Fear of bicyclists

I FEAR BICYCLISTS

And not because of what they can do for me but because I cannot trust what they will do.

I recently railed against the new law that went into effect in Oregon called the “Idaho Stop” law. What a joke. It should be called the Idaho Go law. Essentially it says that bicyclists can ignore stop signs on their own judgment. Now they are supposed to yield to vehicles in cross traffic and who are conducting themselves according to regular traffic laws that contradict the use of the “Idaho Stop” law. Show of hands – who expects this to happen. I will not hold my breath – I do not want to die for lack of oxygen.

Why do I fear bicyclists. Simply because I cannot trust them. My personal experience is that they are more likely to break traffic laws than obey them. Admittedly, the new “Idaho Stop” law will reduce these violations of the law, but not the reduction of danger.

Admittedly, some of the laws they violate do not cause danger to vehicles such as riding bicycles on sidewalks and in pedestrian crosswalks. However a large majority of them do so. The ones that are dangerous that I see on a regular basis are weaving in and out of traffic, bicycling in a traffic lane when a bicycle lane is available, bicycling the wrong way against traffic, and changing lanes without signaling and looking. You will notice that I now do not include them blowing into traffic from the side because the run a Stop Sign because as of today it is legal; no less dangerous to me or the bicyclist because they do not look, but nonetheless technically legal.

This causes a level of fear that I will hit or run over one of these people because of their actions. It is so frightening that when I see a bicyclist, I get nervous, primarily because I am afraid they will do something before I can react.

I get the “Share the Road” campaign. I really do. The problem is that the issue is not one-sided. Yes, the vehicle driver should do a far better job of paying attention to bicycles. But bicyclists need to do a better job of obeying traffic laws. They seem to forget that they are vehicles as well and are responsible to vehicular laws just like any other vehicle – that is unless the legislature gives them special dispensation.

Am I being too harsh? I will tell you what. I play a little game in my travels around town. I count the number of bicyclists I see out and about and count how many are breaking traffic laws. It is a rare, rare occasion when the law-breakers do not exceed 50%. Most often the lawbreakers exceed 75%. When over 50% of the people are breaking the law, I have a problem sympathizing with their plight.

The worst part about this. If there is an accident between a bicyclist a vehicle, guess who is considered at fault? I will give you a moment to consider this. I even saw a story on the local new where a bicyclist came from a side street and ran into the side of a pickup truck. The local news reporter was blaming the pickup driver. How? I never did figure that out – except that the bicyclist is never at fault, right?

So – I fear bicyclists. I doubt that I am not the only one.