If anyone knows a cyclist that has a solar panel attached to the back of their back pack, please show this bitch to them because it might save their life if we can stop them from making another unsafe lefthand turn.
Here’s how the story goes: I’m in the right most lane at a red light. There is a left lane next to me for left-turning vehicles. My lane is not a turning lane, I am expected to go straight. The cyclist (not sure of gender) pulls up to my front passenger wheel ( yep, the cyclist is to right of me). The cyclist signals left with his/her arm.
I am confused about the hand signal. However, the street across from me is congested due to the parking lane, so I assume that she/he wants to take the lane. She/he was not in front of me, I did not have to yell for her/him but I did anyway because I know how difficult it can be for a cyclist. Anyway, the light turns green, I hold off on the gas pedal and let her/him get about 5-10 feet ahead of me. I was going to let her get into position in the lane ahead of me before I was going to overtake him/her.
This is a good thing, because the idiot cuts across my lane to make a left- hand turn. I could have hit her/him but fortunately for his/her sake, I am not an agressive driver and I was already feathering the brakes for his/her sake. This cyclist is DUMB, STUPID and will die if someone doesn’t warn them not to drive so stupid on the streets.
The cyclist should have gotten into the left- turning lane. I cam imagine that this can be scary for some people. But it is better to be scared and alive, than dumb and dead. Furthermore, I can think of two alternate ways he could have made the turn safely. 1) get off the bike and cross as a pedestrian, and 2) go straight across the intersection, stop, turn your bike 90 degrees, and wait for the lights to change.
It is a damn good thing that the left lane was a turning lane, because if it was a lane that was allowed to go straight, there would have been a fatality. Please advise this person to trade in their solar panel for a bus pass.
– sorry about the he/she thing
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2014.
This is why dash cams were invented, to protect drivers from lycra cunts.
Maybe pay more attention to cyclists? Get a bell for your car? Walk?
That is fucked.
In what sense did the cyclist think that signalling left in the right hand lane gives them the right to sweep across two lanes of traffic to make a turn?
Jebus.
Won’t be long before we see them in the metro…
OP, very concise bitch… a rarity these days.
I’m on the fence as I’ve pulled similar moves. If a cyclist travels on the far-right side of the road with bumper to bumper traffic to their left, how can they possibly change lanes through the cars? At this point the cyclist is expected to become a pedestrian to cross the road. In Ontario as in Nova Scotia, a bicycle is a vehicle under the highway traffic act and I would highly doubt any car/truck would become a pedestrian in a similar situation. As I’ve seen many times a vehicle in this situation wouldn’t simply stop their car, hold up traffic and make the lane change. I wonder what the attitude to a cyclist would be if they had done the same? I also wonder how safe of a move that would be for a cyclist, maybe safer than the move they pulled on you, OB?
You also assumed the cyclist wanted to take the lane after signalling. This would not be the rules of the road because the far right vehicle, in this case the bicycle, would already have the lane. However, it was a shitty lane change. This is why I’m on the fence about it. You misunderstood the cyclists signal while at the same time the cyclist signalled too late while at the same time they did not have an oppurtunity to make a lane change because of the line of cars.
Drivers need to realize that a bicycle can share the road but cannot act as a motor vehicle would. Thats why its called “sharing” the road.
“In what sense did the cyclist think that signalling left in the right hand lane gives them the right to sweep across two lanes of traffic to make a turn?”
That would be the same sense that a motor vehicle operator uses to change lanes. They signalled from the right to go to the left, just as a car would.
You should have suspected something right away with the solar panel. He or she was probably seeing if solar power could move the vehicle but lo and behold only the left side got power and the bike went in that direction on its own.
I’ve started making a habit out of watching cyclists in general, and based on what I see you’d be hard pressed to convince me there is single cyclist who follows the rules. Even the ones who appear to be somewhat following the rules cannot seem to see stop signs and roll through them.
What OB posted about is not surprising to me in the least.
That was what we refer to as a “stupid person”. Any attempt to rationalize that behavior makes one additional person look stupid.
If OB’s vehicle turning left is illegal, so is the cyclists.
The correct position for the cyclist is to the right of the left turning lane.
