Chris516

A couple days ago I saw a bike rider pull an absolutely moronic move. I was walking across the street from my hotel and saw a guy ride into oncoming traffic. It would have just been a simple mistake, had there not been one of those concrete island dividers in the middle of a four-lane road.

I thought about saying something, but decided the guy wouldn't listen.

nelson249

Not worth it. He'll figure it out one way or another.

Elkhound

I see a lot of wrong-way riders around here. They are mostly of a certain ethnic extraction.

Seattle Forrest

Wrecked the rear wheel on my commuter. This bike has disc brakes, so the shop had to order a new wheel. That means I'm driving for a couple days.

Last night a large SUV was coming at me in the wrong lane - mine. It wasn't passing anything, it was just driving on the wrong side of the road. It even flashed its lights and beeped at me, before veering back onto the proper side of the road. I was slowing down, and thinking about what comes next when they finally woke up.

NeuroDawg

Unfortunately, I did this on a few occasions for the first month after moving back to the US from Japan. Luckily I never hit anyone or anything.

Chris516

It sounds like a habitual mistake on your part, because of having become so used to driving on the left side of the road. That is very understandable.

I am glad you were not in Japan, when they suffered three national disasters back in February.

B. Carfree

We have the same problem here. All our salmon are white guys. Maybe they're recent immigrants from Great Britain.

degnaw

In Erie Pennsylvania, I swear there are more wrong way and sidewalk cyclists than there are "proper" (who ride the correct direction on roads) cyclists. It has the potential to be hazardous, as they come up pretty quickly and sometimes don't give you much time to merge left.

AlmostTrick

I seen a wrong way cyclist today who was obviously concerned about his safety. He was wearing a reflective hi-vis safety vest.

Digital_Cowboy

I encountered three of them the other night. I was riding northbound in a bike lane with arrows painted on the road making it clear as a bell which direction one is suppose to ride. And people still ride the wrong way. The three that I encountered the other day were grouped two together riding semi-decently (albeit in the wrong direction) and a third one some distance behind them. She couldn't hold her line to save her life. Given that this was also around sunset none of them if I remember correctly had any lights on their bikes. As I passed the group of two I told 'em that they were riding the wrong way. The only response was "I know."

Uh, if they know, then why were they riding the wrong way?!? Other than the short answer being that they don't care.

vol

I encountered several today. A woman maybe in her 50's wearing helmet was riding against traffic on Fifth Ave. (one-way) in Manhttan in the busiest midtown area during rush hour time. Some of these people are very daring. Just please don't squeeze me into traffic.

gpsblake

Charleston is full of bicyclist that are riding in the wrong direction on a one way street.

Juha

We're contemplating making it legal for bike riders to ride against traffic in one-way streets. Argument goes along the lines of making cycling easier in city surroundings (where all our one way streets are) and not "forcing" people to ride on sidewalks (which seems to be the most commonly chosen alternative to being a salmon).

I agree bike riders need to stay off the sidewalk. Last summer we had a pedestrian casualty when he was hit by a cyclist on sidewalk (it wasn't that clear cut case, but the collision happened in the sidewalk nevertheless). But I don't agree with the "forcing" part. I think it's poor route planning and excuses on riders' part to claim they have no other options. If nothing else, you can always walk the bike, it's usually just a short distance anyway before you can legally ride again.

--J

sharrn

I think I and a few other full on Roadies are the only one's going the right direction in the bike lanes/off sidewalks. I swear that I see more people either riding into opposing traffic in the bike lane, or on the side walk in both directions. It seems the "popular" thing to do is ride facing traffic on the sidewalk... I'm befuddled by this. I know its a pain to get around in my area due to stupid road design for bikes, but c'mon people!

Don in Austin

A few years ago I came across a salmon cyclist in my neighborhood. He was trying to be safe -- wearing a safety vest and helmet. I pulled over to the far right in my F250 rather than go around him. He was blocked. He flipped out and started beating on my fender yelling "You have a big truck!" I replied, "I have bicycles, also. You are on the wrong side of the street." I saw him in the neighborhood again a few times -- no longer a "salmon."

Not to defend or advocate what I did, but in this particular case it seemed to cause him to look into and change his misguided approach.

Don in Austin

JusticeZero

I do the 'wrong way on the sidewalk' thing myself at times. I don't want to ride into traffic, but I want to go up the street that one block instead of wandering everywhere looking for a way to loop around.

AlmostTrick

Does this mean that sometimes when a motorist decides to "teach a cyclist a lesson" it really does work?

KD5NRH

Such inane, obvious statements are almost certainly actually the code phrases for terrorist cells. I mean, come on; that was practically "the chair is against the wall." You should have hogtied him and dumped him at the nearest DHS office for processing.

Don in Austin

Originally Posted by Don in Austin
A few years ago I came across a salmon cyclist in my neighborhood. He was trying to be safe -- wearing a safety vest and helmet. I pulled over to the far right in my F250 rather than go around him. He was blocked. He flipped out and started beating on my fender yelling "You have a big truck!" I replied, "I have bicycles, also. You are on the wrong side of the street." I saw him in the neighborhood again a few times -- no longer a "salmon."

Not to defend or advocate what I did, but in this particular case it seemed to cause him to look into and change his misguided approach.

Don in Austin

Apparently it did in this case. Again, not to defend or advocate my what I did at that time.

Don in Austin

vol

It may have saved his life. He could have had an accident during a future salmoning. If I were riding my bike the wrong way and a car blocks me, I would have nothing to say, knowing I was wrong.

gcottay

And this thread is useful because . . .

I'm stuck.

chandltp

Well, that seems to be the way they teach kids to ride around here. Adults are picking it up the way they learned as kids.

My 6 year old daughter is getting the hang of riding the correct way though. She's understands it better than my 9 year old.

Although in all fairness, cars don't know how to deal with people that ride the right or wrong way in Erie.

opal

Unless I've taken the lane and am therefore in the middle, I try to stop for wrong way cyclists and make them go around - I'm not swerving out into traffic that I can't see and that they can (actually I can see in my mirror but that's not the point). They are usually annoyed ("you have so much space") or I had one guy try to play chicken. I was really tempted to do it because I had feet on the ground and would have had more control over a front wheel impact.

Then there was the wrong way pedestrian with a huge stroller on the MUP. It was already narrow because of nearby construction and the stroller took up the whole width of the lane. I guess they were going by the old "wisdom" to "walk against traffic" but it's a MUP with other walkers, not a vehicle-dominated road.

AMAlex

I've only seen a couple, and they were people on cruisers or non-road bikes, some without helmets.

bluefoxicy

Today I was coming home and almost plowed straight into a wrong-way cyclist. My front brake pads have worn pretty severely and my cables are crap JagWire low-end junk; I really need to replace the stock cables with some high-end JagWire or Shimano. The housing just won't bed in right, it keeps shrinking down. Still, I can get pretty good grab with a good, hard squeeze.

I became quite aware of just how much I love sharp response in my brakes. I don't care if a good grab gets me the same stopping power; I want my brakes nice and solid so I know I'm not about to plow some dumbass right off his bike.

I've almost plowed through several cyclists on my bike, more than I've nearly taken out in my car. But then I've driven 49 miles this month and biked near 150.