Missed connection

[Rockford10]

Yesterday caught me, and I suspect others, a little off guard. I was enjoying work so much (!) that when I noticed it was 6:45 and I hadn’t left, it was pretty dark. Thankfully I have some lights and got home just fine. The whole way I was thinking that runner/cyclist/kid/car/ninja/pothole should have lights. It’s getting darker earlier and yesterday was pretty cloudy. Bah.

[Phatboing]

You: male human in blue mustang, trying to turn right to get on Gallows Road, apparently thinking it was critical to your existence.

1. You very grudgingly yielded right of way to my colleague who was riding ahead of me.

2. Then you started accelerating again, forcing me to make my brakes screech.

3. You looked at me and pointed at my colleague, seeming to say, “I’ve met my quota of letting cyclists through”, and then honked.

Spoiler alert, there is no quota, said my admittedly ill-advised bright green middle finger.

You’re probably not a complete doofus, but I dislike you more because you broke my inner calm.

Doofus.

[GB]

@dplasters 95594 wrote:

“You really need to get a taillight and a headlight” .

I find I get less negative feedback when I go with a more fact based comment like “I found you very hard to see” rather than a command “you need…”.

[Drewdane]

@GB 95695 wrote:

I find I get less negative feedback when I go with a more fact based comment like “I found you very hard to see” rather than a command “you need…”.

Yeah. If some stranger yelled out “You really need to _____” at me, my immediate impulse would probably be to yell back “You really need to @#$% off!”, even if the other person is right.

My inner Dirt is closer to an inner Jabberwocky.

[dplasters]

@Drewdane 95704 wrote:

Yeah. If some stranger yelled out “You really need to _____” at me, my immediate impulse would probably be to yell back “You really need to @#$% off!”, even if the other person is right.

My inner Dirt is closer to an inner Jabberwocky.

I agree on phrasing. I had to veer off to turn left and just wanted to get a word in and that is sadly what came out. I’m not on Cedar for very long and it is one of the most dangerous parts of my ride. The section of Lee Highway I ride on feels safer. No street lights, no shoulder, narrow lanes, bumpy bridge pavement, two lanes, wildly impatient drivers.

I felt compelled to try something and pedal as I may, I couldn’t catch up to him before I had to turn.

[83b]

Terribly close call on the ride home last night.

Passing the Treasury building in the 15th St cycletrack, I was slowing because the light was about to change and I anticipated coming to a stop (or at least pausing) between the F St crosswalks, even though there were no pedestrians currently queued up. Just as the light went yellow, a kitted-out rider came flying around me to the left easily doing 25+ mph (probably trying to clear the light). And just as he did that, Business Bro in a nice suit stepped into the cycletrack without looking on his way toward the crosswalk. The only reason he didn’t get absolutely destroyed is that his buddy roughly yanked him back at the last second. They missed each other by inches.

Business Bro and I stopped and exchanged wide eyed looks. He exclaimed, “WTF, Yous Guys are Crazy!” I declined to point out that he’d just stepped into the road without looking and that the cyclist technically still had the light, because there was, frankly, plenty of poor judgement to go around. But man, I can totally see how disastrous ped/bike accidents like the recent ones in Central Park happen. If Bro had gotten hit at those speeds and his head had contacted the curb or one of those bollards…

I was a little shaken up for the rest of the ride home.

[Subby]

@83(b) 96009 wrote:

Terribly close call on the ride home last night.

Passing the Treasury building in the 15th St cycletrack, I was slowing because the light was about to change and I anticipated coming to a stop (or at least pausing) between the F St crosswalks, even though there were no pedestrians currently queued up. Just as the light went yellow, a kitted-out rider came flying around me to the left easily doing 25+ mph (probably trying to clear the light). And just as he did that, Business Bro in a nice suit stepped into the cycletrack without looking on his way toward the crosswalk. The only reason he didn’t get absolutely destroyed is that his buddy roughly yanked him back at the last second. They missed each other by inches.

Business Bro and I stopped and exchanged wide eyed looks. He exclaimed, “WTF, Yous Guys are Crazy!” I declined to point out that he’d just stepped into the road without looking and that the cyclist technically still had the light, because there was, frankly, plenty of poor judgement to go around. But man, I can totally see how disastrous ped/bike accidents like the recent ones in Central Park happen. If Bro had gotten hit at those speeds and his head had contacted the curb or one of those bollards…

I was a little shaken up for the rest of the ride home.

Those sections on the 15th street cycletrack near Treasury are pretty terrifying – lots of ped traffic, lots of obstructed view, lots of wanderers, and the stoplights, while in clear view, are in a weird spot. Plus you have a downhill trajectory for cyclists heading toward Constitution. I have slammed on the brakes a bunch of times and you really have to be SLOW and hyper-vigilant in that area during rush hour.

[baiskeli]

@83(b) 96009 wrote:

Business Bro and I stopped and exchanged wide eyed looks. He exclaimed, “WTF, Yous Guys are Crazy!”

Funny how he said “you guys are crazy” to the guy who was demonstrably NOT crazy.

[dasgeh]

@83(b) 96009 wrote:

He exclaimed, “WTF, Yous Guys are Crazy!”

An appropriate response could have been “The same could be said about you.” or better “you guys.”

[DismalScientist]

Umm… I don’t face these problems when I ride in the street outside the cycletrack.:rolleyes:

[jrenaut]

One of the things I hate about that stretch is that they clearly didn’t think through the ROW. They painted “Yield to pedestrians” on the cycletrack, but didn’t put lights facing the northbound riders. I’ve interpreted that to mean that cyclists do not have to stop at the stop lights, but do have to yield to pedestrians legally crossing at them. It’s not generally a problem for me as I rarely take that stretch southbound, so I’m usually uphill and therefore slower, but people do walk out without looking pretty regularly.

[baiskeli]

@DismalScientist 96029 wrote:

Umm… I don’t face these problems when I ride in the street outside the cycletrack.:rolleyes:

Pedestrians routinely step out into the street without looking and cyclists routinely rush to beat lights in the street too. It doesn’t sound like this incident was caused by a cycletrack.

[DismalScientist]

You generally have more maneuverability in a normal traffic lane than a cycletrack lane.
I also think pedestrians are more likely to look before entering a normal traffic lane than the cycletrack, not that I haven’t seen clueless pedestrians in both instances.

[baiskeli]

@DismalScientist 96035 wrote:

You generally have more maneuverability in a normal traffic lane than a cycletrack lane.

Maybe, maybe not. Sure don’t want to maneuver into a truck.

[DismalScientist]

Nah… I’ll just let the truck take out the jaywalkers.

[Author]

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