What you have seen is a revolutionary new step in drone technology – The Solar Powered Smuggie. It came out of a proposal from the Clinton administration to D.A.R.P.A. (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in the mid -90s to create an unmanned rotary vehicle with limitless range, 100% renewable pwer source and unsurpassed capacity to inspire fury in order to distract American citizens from all talk of blue dresses and blowjobs venting forth from their car radios. Despite going through 3 administrations, typical Washington Pork Barrel politics have prevented this program from being canceled, although clearly, there are still some software bugs to be ironed out.
BTW, if this was me, I would have gunned it when the light turned green. That means she would have cut across the vehicle behind me. A vehicle that would already be accelerating to pass her.
I think cyclists are nearly as bad as drivers. Keep your eyes open and try not to react emotionally to the dumbasses that drive these roads.
As a pedestrian, cyclist driver, and motorcyclist, I’ve come to realize that intelligence is vary lacking in this province!
In response to “I’m on the fence as I’ve pulled similar moves. If a cyclist travels on the far-right side of the road with bumper to bumper traffic to their left, how can they possibly change lanes through the cars?”
You ever heard of approaching the intersection, getting off your bike, walking across the street, using the provided cross-walk, which was actually being taught to children, then getting back on your bike and moving along, rather than putting yourself in danger, or are you one of those people who are waiting for nature to take them out?!
I mean I honestly don’t understand the level of stupidity behind what I sometimes see from pedestrians and cyclists!
The fucking moron would not have had to ‘change lanes’ at all if they were in the right fucking lane to begin with or opted to stay behind the car waiting their turn.
Its shitheads like this that ruin it for people like me.
The solar panel should have been enough of a flag to give this asshole 50-100m.
Sorry you had to deal with this.
I still love the anti cyclist attitude. In a five minute Google search I produced the results of over 50,000 tickets issued in HRM to motor vehicles. I’m hard pressed to find even one ticket issued to a cyclist. My goodness, in 2012 alone there were almost 11,000 speeding tickets in HRM.
I guess the police just turn a blind eye to cyclists, right?
Well Nukka, motorized vehicles have these funny things on them called licence plates which give the police all sorts of info like names and addresses. Bikes don’t.
Ok, Bro Tim. So how does a pedestrian get a ticket? Or am I to understand the only way to get a ticket or get stopped by the police is if you have a license plate? Don’t you have experience in law inforcement?
And Bro Tim, have you ever heard of those funny little things called ID? You know, the things that have your information on them. Like names and addresses.
Cyclist’s certainly lucky he got you, i woulda been all like “WOOO!! IT IS NOW GAS TIME!!” aaaaand he woulda died, gold star for being a good driver!
A cyclist did this on Kempt this morning while I was driving to work.
He signalled and we let him cross the traffic onto Lady Hammond. I get nervous when cyclists are on the road so extra caution is had whilst driving around them.
Too good for the bus now, eh?
Did you take the old volvo or is that under lock and key?
If I’m at the front of the intersection in the right hand lane, it’s WAY too late to think about turning… but I can go one more fucking block, turn legally and still be headed to wherever the fuck I’m going.
Well Nukka, in Canada citizens are not required to carry papers to walk or bike.
When a vehicle takes off one can get a plate number, when a pedestrian or cyclist takes off the chances to ID them go down dramatically.
It t’was a car kinda day, Zed. Old volvo’s got the heated seats and a deeecent sound system. Lots of the 1D up in thurr.
Bus tomorrow. And maybe a quarter pounder with cheese 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08ITsgiL6v8
‘Bout sums it up.
Nukka is totally the “what could I do guy?” fo show!!!
nice
a bike is afforded the same conditions as a car when travelling or stopped. if you are making a left hand turn you are also required to be in that lane to make the left hand turn, properly signalling to do so as the biker as well. passing someone on the right hand side then cutting across and making a left hand turn is in fact a violation of the motor vehicle act and the highway traffic act. you cant do it in a car/truck etc, you CANT do it on a bicycle either. well written advice OB…need more bicyclists to start following the laws and rules of the road and motorists too.
cyclists scare the crap out of me when I am driving. I wish they would all disappear because it gives me anxiety but……they have every right to be out there. and we, being the drivers with tons of hot metal under our control, should be going more than half way to give them room, try to anticipate, let them in.
so what if they make an asshole move? are you ok with killing someone as long as you can say ‘it was their fault’ ?
and why are so many drivers such assholes by at-speed passing a cyclist on the road when there is oncoming traffic instead of (god forbid ) SLOWING down a bit to hang behind the cyclist until it is clear to safely pass him?