Almost hit twice

[pinkfootedgoose]

I am a decently experienced rider. I commute to work every day – rain or shine – and ride a road bike in the evenings for exercise. One evening last week during my 2 mile commute from work, I almost got hit twice – both times by bicycles! When I commute, I adhere to traffic signals rather obsessively, but I do so consciously as to make my trip mindless. While I understand the reasoning of the experienced riders who choose to go through red lights – because they know what they are doing, I worry that as more people take up bicycling, they also take up this practice – and blow through red lights without experience. I fear this may become a serious problem. No longer is it one, experienced cyclist who chooses to go through a red light knowing the risk and looking for cars and cyclists, now it is an inexperienced rider on a Bikeshare with headphones on blindly riding through a red light on Pennsylvania Ave. It is unrealistic to expect others to take up my “stop for every single red light” approach, but something needs to be done to encourage safe riding.

Topic

[cyclingfool]

@sethpo 85319 wrote:

I am not going to pay a bit of attention to complaints about scofflaw cyclists until I can go one full day w/o seeing a motoristing piloting a 2,000lb weapon while engaged in texting, eating, etc.

2,000 lbs? You’re being kind. Curb weight of a Cadillac Escalade is nearly 3 times that at ~5,800 lbs. Which only makes what you’re saying even more relevant.

[Author]

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