Here are the atrocious acts of the dangerous car drivers that my mini-cam captured today, on just one trip:
A car driving on both lanes of a two lane road, with half of his car in the opposing traffic's lane, on the underside of a hill where a person topping the hill from the other direction would not see this driver until it was too late
A total of 11 cars which did not yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk, despite the car drivers having plenty of time and space to come to a reasonable stop
Two cars using a bike lane as a right turn lane. They could have run me over if I hadn't seen them starting to crowd the lane behind me and I deliberately slowed to let them pass first. Apparently, some Madison drivers have no freakin' idea what a solid white line meansAll of this came from one random bike ride, on random streets, at a random time of the day. And it's like this day, after day, after day, in a city which has bike friendly reputation, but where many of the car-only drivers still have no clue about the laws that they are supposed to follow, laws which are supposed to keep everyone safe.
Why is this important to me? Because I don't want to be another tragedy until everyone figures out that driving cars has extremely important responsibilities that come with it, responsibilities (and laws) which the pictures and personal experiences above have shown are being completely ignored.
2 comments:
As a fellow biker, I have this to say: OH MY GOD, BE CAREFUL, MAN!!! THOSE DRIVERS ARE LUNATICS!!!
The first one, I chalked up to the guy being wasted. The second one I figured was due to people being inconsiderate, thinking their time was more important than that of a guy on a leisurely bike ride (because they'll never think you're actually going somewhere). But THE THIRD ONE absolutely blew me away!!! IN THE BIKE LANE??? Do they WANT to spend their life in prison for manslaughter??
They must seriously have absolutely no idea about what the lines on the roads mean. It made me reconsider the first picture: does that guy even know what the double yellow line means??? Or do they just not "see" lines? Do they see signs? Other cars? You?
Dude. I'm sure you know to be careful or you'd not have lived to even write this post, but maybe the best defense is a good offense. Can you bring things you can start chucking at cars that start crowding you out of the bike lane? Tomatoes? Eggs?
In general, I think that the "sharing the road" type of rules should be emphasized in driver's education and the license tests, especially if it's a bike-friendly town or state. I also think that car drivers aren't tested according to a level that either ensures public safety, or that gets the drivers of 2,000+ vehicles to operate safely on a daily basis.
Case in point: with picture #3, if the drivers knew the law and that they can't drive over a solid white line bordering the lane (they can cross a striped white line), that crazy picture never would have happened. The white car was properly positioned in the automobile lane with his right turn signal flashing, but when he saw the maroon SUV in the bike lane he must have thought it was OK to use the lane, and then he shifted lanes to the right, causing the SUV driver to brake suddenly and throw her arms up in disgust. Ironically, if the SUV driver didn't illegally use the bike lane as a right turn lane none of this would have happened, and yet it was the SUV driver who was breaking the law but who felt an injustice had occurred. The most likely explanation is that the SUV driver didn't know she was breaking the law.
In her defense this particular bike lane is oversized, but the law is the law, and when people don't follow laws based on transportation and public safety, somebody will most likely be hurt.
Or worse.
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