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I'm not going to defend insane moped drivers because they're awful but you know why they're in the bike lanes in the first place? Because the roads are too dang

I'm not going to defend insane moped drivers because they're awful but you know why they're in the bike lanes in the first place? Because the roads are too dangerous. > Drivers will behave like oblivious idiots, but they are predictable idiots. I wish I shared that optimism (if you can even call it that). NYC drivers are, in my experience, a deeply unpredictable bunch. Running red lights, wild U turns, excessive speeding, it's all a flip of a coin whether someone is going to do any of it right in front or behind you.

fnfjfk 3y ago
Let me give an example of the “predicable idiocy”: mixing zones on 1st Ave bike lane. Drivers are supposed to yield to cyclists, as they are left turning across a lane of straight moving traffic. It is extremely predicable that they never do, so I can prepare by instead cutting a bit outwards and going around them on the right. OTOH mopeds/e-bikes will simply come flying out the wrong way from a cross street and start riding head-on downtown. This isn’t something that you can see well in advance, and need to suddenly react to. It’s particularly bad on 1st because if they are salmoning out of a cross street they could have just gone the right way and ended up on 2nd, which goes downtown… I also disagree with the safety angle for them riding in bike lanes, because very few of them are even close to wearing proper motorcycle gear (ATGATT). If they cared about their safety they wouldn’t be wearing shorts and flipflops. They’re using bike lanes because it’s faster.