Sterling Place and Vandy last night?

Ugh...I got hit (on a bike) last week at Vandy & St Marks. This morning I saw an ambulance next to a car with a broken front windshield (as if someone had been hit) on Underhill btwn St Johns and Eastern Pkwy.

Be careful out there!!

I'm a strong believer that most car vs. bike/pedestrian accidents are caused by speeding, reckless, or inattentive drivers, rather than inattentive bikers/peds.

However, I've been hyper-observant of all kinds of traffic interactions, biker behaviour,etc. since my accident, and I do want to call out one group whose actions blow my mind....Bikers who talk on their cellphones while riding. That seems like a death wish to me, since they are both distracted and unable to adequately stop or steer the bike with only one hand. This is on top of my generic amazement about people who ride in traffic without helmets (although most cell phone talkers seem to fall into that category as well).

I recently got a bike. I'm scared to ride because i can't figure out which laws i'm supposed to follow. I always thought that bikes were to ride like cars - but i see them riding like people walk instead here in NYC.

For example ::
- If I am driving, and there is a red light, i STOP whether there are other cars coming or not.
- If I am walking, I stop at the "don't walk" sign, look both ways, and then cross if no cars are coming.

So on a bike I assume I have to stop and wait whether there are cars or not. But here, bikers seem to zip through red lights and practically hit people walking.

If you want to be treated like a car, ACT like a car. If you go through even one red light you have no right to complain about cars not respecting you on the road.

BKChickie wrote: [quote=arches]Bikers who talk on their cellphones while riding.

Gotta say, I've never seen that one before!



Daver JUST saw this the other day in Manhattan- the guy was pissing off all the cars on the road completely ignoring everyone and everything and when one car started honking and telling him to get out of the way....the biker flipped him off and then went BACK to his phone conversation!

If and when that guy gets creamed- we'll all know why.

xlizellx wrote: If you want to be treated like a car, ACT like a car. If you go through even one red light you have no right to complain about cars not respecting you on the road.

AMEN!!

Let's not get carried away here. I can make a loooooong list of cars you shouldn't ACT like. Car as role model is a liitle hard to swallow while waiting to have bones pinned back together. Just sayin'.

a

last week I was driving in PS. I was the first car stopped at a red light. Light turns green - I still look around - see nobody and start going. All of the sudden a middle-aged man on a bicycle wanders right in front of my car coming from 6th Ave. with NO HANDS on the bike because he is lighting his corn-cob pipe. WTF?! In the middle of the intersection, not looking, no hands on the bike, no helmet....right into traffic.

While THAT particular incident hasn't happened to me before, I can't even count the number of times delivery bikes have come across my path going down one-way streets the wrong way, or bikers have crossed right into traffic or weaved well outside of a bike lane (marked or while just riding to the far right of the road), or those who are talking on their cell phones (without a headset) while biking.

I am a pretty cautious driver, but it really pisses me off that I might hit some asshole who isn't obeying the law or paying attention. I might injure or kill somebody through no fault of my own. I can't even imagine the guilt I would feel ....never mind all of the potential costs associated with an accident like that (lawyers, insurance, etc.).

Sure, there are asshole drivers and asshole pedestrians all over the place. They piss me off too.

as driver i say its mostly the fault of drivers. I have done dead stops for bikers who don't believe in braking and going through lights. but most of the times drivers would run lights etc... and do alot of dumb things that could get people killed. if a biker does those they get themselves killed.

there's a whole site for the Biking Rules stuff, and you can download the handbook.

http://bikingrules.org/