Bad Lag

I was out riding this afternoon but came to a red light and stopped.


Unbeknownst to me, a young man (~20) walked across the street in the middle of the block, not in the cross walk, not at a corner.

He walked directly towards me but from behind, in my "blind spot". Not expecting to hear anything (no cars), I turned to see him approaching after hearing his footsteps.

He was about 5-6 feet away but still behind me when I heard him approach.

When I looked at him, his right arm relaxed and the small baseball bat went back down to rest on his shoulder. He immediately changed his direction of travel, too.


His buddy, back across the street, ostensibly at the bus stop, was actually pissing on a building in broad daylight, in public.

A woman in a Mustang stopped mid-intersection and yelled at him to stop!

He started yelling back, telling her to, "**** off!" His baseball bat buddy started yelling at her, too, pointing the bat at her in a threatening manner.

She drove on.


All that transpired in about 60 seconds or so. Then the light turned green for me and I spllt.

Troul 

thats were a 'yield" is practiced.

Bald Paul

I think you were about to be bike-jacked. You're lucky.

work4bike

What kind of area were you in? Seems like there would be a lot of witnesses in the afternoon?

I've cycled thru some shady areas before, mostly on my tours and I do know the feeling of being scoped out and it is usually best to ride like you're riding thru hell...just keep going




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SurferRosa

Next time, keep going.

FBinNY 

This could be anything from paranoia to luckily averting theft, injury or death.

There's no conclusion to be drawn, except as a reminder to be aware of our surroundings and make decisions accordingly. My commute used to take me through various towns where besides cars I had to worry either about being in a very rough neighborhood, or being in a town with ticket happy cops. What I did at lights depended on where I was as much as anything else.

repechage

not a good choice most likely either.

yesterday while driving a vehicle, stopped at the four way stop to make a right turn.
a strung out group of female riders in mostly matching kit and bikes proceeded through the intersection and all failed to stop. Later while passing them it was clear the one or two lead riders were not concerned about those behind, the laggers blasted through most likely in an effort to catch. I called out to one who was the most bold that I saw, others were hesitant but blew the stop also. I was met with repeated epithets. Obviously could not defend the behavior so just scream obscenities in retort. This type of 6:30am Sunday behavior just does not fly at 10:30 on a weekday. It Does solidify the perception that cyclists are lawless marauders who use clusters of riders to distort their perceived rights. Had it been a group of guys, I would have blamed it on testosterone replacement therapy.

I will see what I can do to identify this “club”.

repechage

Took all of 10 seconds to find them.
PV Bike Chicks.
Amazing.

jon c. 

Seems to me that it works best if everyone in a group proceeds through the stop sign together. If everyone stopped it would slow down motorists coming through the intersection more than if the whole group cruises through at once. There are a number of groups that ride near me and that's SOP. Doesn't take long for them to pass through.

FBinNY 

Group think when crossing intersections (without right of way) can be deadly.

If the group is truly tight, they are essentially like a long truck and can be safe.

However, it usually doesn't work that way. There's always a break or a straggler or two. Crossing motorists will see this as an opening, and proceed.

Lends an entirely new meaning to the expression, "Devil takes the hind most". I've seen it happen too often, and BITD when I lead trips the warning to not blindly follow at intersections became standard at pre-trip briefings.

JoeyBike

The problem is obvious. Learn anything?

work4bike

The problem is obvious?? You're going to have to break it down for me....

Snowflake6

That's your assumption, but here's an alternative. Not saying either is correct. In some jurisdictions, a group of cyclists may proceed provided the lead rider has obeyed the traffic control. The following riders accordion up behind the leader and when the leader goes they all proceed as a group. It's akin to a semi-trailer or a bus going through the intersection. You said they "all" failed to stop, so I agree the lead rider at least was out-of-line. The following riders may have believed the leader did stop (as much as any vehicle stops at a stop sign these days) and were just following their leader. In that situation I too would have been indignant at some car pulling up later and the driver trying to navigate the roadway close to me while trying to berate me for something I did legally.

work4bike

By reading the description, it's difficult to say if any trailing (gapped) cyclists in that group needed to stop at that intersection. The way I see it, if you're in a group of cyclists, then of course it's best if the entire group rides thru the stop sign as one group (after stopping of course). However, it there are gaps, because the group is strung out, then of course the gapped cyclists need to stop, then proceed per normal traffic law.

The question becomes, how much of a gap are we talking? 1-second, 2-seconds, 3-seconds, 4-seconds, 5-seconds, 6-seconds, 7-seconds...

For the record, I don't get gapped, so I really don't know







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