New (to me) commuting situation…passing a school bus

[Vicegrip]

IMO Drop the idea that the likelyhood of hitting a kid is low. The fear parents feel is not low and the visability we cyclests have in this situation is high. Kids are little nutjobs with limited situational awareness. We parents know this. You know this. If you can conjure a work around great if not chill a bit as we road riding cyclests ask cars to do at times.

The thing to do is push for NG powered bus fleets with top mounted exhaust pipes so we can draft the big wind blocking yellow bricks rather than choke on 30 year old deisel motor exhaust.

[mstone]

@Vicegrip 97669 wrote:

IMO Drop the idea that the likelyhood of hitting a kid is low. The fear parents feel is not low and the visability we cyclests have in this situation is high. Kids are little nutjobs with limited situational awareness. We parents know this. You know this. If you can conjure a work around great if not chill a bit as we road riding cyclests ask cars to do at times.

I have kids, so I’m just as qualified to have an opinion as any other parent. I also have first hand experience that suggests that pandering to irrational parents is not sound policy. If parents actually cared about the safety of children, they wouldn’t drive like maniacs in the kiss & ride and routinely hit kids at the school. The “work around” you mention is to SLOW DOWN AND EXERCISE INCREASED CAUTION WHEN PEDESTRESTRIANS ARE PRESENT OR LIKELY TO BE PRESENT. The neat thing is, that work around is useful at all times, whether you’re on a bike, in a car, near a stopped school bus, near a stopped metro bus, at a crosswalk, on a MUP, etc.

[Greenbelt]

@Vicegrip 97669 wrote:

The thing to do is push for NG powered bus fleets with top mounted exhaust pipes so we can draft the big wind blocking yellow bricks rather than choke on 30 year old deisel motor exhaust.

Praise LOB — this can’t happen fast enough. Even better, all electric.

[Vicegrip]

@mstone 97672 wrote:

I have kids, so I’m just as qualified to have an opinion as any other parent. I also have first hand experience that suggests that pandering to irrational parents is not sound policy. If parents actually cared about the safety of children, they wouldn’t drive like maniacs in the kiss & ride and routinely hit kids at the school. The “work around” you mention is to SLOW DOWN AND EXERCISE INCREASED CAUTION WHEN PEDESTRESTRIANS ARE PRESENT OR LIKELY TO BE PRESENT. The neat thing is, that work around is useful at all times, whether you’re on a bike, in a car, near a stopped school bus, near a stopped metro bus, at a crosswalk, on a MUP, etc.

Pointing out other bad behavior is immaterial to the issue at hand. I ride. I have kids. I end up in front of and or behind yellow busses every am on the way to work. None of that makes me any more or less an expert on this issue than you. I like to use the KISS method when appropriate How my actions as a cyclist are interpreted by others reflects on us all Matters not if the parents are irrational (they are) my few seconds lost or not is the small price to pay. I am not going to get ticked off while soft pedaling or putting a foot down while a herd of kids piles into or out of a bus. They are all different and the same in that they are someone’s kid.

You have to be irrational to want to have kids in the first place. They eat our food burp fart and run off to play. They cost us money time and adult time with a SO. They ask for something for weeks and then only play with it for hours. They weave themselves so deeply into our hearts that seeing some guy or gal on a bike stop along with the cars means something. Does not make sense for sure.

This same conversation could be about drivers slowing for bikes

[Author]

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