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Tension Between Cars and Bicycles on the Increase
Sam Hendren, WOSU Reporter
May is National Bike Month; this week is Bike to Work Week and Friday is Bike to Work day. Thousands of central Ohioans are already riding bicycles for a variety of reasons – not the least of which are rising gasoline prices. But there’s tension on the streets of Columbus between cars and bicycles.
Linda Vitak says she doesn’t usually ride in the city because of drivers. “I try not to ride in town because I don’t think the cars really believe that you have really any right on the road,” she says.
Ohio State student Josh Botti was riding up Lane Avenue recently when he says he was accosted by a driver. “I was only able to go about 15 miles an hour up hill,” he says. “He didn’t want to wait behind me and honked at me and honked at me and just came and tried to swipe at me with his car. It was pretty ugly.
Ryan Delia has a similar story: “I was actually pretty scared,” he says. “He flew passed me in his monster truck and got really close, almost clipped me. And then when he came to the stop sign he chased me down. I had to ride away pretty quickly.”
With more and more bicycles competing for the same asphalt that cars use, more confrontations are occurring.
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Tension Between Cars and Bicycles on the Increase
By: timjeby
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To start off, I do agree that cyclists need to follow the rules. There are a few bad apples in the bunch that color a lot of bias against us.
That said, this attitude needs to stop:
This is the woman interviewed describing a cyclist in the center of a lane. Based on the article, I think I know the stretch where this occurred and where there are a lot of parked cars. Guess what? We take the lane to make it safer for ourselves and drivers. If I ride 3 inches to the side of a parked car, I run the risk of being doored or having a car pull out on me. Bigger does not confer a greater sense of entitlement.
I wonder if I could get a reflective safety t-shirt made that reads “your son or daughter could be riding this bicycle” on the back? Or something like that?
Just thinking about how to provide perspective, I know some people are just jerks regardless.
It is the truth, cars go faster and weigh more. There is no denying this. Bigger does not confer a greater sense of entitlement, but faster does. Bikes are too slow, you are so overly concerned with your safety, then get off the road. All i hear about all the time with cyclists is safety this, and safety that. This safety crap drives me nuts with cyclists. Safetty tips for how to ride safe in an urban environment classes. Kids growing up today, i feel sorry for them, with all this safety crap shoved down their throats. Back when I was a young kid, we would make fun of you and chase you on our bikes, and throw crap at you, if you wore a helment. I am just so sick of hearing about safety, it is a bicycle, not a Ducati.
Idiotic Flamebait Post of Day winner right here folks!
I am not anti-cyclist or anti-car. I do both. But I do get super pissed when cyclist just run lights and weave in out of pedestrian traffic. I almost got clipped trying to cross the street by Rosendales on foot by a cyclist on Tuesday because he ran the light. I was so close to kicking him as he wizzed by. I guess there are bad drivers and bad cyclist and they both piss me off equally. Thats my rant.
I’ll go ahead and admit my annoyance at cyclists too.
If you expect us to travel behind you at several miles an hour below the speed limit, then please do not run that light when it turns red, because I wouldn’t be waiting at the damned light if I hadn’t waited on you. I have never seen a cyclist stop at a red light. Maybe I don’t drive downtown enough – who knows.
sorry – had to get it off my chest. I have no problem sharing the road, and I love riding my bike too.
The ONLY time I get upset with people on bikes is in my neighborhood. There is this dumb woman who insists on riding down the middle of the street with her 2 dogs on leashes going taking up the entire street! Sometimes oblivious cyclists who wander into the middle of the road scare me….I do not want to hit them but feel like they are not paying attention and might run into me!!
I wish we could be more like Boulder. It has always been a great bike friendly city, but cyclists do not do retarded things like the aforementioned.
We don’t need another 100-page thread about Cyclists VS Drivers, so let’s try to keep this somewhat productive.
Thanks.
I loooove cyclists and bikes and walkers and all that. But there is a mystery here, causing the tension perhaps?:
Bikers usually go waaaay slower than cars. We have got to make our city more bike-path-friendly or else our streets are going to be a clogged mess. I mean, what would it be like if all cars started going 10-15 MPH?
OK: life would probably be better :) I’m just saying, I’ve gotten stuck behind bikes for like 20 minutes at a time and it’s no fun when I’m going to be late getting somewhere.
Any suggestions/ideas?
P.S. I am VERY happy to see so many folks out for Bike-to-work Week though!!!
Thanks.
