Uphill Cyclist Has Right of Way

[GreyBear]

I have a couple of areas along my commuting route that pretty much daily I have the opportunity to t-bone fellow cyclists who run red lights, stop signs, or yield signs. This morning, at one of these areas, a cyclist goes past two yield signs without looking, without yielding. I slow to avoid hitting him and as I went around him to pass, I used the opportunity to tell him that he had a yield sign. I said, simply, “you had a yield sign.”

He starts going off about something or another and I ride away. He catches up with me and is still going off. I tell him to be quiet, he went through a yield sign, he’s been reminded of the yield sign, end of story, unless he wants to apologize. He also starting going off about how “impressed he is with my riding ability” and asking me whether I ride a lot. Then, it got funny, he insisted that it was my obligation to yield to him, because he was going uphill (2 percent grade maybe, “uphill” was his description). I did blow him off at that point, despite my advanced years, commuter-laden bike, and unimpressive abilities.

So, I’ve been cycling for 40 years or so and never knew that going uphill trumps yield signs. This is on the paved multi-use trail, not a wooded single track. Does it also trump stop signs and red lights? This would explain a lot.

Topic

[CCrew]

@GreyBear 3910 wrote:

The W&OD is two lanes, clearly marked with a center line, no? Then the person who would have to go into the other lane would clearly be the one with the responsibility to yield.

Is that what it’s for? I thought that was the “Keep this line to your right when you’re riding with your buddies and oncoming riders be damned” line…..

I swear one of these days I’m just going to hang my left arm out and thwock one of these fools right in the helmet…

[GreyBear]

@CCrew 3947 wrote:

Is that what it’s for? I thought that was the “Keep this line to your right when you’re riding with your buddies and oncoming riders be damned” line…..

I swear one of these days I’m just going to hang my left arm out and thwock one of these fools right in the helmet…

Actually, the center line indicates where pedestrians must walk/jog. But seriously, that’s another of my pet peeves about the multi-use trails. Some people can’t understand that if they want to go around someone in their lane, they must wait until the oncoming traffic lane is clear. Seems pretty simple. But there are so many close calls, everyday. And the two or three abreast–errrr–I’ve come up on people riding that way and they go around every blind turn staying abreast. I can’t understand how they don’t have head on collisions.

[GreyBear]

@brendan 3917 wrote:

On the topic of cyclist-on-cyclist conflict, I’m smarting a bit after being yelled at by another cyclist, in Italian (which made it somewhat funny), for stopping at a stop sign on Tuesday night in East Potomac Park / Hains Point. Though, it is the de facto Velodrome for DC…

Brendan

Actually, that is pretty funny! Was he Italian, or was he the lead character in breaking away? Or maybe he was fantasizing that he was Alessandro Petacchi going for the stage win the Giro and you dared to get in the way of his fantasy.

[Riley Casey]

AFAIK the rule that the uphill traveling vehicle having the right of way dates back horse drawn days. It simply recognized that there was more work involved in going up hill than down and fewer options for maneuver. That carried over to motorized vehicles, even though the physics had been somewhat over taken by engineering simply because right of way still had to be defined _IF_ there were no other factors that defined ROW better. A yield sign most certainly trumps the up versus down hill relationship. Riding carefully and courteously strikes me as being the ultimate rule of thumb but then I’m closer to 60 than 20 now and I might have a different perspective than even my younger self.

[CCrew]

@DismalScientist 3930 wrote:

On a related, but non-bike subject, I was taught in driver’s ed, that one was to flash ones lights to indicate that you wanted to pass and, in particular, do so when in the left lane to “remind” the person in front of you when they have completed their pass. Around here, people take great offense at this as well as any suggestion that they maintain lane discipline. How and why did this occur?

Actually that’s changed. Post did an article on it the other day, VA actually considers that “aggressive driving” now.

[Author]

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