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This was a well written article. I'm a commuter cyclist (in San Francisco) and I admit to taking actions that I'm sure piss off some pedestrians. I always feel

This was a well written article. I'm a commuter cyclist (in San Francisco) and I admit to taking actions that I'm sure piss off some pedestrians. I always feel bad about it and am working on it. The one thing is that 99% of my focus is on dealing with the 1-ton boxes of death metal traveling at 60KM/h and not on the 150lb squishy humans going 5KM/h. The new bike lans going up in the city are awesome though. I'm sure if you looked at biker<->pedestrian conflicts on a street like Folsom before and after the huge bike lane they put up, you would (hopefully!) see a marked decrease.

alooPotato 12y ago
The thing that really pisses off pedestrians is when bicycles don't stop when their supposed to and just go through intersections when they aren't supposed to. That type of action doesn't help with your safety against motor vehicles, its purely bicyclists not wanting to stop. That seems selfish on the part of bicyclists who do this.
- kaonashi 12y ago
  Just walk. The cyclist most likely sees you and is waiting for you to move past. The worst thing you can do is react to the cyclist, stopping and starting.
  - aganders3 12y ago
    I agree, but peds who never ride bikes don't realize this and I don't think you can expect them to. They're used to interacting with cars, where there's not enough room for both (a car and a ped) in an intersection, so their reaction is to avoid sharing it.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- aganders3 12y ago
  I'm a pedestrian, cyclist, and driver (not necessarily in that order). I totally understand this, but I also think it's a general misunderstanding. Many (most?) pedestrians have extensive experience driving or at least riding in motor vehicles, but few have the same amount of experience cycling. Thus, pedestrians trust cars (even though statistics suggest they shouldn't) to stop or avoid them at crosswalks and driveways because they know they do it, too. A cyclist may run a stop sign and ride through a crosswalk very close to a pedestrian. They do not consider this dangerous behavior, because they are in control and they know it. Pedestrians (even those with biking experience) may not have inherent trust the cyclist is in control or aware, and this instills fear. The cyclist rides away without even knowing they scared the pedestrian, while the pedestrian feels they were endangered. These interactions then reinforce stereotypes. My point is that _everyone_ is acting selfish at intersections [0], and nobody thinks they are a threat because they believe they're in control. I think things get most heated with (against) cyclists because while most cyclists are also pedestrians and drivers, the reverse is not true. [0] http://vimeo.com/24572222 http://vimeo.com/24572222
tootie 12y ago
This was a poorly written article. He moved the goal posts. Do cyclists break the law? Yes, constantly. My neighborhood has a lot of bike lanes, but all that means is I know where to look for a cyclist that's about to run a red light or be moving opposite the flow of traffic. Scott Simon is not wrong. The author's point about the frequency of serious injuries is well-taken, but it doesn't prove Simon wrong. He's just using it as a segue to make a related argument.
- JackFr 12y ago
  The author also relied too heavily on 'fatalities' as a metric of safety. A pedestrian hit by a bike running a red like almost certainly won't be killed, and might not even end up in the hospital. That shouldn't grant bikers a license to run red lights with impunity. To his credit, though, he goes very light on the typically insufferable cyclist tone of moral superiority one finds in articles of this ilk.
  - peatmoss 12y ago
    So we shouldn't consider risk of fatality as a safety metric? Also, play "typically insufferable cyclist tone of moral superiority one finds in articles of this ilk" back in your head and think about how it sounds.
arnarbi 12y ago
> The one thing is that 99% of my focus is on dealing with the 1-ton boxes of death metal traveling at 60KM/h and not on the 150lb squishy humans going 5KM/h. That's not a good attitude. For those 150lb squishy humans, you are a 180lb of mostly the same, but moving 20km/h. Moreover, you are almost totally silent and much harder to see than a car. Add that to the fact that non-cyclists may not be able to instinctively predict what you are going to do next. I'm also a commuter cyclist in SF, and find that it's not that hard to be considerate of pedestrians.
- OmarIsmail 12y ago
  Yup, for sure. And I'm working on it and certainly hope other cyclists work to improve their behavior as well.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

alooPotato 12y ago

The thing that really pisses off pedestrians is when bicycles don't stop when their supposed to and just go through intersections when they aren't supposed to. That type of action doesn't help with your safety against motor vehicles, its purely bicyclists not wanting to stop. That seems selfish on the part of bicyclists who do this.

kaonashi 12y ago
Just walk. The cyclist most likely sees you and is waiting for you to move past. The worst thing you can do is react to the cyclist, stopping and starting.
- aganders3 12y ago
  I agree, but peds who never ride bikes don't realize this and I don't think you can expect them to. They're used to interacting with cars, where there's not enough room for both (a car and a ped) in an intersection, so their reaction is to avoid sharing it.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
aganders3 12y ago
I'm a pedestrian, cyclist, and driver (not necessarily in that order). I totally understand this, but I also think it's a general misunderstanding. Many (most?) pedestrians have extensive experience driving or at least riding in motor vehicles, but few have the same amount of experience cycling. Thus, pedestrians trust cars (even though statistics suggest they shouldn't) to stop or avoid them at crosswalks and driveways because they know they do it, too. A cyclist may run a stop sign and ride through a crosswalk very close to a pedestrian. They do not consider this dangerous behavior, because they are in control and they know it. Pedestrians (even those with biking experience) may not have inherent trust the cyclist is in control or aware, and this instills fear. The cyclist rides away without even knowing they scared the pedestrian, while the pedestrian feels they were endangered. These interactions then reinforce stereotypes. My point is that _everyone_ is acting selfish at intersections [0], and nobody thinks they are a threat because they believe they're in control. I think things get most heated with (against) cyclists because while most cyclists are also pedestrians and drivers, the reverse is not true. [0] http://vimeo.com/24572222 http://vimeo.com/24572222

tootie 12y ago

This was a poorly written article. He moved the goal posts. Do cyclists break the law? Yes, constantly. My neighborhood has a lot of bike lanes, but all that means is I know where to look for a cyclist that's about to run a red light or be moving opposite the flow of traffic. Scott Simon is not wrong. The author's point about the frequency of serious injuries is well-taken, but it doesn't prove Simon wrong. He's just using it as a segue to make a related argument.

JackFr 12y ago
The author also relied too heavily on 'fatalities' as a metric of safety. A pedestrian hit by a bike running a red like almost certainly won't be killed, and might not even end up in the hospital. That shouldn't grant bikers a license to run red lights with impunity. To his credit, though, he goes very light on the typically insufferable cyclist tone of moral superiority one finds in articles of this ilk.
- peatmoss 12y ago
  So we shouldn't consider risk of fatality as a safety metric? Also, play "typically insufferable cyclist tone of moral superiority one finds in articles of this ilk" back in your head and think about how it sounds.

arnarbi 12y ago

> The one thing is that 99% of my focus is on dealing with the 1-ton boxes of death metal traveling at 60KM/h and not on the 150lb squishy humans going 5KM/h. That's not a good attitude. For those 150lb squishy humans, you are a 180lb of mostly the same, but moving 20km/h. Moreover, you are almost totally silent and much harder to see than a car. Add that to the fact that non-cyclists may not be able to instinctively predict what you are going to do next. I'm also a commuter cyclist in SF, and find that it's not that hard to be considerate of pedestrians.

OmarIsmail 12y ago
Yup, for sure. And I'm working on it and certainly hope other cyclists work to improve their behavior as well.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]