Bad cyclists giving us all a bad name
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I just had to post here to say how sick and tired I am of seeing fellow cyclists on my ride to and from work every weekday trying to mow down pedestrians. Yesterday on the ride home through Columbia Heights, one woman crowded through the crosswalk (*on* the zebra stripe) and got in the way of two groups of pedestrians only to wait there for the light to turn green. She wouldn’t give the pedestrians their right-of-way (when they had a walk sign) because she needed to be within the crosswalk so she could wait? What’s that all about? And downtown, I see cyclists cutting off pedestrians who are on their way to work – scores of people crossing the street at once, and a cyclist has to run through them, nearing hitting a few, in order to get through the intersection against the light.
Anybody have a good thing to say to these sort of cyclists when I witness an incident like this (besides a few swear words)? I have no authority to arrest them, but they should be called on their behavior, which is first rude but second dangerous.
I feel these sort of riders are giving the rest of us a bad name – causing us to be hated by pedestrians. I am a cyclist but also a pedestrian (and a driver). I don’t like to be mowed down by either cars or cyclists when I’m walking and trying to cross the street. Yet each group seems to feel the other groups are to be damned on the street – cyclists think pedestrians are to be damned, and drivers think both cyclists and pedestrians are to be damned. The more they try to kill, the better! It seems that each group doesn’t want to respect the more vulnerable group that moves slower than they do and that has less protection than they do.
As long as I’ve lived in this city, I have believed that all groups need some education, but especially drivers and cyclists. They need to learn to respect all other users of the streets and maybe try to obey a few laws. Breaking them seems to be this city’s sport!
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