just as long as BF posters keep making spacey claims that future applications of undeveloped or not yet invented "Technology!" will protect the public in general, and bicyclist specifically in ways yet to be determined.

Unsubstantiated Claims/predictions about future implementation of safety features that are based on Technology! that dreamers would like to see invented/designed/applied, and believe that it's implementation are imminent (if not already available somewhere) need to be pointed out as the desired fantasies that they currently are.


The silliest specious defense by [B]Technology![/B fan boies of their unlimited belief that all things are not only possible, but are in fact sure things to be implemented and fielded are that a press release promised/mentioned it, or better yet, because Smartphones exist!

mr_bill

Go to your local Hyundai dealer already.

-mr. bill