A teenage male driving the wrong way on a one way street and in the bike lane, trying to fake side-swipe a jogger who appeared to be a friend of his. Here you can see his car clearly positioned over the bike lane, and just a few inches from the bridge wall, the jogger is about 15 feet in front of the car. The bike lane is marked by the double/solid yellow stripes
Three cars which did not yield to pedestrian/bike traffic in a marked crosswalk. They could have easily stopped, they were moving slowly and going uphill, but noooooooo, these actions would make it seem it's apparentley a car driver's God-given right their keep his foot on the gas, no matter if Wisconsin state law says they have to stop
Three more cars like this big honkin' SUV which not only refused to yield to pedestrian/bike traffic in a marked crosswalk, but they ACCELERATED after I placed my bike's front wheel and two feet into the crosswalk (which legally indicates that the crosswalk was in use). If their actions don't say "try it and I'll run you over!" I don't know what does. And this particular crosswalk has a big sign in the middle of it that says "STATE LAW-Yield to pedestrian traffic"
I ask you, regardless of my own personal opinion, wouldn't it be best for everyone to just follow the laws already in place? Is that so hard? If one person follows the laws and other people don't, it places the one person who follows the laws in danger. If most people don't follow the laws, the danger for that one person who does increases exponentially.Ultimately, I think it means that no matter how much a city or state incorporates cycling transportation into its infrastructure (props to all of Oregon, Wisconsin/Madison, and Minneapolis), and no matter how many of those citizens cycle as opposed to driving, until the driver-only population educate themselves (because cycling and pedestrian safety laws aren't normally incorporated in driver's license exams), nobody is safe.
Even the other drivers.
All I want to do is to get from point A to point B safely. But no matter how safely I do so, my health is at risk until the drivers learn the rules and responsibilities of operating a car. There's a reason why these things are already law.
4 comments:
Your pictures are unbelievable. Maybe you could send them to the city or state government and ask that they start enforcing the laws they spent so much time creating. They used taxpayers' money to build an infrastructure around the laws: they painted the streets & put up signs like the one shown in the last picture. Did they do all that so drivers could ignore the entire effort and render it useless?
You take great pictures and write so well. I think your government would be shocked to see all this. At least I hope they would! :-)
As a resident of Portland, OR where some of those progressive cycling laws are passing, I can tell you drivers - and pedestrians - are still idiots. To be fair, we have our share of both idiot and renegade cyclists as well. Sigh. Maybe someday it will be safe to use the streets. Until then, I'll keep my bike on the bike trails just for fun, and take the bus to work.
I agree with you 100% trashmaster, both cyclists and car drivers violate the law (look for my next post later today, on 06/02/2011). When they do so, everybody's safety is at risk, no matter what they are driving or riding, and no matter how well they are prepared.
I firmly believe that cyclist's rights, and the "sharing the road" laws should be emphasized in driver's education and the license exams, because car drivers aren't going to learn the rules elsewhere. The cyclists tend to learn them only because they experience danger from the actions or words of an unknowing driver.
I also believe that bicycle-friendly cities like Portland, Madison, and Davis, California, should especially make an effort to train car drivers, due to the increased number of cyclists on the road. I'd have to say that here in Madison, I'm seeing far more cyclists out than when I moved back a couple of years ago.
Amystress, I am working with a group who is trying to meet with the mayor and discuss cyclists' safety and the need for everyone to follow the rules. If requested, I have tons of video detailing the violations I see to show him.
Oo God! these streets is something usual in Greece!
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