[somewhat misplaced rage removed]
We need to listen to ozzy, we need to learn how to love, and forget how to hate.
2012-12-07 16:51:22
9
Sponge-Worthy Third-Party Guilt and My Own Special Place In Hell
Some of you may have seen this before; in another place I wrote a facetious Samuel Jackson PSA urging drivers to slow down when unable to pass cyclists.
Yesterday I received this comment and I thought I'd pass it along as food for thought. The writer is upset and goes over the top, but IMO there's a valid point in there too.
Hey, I'm all for safe cycling and sharing the road. Although I'll admit it's inconvenient at times to go slower, it's not that bad.
However, my message to cyclists: Please, very actively, start cussing out the complete wastes of life with bicycles that think they can treat stoplights and red lights like they don't exist.
They do NOT help your cause, even though sharing the road would be lost on a lot of life wasters in cars that get mad because they'll miss the first five minutes of Honey Boo Boo.
To be honest, this post is brought on by the fact that I almost had one force me to commit manslaughter today by riding full speed through a stop sign at a two-way stop intersection. People like this don't belong in any place of society, and give you good cyclists a bad name.
They should be shamed into, at least, a behavior change [... hyperbole redacted] ... because their behavior WILL cause a perfectly respectable human being to accidentally take a human life, and I've been told living with that is basically a psychological nightmare.
To cyclists and drivers, share the road, don't act like you own it, and make sure the ones that act like the own the road know that they belong in a special place in hell.
IMO Over the top, but has a valid point.
full disclosure: I'm one of those bicyclists he's angry about. Not preaching, no disrespect, thought somebody might find it sponge-worthy.
2012-12-07 15:55:12
FYI, I really dug the original post that inspired the rage comment you quoted.
2012-12-07 16:55:43
Two cases:
1. Motorist gets to 4-way stop first. Stops (more or less), then proceeds into intersection. Cyclist on cross street then gets to intersection, doesn't stop, flies in front of car, and driver must brake to avoid collision.
2. Cyclist gets to empty 4-way stop intersection, sees it's empty, doesn't slow down.
The cyclist in the first situation is selfish and dangerous, not only risking his own life but also subjecting others to danger. I'm all for shaming him into a behavior change.
The cyclist in the second scenario should maybe slow down some, to be 100% certain there really aren't any other intersection users, including pedestrians or other cyclists. But his behavior is only hurting others in very indirect ways, at most.
So is the guy complaining about something like case #1, or merely bitching that if he too had plowed through a stop sign the way that cyclist did, there would have been a collision? The latter is not "almost forcing me to commit manslaughter", though sometimes drivers are confused on this point.
2012-12-07 17:19:54
If you and the OP would like, allow the cussing to start with me
If somebody checks both ways and it's safe to cross, I don't see the problem
As for the stop sign incident, is it lame? Yes. Is it worth calling somebody a "waste of life" or saying they don't belong in society? I don't think so.
I also don't quite understand how if this guy did check both ways at the intersection, he wouldn't have noticed the bicycle not slowing down at the stop sign. I also don't think the OP knows what constitutes manslaughter, but that's another point
Lastly, this trash truck image reminds me of the lady who slammed into the garbage truck on Black St, crushing a guy in between. I also imagine dozens of people would go around the trash truck and not wait
2012-12-07 17:39:42
I can certainly imagine scenarios at say a four-way stop where a cyclist, not slowing at a stop sign, puts himself in front of a crossing car so suddenly that the driver of the car has no way to avoid hitting the cyclist and "committing manslaughter". It's not that hard -- say the view of the cyclist's street was hidden from the cross street, etc. Whether that was what the driver was talking about or not we have no way to tell. But, thinking charitably, it could be.
2012-12-07 17:52:40
I think steven’s #1 scenario above is absolutely wrong to do 100% of the time. If this is what the OP is referring to I am in agreement with her. We yell at drivers for doing dangerous stuff just so they are not delayed by five seconds & the same should apply to us.
2012-12-07 17:59:33
i nearly forced someone to "commit manslaughter" last night. i was going straight through an intersection (with the green) in the straight lane right at the moment she decided to gun it and go straight through the intersection from the left turn lane. i apparently anticipated this, because i stopped very quickly and avoided a collision. and i'm the one whose behavior needs to change.
2012-12-07 18:16:37
There's also a third scenario: cyclist at a four way stop stops at sign, proceeds when it's her turn, and nearly gets plowed down by drivers from both sides, because oblivious drivers didn't see said cyclist.
This has happened to me twice recently, despite lights and bright white helmet and once in broad daylight. In both cases I got the stinkeye from those drivers, and have no doubt that they're somewhere complaining about this scofflaw cyclist who just darted out in front of them.
2012-12-08 02:00:32