Some peoples children
I see this sort of behavior all the time but saw something last night that really takes the cake. A little background first.
A major four lane thoroughfare on the outskirts of town, almost a small town beltline if you will, underwent a significant change recently. You see local residents suddenly wanted to make it more friendly for pedestrians and bikers. Okay, fair enough, it's going to help plug up traffic even more around town but give the people what they want right? So the four lane road, two vehicular lanes each direction, became one lane each direction, a green median, a bike and a walking path on both in both directions. Super nice looking and functional for everyone right? Wrong.
Last night i watched in amazement as two bicyclists held up traffic in one direction using one of the vehicular lanes. They weren't improperly using the walking lanes instead of the proper bike path, they weren't using the wrong bike path. They chose a vehicular lane. Being an avid biker myself that would never do such a thing when a perfectly better option was already offered, i watched in amazement as this couple went about their narcissistic business. Holding up an already overcrowded vehicular lane. Amazing!
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Anyone else have any experiences like this?
Yeah, I am a biker too and it bugs me to see people biking on the road when a sidewalk (and especially a bike lane) is available. On my bike hikes I always seek routes where I can be away from traffic. When I am forced to be on the road (say for ¼ mile) I am quite aware that I am making things difficult for drivers and get off that stretch as quickly as possible.
Some people are just unaware that their behavior affects others. Another pet peeve of mine are the left turn lane slow pokes. Left turn lights are often insufficient to clear the traffic but this is worsened when inconsiderate jerks s l o w l y move and leave big gaps. Sure, no problem for them getting through the light but they screw everyone else behind them.
Thats the really crazy thing about this one. They had both options, on both sides of the road and still picked the road. I was dumbfounded
Don’t even get me started. I hate cyclers who do that shit. I’m also a civil engineer and routinely have to provide bike lanes on projects where there’s no space for them, and where there’s no existing bike lane leading into or out of them. Between that and the ridiculous hurdles we have to go through to “treat” storm water I am embarrassed by my profession anymore. And by “treat” I mean collect it and run it through one kind of dirt before releasing it onto another kind of dirt. Whatever environmentalist whack job dreamed that up should be drawn and quartered - along with whatever moron developed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Yeah they wrecked this vehicular traffic pattern the entire county uses for a maybe a hundred local residents but honestly, being someone who likes to walk and bike. i got it. We don't always get what we like.
Now roundabouts ..... don't get me started. A time and a place for everything but now they are trying to fix traffic problem all over the place here them and only causing more issues where they don't belong. They are not a silver bullet to every traffic problem.
Roundabouts can be extremely useful in the right places. It’s the drivers that are the problem. They put one in at the entrance to my subdivision and it works perfect, but every once in a while some idiot thinks it’s a four way stop. However, if there’s a lot of pedestrians then it’s a bad idea, since drivers are more focused on the cars than the pedestrians.
Damn Civils, you always say that.
Love,
A Mechanical Engineer
Near my house there are two cemeteries, on on either side of what was a four lane "busy" street. The entrance to both cemeteries are at the top of small hill that rises for about an 1/8 of a mile on either side (coming or going) of the top. What this meant is that someone riding a bicycle in the outside lane could approach the top of the hill from one side not realizing that a speeding car might be coming at them from the other side ( speeding because passing other cars from the outside lane). The only thing that kept this from being really dangerous is that it is not a really heavy traffic street most of the time and there is a sidewalk running the length of the hill..
Within the last month or so the city changed the lanes and put a bicycle lane on both directions of the street. Even though the bike lane may not get a ton of use I think it is a long needed precaution.
Older cities have that problem a lot from what i've seen. Biking wasn't as big of a part of urban planning back then. Newer cities and burbs are different. I was impressed with Denver's burbs. A newer city and planned bike paths everywhere.
Where and when I grew up there were no "bike lanes", so there was less choice and of course the proper one was to keep to the far right of the vehicle lane, heading in the same direction, but there were still some idiots who dodged their way through the pedestrians on the sidewalks.