mr_bill

Technically, they timed the light perfectly and beat me off the line.
(They did signal with bent left arm a second behind me.)


-mr. bill

Unca_Sam

Beat you off the line Guy had a rolling start while you were watching the light; the execution was flawless!

I bet that's his regular commute, and he knows the timing all around. I've been pleasantly surprised recently since Columbus
lowered the speed limit downtown to 25 mph and adjusted the traffic signals to generally keep traffic at that pace. Rather than starting from one stop light and having to sprint to the next to beat it, it's just changing to green as I arrive.

Iride01 

I see no issues. Seems like a well executed right turn with plenty of clearance for safety from the traffic they just passed.

Perhaps if I'd seen it for real my impression might be different.

Korina

So? It's only a right hook if you're moving too. That was a well executed turn.

Unca_Sam

Playing devils advocate here.

There is no similar maneuver allowed in a motor vehicle: traffic cannot turn right across another lane of traffic. This is essentially what the other cyclist did. Were I in the right lane intending to cross the intersection in a motor vehicle, and a vehicle from my left times the light to make a right across my lane of travel, you bet I'd use my horn and my favorite words of anger and frustration.

Unfortunately, traffic engineers put cyclists in bike lanes to the right of all traffic, which sets them up for this.

Iride01 

Wouldn't you have also honked at the traffic stopped in front of you at a green light?

livedarklions

If I was driving, and the light just turned green right as I got to the end of the block? Hell, no. The cyclist got to the corner the exact second the light changed. If there had been a car stopped for the red light, a car behind it with the same timing would expect to wait for the car ahead to start rolling right after the light changed.

work4bike

I understand you're only playing devils advocate, which I appreciate, but I will say this....Not all vehicles on the roadways are created equal and thus the rules apply a little differently.

A good example of this is that if I were traveling at the bike-speeds I do on many of the faster roads (I ride on) in a traditional car, I could be pulled over for driving too slow.

Another example is that large trucks often pull out into traffic from a parking lot, causing cars to come to a halt. (I'm not sure this is actually legal, but it is (in effect) legal, because it's a common practice -- one of them unwritten rules).

Maybe someone could make a decent case against the cyclist in the video, but I didn't see a real problem in what he did.


https://www.anthracitelaw.com/maryla...peeding-ticket

I-Like-To-Bike

When you have a hammer, every thing looks like a nail;
When you have a camera on a bike, everything looks like a problem.

livedarklions

So are we now debating whether there's anything to debate?

Looks more like an etiquette issue than a safety one to me.. I don't get the sense that OP was annoyed in the slightest, and notes that it was timed perfectly. I might or might not have done it myself depending on how much clearance I had around Bill. Hard to judge from the video.

Iride01 

I use to live in Chicago. In motor vehicles, as soon as the light turned green, if the car in front wasn't moving, horns were blaring. If I didn't live in the South now where we try to be more polite, I'd be honking too if in a car. Some here take 3 to 5 seconds to put their phones down and start moving.

As far as the video and interaction of the two cyclist it seemed that the passing cyclist might not even have been stopped and was rolling up to the light at some speed anticipating the green. And the passing of others in the same lane for bicycles isn't well defined in laws. Though perhaps the OP was in the bike lane and the other cyclist in the other lane. At the moment, I seem to be having the missing YouTube video issue that BF has. So I can't go back to look for that.

Still if a person completes a pass safely and is able to enter the lane with out anything other than invoking the ire of the one they just passed, then legally, there wasn't anything done wrong no matter how my I try to look at it from any other view.

Etiquette might be the only thing that might hold some water. I'm not certain that the OP was even bothered by this. I think it might have been more just to see what others thought and enjoy a box of popcorn.

flangehead

In my environs going on green risks a t-bone. I have to confirm that crossing traffic will stop. I can’t tell from the video how well the cyclist could see to the left.

It is true that as cyclists we can corner faster and provide more clearance than a motorist (except motorcyclists). So we can make moves that would be unsafe for a motorist. However not all cyclists use mirrors, and anyone can lose situational awareness.

It sounds like mr_bill was aware of him, but in my view a move like that is impolite and could startle the cyclist being overtaken.

BobbyG

Whether riding or driving there seems to be a human urge to conserve momentum...well, especially while riding for obvious reasons. And also an attraction to what seem like perfectly-timed maneuvers and interactions. But these two urges will lead to disaster in traffic where others have their own urges and timings and levels of selfishness and inattentiveness. I wasn't always such a buzz-kill, but the older I get the more I think of Shakespeare's Falstaff quote usually rendered as "Discretion is the better part of valor."

JoeyBike

Isn't this a requirement in A&S?

Unca_Sam

hat tip to you!

rumrunn6

fun video thanks for sharing

Moe Zhoost

Can you repost without the sound track. I'd like to hear what you may have said when this happened.

mschwett 

i see no issue with this. he didn't cut you off, cause you to slow, contact you, or even get in a position in which any possible movement of your bike would cause an accident. really not a right hook. he passed you, and then turned. it's very clear at 8 seconds that a) the light is green when he enters the intersection and b) you're not moving yet.

bikelif3

A right turning cyclist who blows through a green crosswalk is just as bad as as a right turning driver who blows through a green crosswalk...

mschwett 

that’s a pretty broad generalization. if there is nobody IN the crosswalk, there’s no need to stop. and common sense suggests that pedestrians don’t suddenly move backwards, so entering a crosswalk 10+ feet behind a pedestrian is hardly a risk to anyone, in the same way that going 57mph on a freeway with a 55mph limit is a nearly victimless crime.

on the other hand, cars and their drivers kill thousands of pedestrians every year, and no doubt some of them were in crosswalks.

bikelif3

Cyclist passed car on the left side. Car was blocking full view of crosswalk situation. Cyclist didn't have 100% awareness of the situation.

UniChris

Not in this video. Create a new thread with a link if you want to discuss whatever happened in some other video you have in mind.

bikelif3

Crosswalk was green even before the cyclist showed up on the screen...

UniChris

Irrelevant as it could be clearly seen by both the cyclist and the camera that no one was anywhere near the crosswalk.

Crosswalk laws do not require yielding to non-existent users, only those actually present, and as such do not require even slowing when it can clearly be seen that no one is anywhere near.

More importantly, your claim that


Is pure falsehood. What the cyclist passed was another cyclist. If you've ever been anywhere near a person on a bike, you know that we don't screen much - especially not in a way the endures as the viewer's perspective changes.

Fact is you're imagining something very different than what happened - if it's an honest mistake you need to re-examine the evidence.

Otherwise the logical conclusion is that you're trolling for fun - but doing a bad job of it, since you're making claims so readily disproven.

bikelif3

The video footage was from a car between the cyclist and the crosswalk. Cyclist could not have SEEN through car taking video.

CROSSWALK WAS GREEN EVEN BEFORE THE CYCLIST SHOWED UP ON THE SCREEN.