+10000000000
Bikers usually go waaaay slower than cars. We have got to make our city more bike-path-friendly or else our streets are going to be a clogged mess. I mean, what would it be like if all cars started going 10-15 MPH?
OK: life would probably be better :) I’m just saying, I’ve gotten stuck behind bikes for like 20 minutes at a time and it’s no fun when I’m going to be late getting somewhere.
Any suggestions/ideas?
P.S. I am VERY happy to see so many folks out for Bike-to-work Week though!!!
I think there was just a thread that talked about how they dealt with it in Berkley……that seemed like a great idea.
Sorry Walker. Are there any other Columbus blog sites where we don’t have to worry about upsetting you?
Umm, yeah so I guess I misread THE TITLE OF THIS THREAD.
Jesus people, it’s just a little conversation. :?
Sorry I missed whatever 20-page duke-out y’all had before, just trying to express my (albeit humble) opinion.
Drivers feel the same way getting stuck behind bicycles that cyclists do getting stuck behind pedestrians, and pedestrians feel the same way nearly getting clipped by bicycles that cyclists do nearly getting clipped by cars. Obviously, the “stakes,” if we want to use a crude metaphor, are higher in any bicycle-motor vehicle interaction than in cylist-pedestrian encounters, but the dynamic (just wildly different speeds and momentum involved) are analogous.
They really ought to have dedicated bike lanes on “slow” urban arterial streets (Neil, High, Fifth, Gay, etc.) and no-bike policies on “fast” arteries (3rd, 4th, Spring, etc.). The modes of transportation simply don’t mingle well.
Might as well have cars driving on train tracks.
I’m saying this with a level head, in a non confrontational manner. We do not all live on CU 24/7, so we miss some of the conversations from time to time. Also, not all of us feel in with, or have the need to constantly keep up with the main clique or crew on here, so we often miss the hidden conversations that pop up in their threads.
I understand getting sick of a topic. For instance, streetcar threads. I support streetcars, and I’m sick of reading about them too.
I’m not upset. There was just a big bitchfest about this topic a few weeks ago here on a thread that was about someone being attacked and ultimately, nothing productive came out of it.
There’s no need for everyone to rehash the pointless debate and re-state the same opinions from three weeks ago. We all know the laws. We all know the problems. Let’s figure out a way to make things better for people using all types of vehicles instead of just screaming at each other in a big pointless circle.
They really ought to have dedicated bike lanes on “slow” urban arterial streets (Neil, High, Fifth, Gay, etc.) and no-bike policies on “fast” arteries (3rd, 4th, Spring, etc.). The modes of transportation simply don’t mingle well.
Might as well have cars driving on train tracks.
I totally agree. Let’s designate some bike lanes on some of these streets Gramarye mentioned, and cyclists should try to stick to those for most of their trips for everyone’s safety.
That said, as an extremely infrequent motorist on High Street, the thing I hate most is when you’re sitting at a red light and a cyclists starts moving forward down the center line. Follow the rules of the road if you want to be taken seriously. If you are putting yourself in danger, other people are going to less apt to watch out for your safety.
get rid of cars. get rid of bicycles. only have scooters and motorcycles on the road. problem solved! you have your 2 wheels, you have your motor. Best compromise EVER!
My point* was just that people in cars (because they’re enclosed) believe they’re safe, when they’re not necessarily. That perceived safety causes them to drive much more aggressively than is safe. “Safe and clear distance?” Doesn’t seem to be followed much around here.
In addition, on the other side, cyclists (including motorcyclists) tend to ignore some of the rules of the road because they’re more maneuverable. Cyclists ignoring stop lights (I see that regularly downtown), and motorcycles passing on the shoulder because they can.
In both cases, people aren’t really following the rules of the road – and shows a general lack of respect for others on the road. Consideration for others on the road, and in all cases – patience – can make a big difference.
* On a post that had apparently been deleted without warning. I might have been sarcastic, but I thought it was a valid point. So is that a common occurrence here?
So wait… someone starts a thread… and we all have opinions… but we should not talk about them.
People get emotional about this, I would think more discussion is in order. Very few of us have the power to make laws or approve civic improvement funding, but we can at least talk about things, and hopefully reach a concensus or two. I’m not sure what kind of “productivity” you’re after.
I agree the tone can get heated (and the name-calling needs to not happen), but if we can’t talk about this here, then where?
And SERIOUSLY… I must have waded through thousands of streetcar posts. It’s what people wanted to discuss, so, there it is.