BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I see a bunch of CMU and Pitt cyclists doing illegal things. Do you think most people on bikes are uneducated as to the legality of things or do you think that they don't care?

I see a bunch of drivers doing illegal things every day. Should I start a thread for every one of them? What is the point?

I hear enough patronizing crap about how "you cyclists better obey the law so I don't have to hurt you" from non-cyclists, do we really need to do this here as well?

i do illegal things every day, i'm educated.

in my opinion it is safer for me to use my judgment than obey laws that were created for the safety of automobiles and their drivers. usually this means loosely following the rules of automobiles, sometimes it doesn't. if the police actually see this as a danger to the public they will start to enforce these laws for cyclists, until then cyclists just have to deal with laws not written for them, but only in their own conscience.

I'm with Salty. Do we really need a thread to implore cyclists to self-preservation?

Oh, and by the way, don't forget to eat your vegetables...

@Mark, I doubt your judgement would have you riding out in front of cars as this is. Maybe the people doing it read and decide to make a change that keeps them from getting hit there.

@Stef, I would imagine most Pitt and CMU students are either foreign or out-of-state and completely ignorant of Pennsylvania law. If I had to guess, they might consider themselves vehicle with the same privileges as pedestrians.

I think another place to start is to call the police and tell them to ticket the illegally parked vehicles that block the clear views of the intersection. There are consistently (by consistently I mean every time I am there) cars parked right up to the edge of the intersection and blocking the handicapped access which prevent responsible motorists from being able to safely pull into the intersection.

Here we go. An example of what I am talking about.

Oh, yeah, those dicks need to be ticketed for the ramps. That, I believe, is some substantial $$$. Call that in.

I have, I believe the building management has as well.

People park like this everywhere in pgh. I see it in my neighborhood. Isn't there a law that cars cannot only block the ramps, but they cannot park within so many feet of a corner of a intersection?

Yes

§ 3353. Prohibitions in specified places.

(a) General rule.--Except when necessary to avoid conflict

with other traffic or to protect the safety of any person or

vehicle or in compliance with law or the directions of a police

officer or official traffic-control device, no person shall:

(2) Stand or park a vehicle:

(i) In front of a public or private driveway.

(ii) Within 15 feet of a fire hydrant.

(iii) Within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection.

etc...

Blocking the ramps is an unbelievable dick move.

I would suggest calling AAA next time you see a car parked illegally, or just yelling at the next person you see who is driving an automobile, they probably know each other.

As to cyclist idiocy, a lot of the blame goes to crappy policy as regards both education and transportation for at least two generations now. Not a single child born in this country since the 1950s ever got proper instruction on how to ride a bicycle on the street, and precious few streets designed since the 1950s expected bicycles to be used in heavy-use, mixed traffic.

Thus, now, we have the collision (horrible pun intended) of both crappy policies, with uneducated cyclists trying to use roads that have no allowance for mixed use.

The solution is to do what they've been doing in Europe all along: REGULAR education of riding a bicycle in traffic. Expect it, promote it. And second, what we've been promoting here through Bike-Pgh, getting street modifications made to allow for lots more mixed use traffic, with a reasonable expectation of arriving safely.

I don't know how to effect the sort of change needed in Item #1 other than to just get out there as often as possible, do the right things, not be a dick, and report the stupid.