[Brendan von Buckingham]

That’s an excellent illustration of why drivers freak out about cyclist behavior at stops signs. We all know the attitude: if a cyclist goes through a stop sign without stopping, the world is going to end. Well, that’s actually close to true for cars. It only takes one or two cars to gridlock an intersection. There’s a razor edge margin between order and chaos at a 4-way stop (if you’re driving a car). If a car doesn’t obey the protocol at a stop sign, gridlock can ensue. But how many bikes would it take to gridlock an intersection? 50? 100?

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I get that some want to reject being labeled as a culture in order to look mainstream and normal, but the mainstream for decades has identified us as a separate class, usually an underclass. It’s our label whether we think so or not. No use running away from that. Use the fact that we’re a class that is discriminated against as a group and fight for our group rights. There’s a culture in there somewhere.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@baiskeli 90009 wrote:

Bike to Rule could also complicate the debate, because some people simply think bikes shouldn’t be on roads even when they do follow the law because they (by their thinking) get in the way of the rightful users of roads.

Bikes will only be banned from roads once there are enough bike lanes to restrict us to.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I see the mass bike protest as already the radical tactic. That’s why I don’t ride in them. But if you’re going to do it right, do it right.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Those mass bike protests would be more effective if they rode to the letter of the regulations: single file (max 2 abreast but go single file if being overtaken), outside the door zone and taking your lane, no filtering at reds and stops (because of course that’s “unsafe”), each bike takes their own turn at 4-way stops. Better yet, use streets without bike lanes. That would cause huge traffic back-ups, but hey, bikes are just following the letter of the regs or doing what drivers are always yelling at us to do.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I fantasize too, but about Jennifer Anniston. But I’m sane enough to not stalk her on the internet. This guy’s coo-coo.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@hozn 89723 wrote:

…the cyclist was telling the driver to calm down; she was hysterical.

That’s interesting though isn’t it? I’ve had the same experience where, coming out of an accident, the cyclist is the calm one and the driver is the hysterical one even though it’s the cyclist facing the imminent danger while the driver is completely safe from harm.

This spring I made a mistake coming out of a stopped red light. I thought the car next to me was turning like me when in actuality it was going straight. We bumped (thigh to fender), but at low speed, so I never came off the bike. The driver went ballistic and freaked out, even though it was me who could have been hurt. She never gave me a chance to say “my bad.” Just shrieked.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

My bike commute is 8-miles one-way.

I took metro on my off days and realized, that during each train ride I was saying to myself, “I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this.”

Then the train would breakdown and I’d really flip out.

Made it really easy to just ride my bike everyday. I had been afraid of fatigue, but found out when I switched to everyday that there was nothing to be afraid of.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Another outbound option I tried worked for me, but might not be for everyone.

Northbound on Maine using right traffic lane. Pass under 395 and continue straight where Maine turns into 12th Street. Continue to Independence (you cannot swap C or D streets for Independence) then use left turn lane to turn left. Cross 14th and use left lane/green arrow to turn left on Wallenberg. Wallenberg to Ohio and the approach to the bike trail over the Potomac.

It’s a little round about, but more predictable than threading through the ever changing conditions on the Water Street sidewalk and Fish Market. Traffic on Maine going under 395 is usually jammed in the evening with stop and go cars in the middle and left lane; almost no through cars in the right lane. Both left turns at Independence and Wallenberg provide left turn only lanes with green arrow signal. Coming down Wallenberg, you can stop at the high point and time the light at Maine and carry that speed through Ohio.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

When I don’t ride in, I bus in and get a front row seat as we pass the construction. Last week they were using giant augers to drill what I presume were pier footers for the bed of the trail or retaining wall to hold back the soil from Ft. Myer. I’m not an expert, but completion by end of July is going to be ambitious.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

With a couple weeks lead time, I would love to do this. Sundays better than Saturdays. With a wife and two young boys, a one-way ride where I meet up with my car-tripping family in Gettysburg would work too. It’s the Wuss Plan in terms of miles, but makes for a more rational proposal on the home-front.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

@oldbikechick 86565 wrote:

Until one day a colleague witnessed it and was horrified at the scofflaw death-defying stunt (which to her looked like going through a red light at a busy intersection).

Which gets back to my larger point that non-cyclists (cops included), beyond one or two fundamentals, pretty much have no idea what they’re talking about, and invent “rules” to make up the difference.

I have no idea how free climbers scale cliffs without equipment. So I don’t give them advice how to do it.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Bikes with dashboards.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5713[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]5714[/ATTACH]

[Brendan von Buckingham]

My guffaw was basically that he told me it was OK for me to go through the red light if I used the crosswalk like a jaywalking pedestrian. If he went by the book, and told me to not go through reds and here’s a ticket for the bother, that I would understand and accept. His random alternative interpretation of what’s OK, is what I don’t understand. That’s just advice, and it was stupid advice.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

If I’m reeeeeeeeeeally sure a sign is illegal, or is a vigilante sign put up by a neighbor with no business putting up a sign, I’ll take it down myself. I stress the reeeeeeeeeeeally portion of that, because http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4362

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