When biking down the street with parked cars, I always try to look ahead and see if there is a human in the car. If there is a human, I try to always make sure that I can clear their door.
I saw a human in a parked car the other day while riding, and cleared the car right when the woman swung the door open (which, if I had been riding closer to the right, would have nailed me). Right as I wizzed by, she went ‘oops!’.
OOPS? LADY YOU COULD HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY HURT ME. How about checking for oncoming traffic before swooping your door open?
But hey – as a cyclist, we need to be the observant ones.
So this sign is to remind :
1. Drivers to glance in their rear view before kicking open the door
2. Cyclists that riding too close to parked cars is dangerous
But what I really like about this sign is the exclamation mark. I mean really? We all know that means the cyclist is swearing at the driver.
Oops, my a$$.
Or could that exclamation point mean something else? What do you translate it as?
By the way, this sign is part of an awareness campaign in Seattle. woot!
OK! I didn’t crop this image because I wanted everyone to see the palm tree on the left hand side.
You know what that palm tree means? It means this picture was probably take in California. Hell, let’s pretend it was in Los Angeles. I would LOVE to see this sign in person.
I 100% guarantee if I stood by this sign for less than an hour, I would see at least 3 cyclists (ones probably not wearing helmets) CONTINUE on the WRONG way. Probably on the side walk. Possibly on a beach cruiser.
There appears to be a fascination with going against traffic, on a side walk, with no helmet (or light on their bike, if it’s at night) in the fine metropolis of Los Angeles.
Though I will be honest – I was walking across the street the other day to window shop at Nordstrom Rack when I saw a sign in front of me that said ‘Use Crosswalks’, with arrows in direction of the cross walk. I continued to walk right by the signs, and over to the shops. AND I WALK ON GRASS WHEN TOLD NOT TO.
But that does not invalidate this sign – when you bike on the WRONG side of the street, on the sidewalk, motorists in America DO NOT look to their right when poking out of a driveway, k? This ain’t England.
This does not exist in America. Yes, I took this pic while in London
Fed up of cyclists on the sidewalk? or do YOU bike on the sidewalk? Best be defendin’ that position, friend.
OK So there are a few things I love about this sign:
1. I bet people in cars think this is targeted to remind CYCLISTS to share the road
2. I bet people on bikes think this is targeted to remind DRIVERS to share the road
3. The bike is pacing the car
4. We needed to be reminded there are laws in place concerning the road
5. No helmet on the cyclist
6. For a stick figure, the cyclist has a nice butt
I bet the cyclist is thinking: Goddamn car. Move ON or move OVER, a$$hole! Don’t you see the sign? WE SHARE the road! I am a vehicle too!
The car is thinking: Goddamn bike. Why don’t you go bike on a bike path? Or drive a car instead?
By the way, this sign is part of a new sharrows effort in Cincinatti.
What do you think bike / car is thinking? Got a street sign you want to share – post the url in a comment!
Dear 18 Wheeler Truck,
Thanks for cutting me off. I know you saw me, but when I slowed down in the intersection due to horrible road conditions, you figured you could take that turn. You are not a small car, but a large truck.
Cold Regards,
Sparky
Dear Hot Dood Cyclists,
I understand that I am ‘slow’ at only 19 MPH with a headwind. I don’t have anyone to draft off of, unlike you people in your fabulous matching spandex and 2010 Cannondales. You could at least acknowledge me at the stop light, I am sure it was my weight that triggered the light. You should thank me for that.
Lewd but Crude wink,
Sparky
Dear Roadkill,
I am saddened by the loss of your life, but can you please decay a little more to the right of the road? I consider you and your entrails a road hazard. Also, depending on your state of decomposition, you take some of the fun out of cycling.
Sympathetically Yours,
Sparky
While doing interval training on the evil sandy bike path of doom (no stop lights to interrupt intervals, though), I came across a stretch that borders a pier (Manhattan beach pier for those who know Los Angeles). During the weekends, there is a mandatory ‘walk your bike’ thing going on for this stretch (yet another reason NOT to bike on the weekends on the bike path). As this was around 5 PM on a weekday, no walk your bike and not a lot of foot traffic.
THE ENEMY TO CYCLISTS EVERYWHERE
I was in the middle of my ON interval, so I was doing about 17 MPH (hey, there was a strong headwind, ok?) and going hard. Watching the pedestrians, I see a guy saunter his way as slowly as possible across the bike path (which is what, five feet wide?). I could gauge he would almost clear it by the time I got there, unless he stopped. Regardless, I could still go around him.
I get within 15 feet, and all of a sudden a runt ass pre-teen starts to go out onto bikepath!! Now I have BOTH father and kid (or however they knew eachother) ON the path, completely blocking the way!!
Too close to stop, I screamed something at them twice. I don’t recall what it was. Something like ‘MOVE IT’ or ‘WATCH OUT’. I think I screamed MOVE IT (with a follow up of BIKES ONLY!!) at the couple that was walking DOWN the BIKE PATH holding hands.
Now, I narrowly avoided crushing the child with my Trek5200 by going in between kid and father (it was a close shave). Treat a bike path like a road, kid! Apparently his father never taught him to look both ways before crossing!!
This is not the first time I have almost murdered children on my bike (usually on the bike path, where they like to dart out of nowhere at the last second).
It’s definitely possible to be killed by a cyclist, where penalties for bike-slaughter may only be a fine. Granted, if you Google ‘killed by bicycle’ you see a billion more articles about cyclists that were KILLED, usually by our evil metal brethren, the car.
The more hard core cyclists (read: not goobers on beach cruisers) are easily doing over 20 MPH. It’s gotta SUCK to get hit by ANYTHING doing over 20 MPH. Hell, I clocked myself doing over FIFTY miles per hour going down a really long hill in Palos Verdes. That was awesome. I knew if I hit any kind of serious hole/rock/etc, I was gonna get splattered. It was sooo awesome. That is like..suicide by cyclist, right??
Apparently you can also use your bicycle during drive by shootings, which is giving me a lot of ideas. Trust me, I often thought about packin’ some serious heat and/or a crowbar in my bike jersey to smash car windows of those who dare to get too close (and then are stuck at the stop light up ahead) and little children that scamper around the bike path.. or beach cruisers doing 5 MPH three abreast… the possibilities are endless! Yes, I suffer from extreme road/bike path rage.
And I will have you know that the entire time I wrote this post, a kitten was on my lap, purring and snuggling and trying to prevent me from typing with it’s truly murderous cuteness. I was not able to find any incidents of ‘death by kitten’, but the Google images for that term are adorable.
The Kitten
Click kitten pic to enlarge. Kitten’s name is ‘snap’. Kitten is orange.
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