In the interests of balance and fairness, I do have to comment on a bit of bike lane rage
that I encountered yesterday. Even if I hadn't recently commented on possibly the world's most mild case of "road rage", I think I'd have something to say about this incident.
Heading home down Swanston Street, I encountered a bozo on a bike on the wrong side of the road heading towards me in the bike lane. And then another clown who completed a hook turn by pulling up onto the footpath only to dart back out into the traffic flow—cutting across about a dozen pedestrians crossing at the lights then cutting me off before slowing down to near walking pace (right in front of the City Baths, where safe overtaking is impossible).
I was still behind Mr Bizarre Hook-Turn when I ran up against another rider coming toward me in the cycling lane. Not only was he going the wrong way, he was also a bloody lane hog forcing me out of the bike lane into the adjacent traffic lane. Well, by now I was well primed to ask the question (with suitably theatrical gestures of confusion):
What do you think you're doing?
To which a civilised response might have been to look sheepish at his stupidity and make an apology.
But not this guy.
Oh no. Not by a long, long chalk. He preferred to go on the offensive (or rather, just be offensive).
Rounding on me like wild dog, he literally snarls:
F•ck off!
And I'm not talking about a laid back, flippant f•ck off
here. It was more the I'm-seriously-going-to-injure-you-if-you-don't-f•ck off
kind of thing. The guy really did snarl like an animal.
So (just playing off-the-cuff, you understand) I kindly invited him to carry out his own suggestion on himself, then rode away more than a little perplexed. (I also took a few looks to make sure this raving psycho didn't change his mind and decide to ride my way for a change—that I could do without.)
Let's be clear here: I've been abused before. Hell, I've been abused by experts. But this guy took the [nut]case in terms of pointless aggression. Just like Mr Middle-Finger that I mentioned the other day, Mr F•ck-Off didn't seem able to accept that he was totally and undeniably in the wrong. (I don't normally go in for this, but in his case I'll make an exception and add that he wasn't wearing a helmet—which is compulsory in the State of Victoria.)
Furthermore, in forcing me to alter my line he placed me in danger of being rear-ended by a car. So I reckon I was perfectly entitled to ask him what he thought he was doing. In fact, I was perfectly entitled to ask him what the f•ck he thought he was doing, even though I didn't.
I should note that this guy didn't look much like a "cyclist", in the sense that I don't think the bicycle was his preferred choice of vehicle. Perhaps a few too many speeding fines and/or BAC > 0.05% had seen his drivers license cancelled. That would certainly account for why he was so unhappy to be on the bike. The stupid f•cker.
My musing on all this was topped with delicious absurdity when moments later I was passed by yet another dickhead riding the wrong way on my side of the road.
Needless to say, I kept my trap shut this time.
Comments
Its people like this that make me want to carry a lance. Or perhaps some sort of axe.
Hmm, I think lugging mediæval weaponry around on your bike might just be bordering on the insane as well…
Mind you, bike commuting could well be the modern day equivalent of jousting!
It's people like that that give cyclists a bad name. Grrr.
Frankly, Mr F•ck-Off didn't look like the kind of person he gives a f•ck about the reputation of cyclists—he certainly didn't give a f•ck about the safety of this cyclist, so he wouldn't care about giving us a bad name. And it's probably true of the other nongs I ran across the other day.
It was amazing: you'd normally have to go to a suburban bike path on Christmas Day to see so much crazy riding within such a short space.
Time to make myself unpopular again...
Why does everybody seem to have this ideal that somehow all cyclists are saints? I've seen enough idiot cyclists in my time to realise that they're no less common than idiot drivers or idiot pedestrians, yet as soon as one is encountered, people seem to carry on as though it's an Earth-shattering event. I see wrong-way cyclists all the time, I just treat them with the same contempt I have for wrong way drivers (I deal with them, too).
In this case I'd have just anticipated the guy's stupidity, given a signal, and moved into the traffic lane for as long as needed. The risk of being rear-ended isn't really any greater in the traffic lane. If someone really wants to take you out, they'll do it regardless of a strip of white paint.
The other thing to remember is that if cycling does get as popular as some people would like, idiots like this are going to be absolutely everywhere before much longer. Now might be a good time to learn to deal with them.
Maybe he was just pissed off with all the rules...
Some days leaving the trees seems like it was a bad idea.
Its a weird notion we have in Australia that cyclists somehow should be better people than everyone else. Mention you cycle to work and people assume you've made ALL sorts of eco-poiltical-social commitments. AND know how to behave on the road! As a cyclist I reserve the right to be as big an idiot as the next car-driver on ocassion. Personally, though, I would have been tempted to try and face him out. I did this once when faced with a cyclist going through a red-light. And I had the green light. The result being me, sprawled on the ground in the middle of an intersection and the offending-cyclist speeding on his way after shrugging me off like so much dried-out-road-kill. So you see why I reserve the right to be an idiot.........
Firstly, let me state that I welcome an exchange of views and anyone who argues reasonably is not going to make himself or herself unpopular here.
The comments by Chris and faith are timely because I was just thinking over the weekend about the "saints and sinners" of the cycling world—in fact, I was asking myself practically the same question as Chris. If you lurk around some forums, you could get the impression that all cyclists can do no wrong. The reality, of course, is that anyone who's been cycling for more than a few weeks has almost certainly come across their share of the cycling sinners. (The challenge for new riders is to make sure that they remain among the pure and holy!)
Bike bozos are everywhere.
To put it in perspective, I didn't consider this was (as Chris seems to suggest) "an Earth-shattering event", nor indeed was I at all shocked to observe cyclists behaving badly. Geez, I'm a commuting cyclist: seeing nongs do crazy things on bikes is par for the course, especially at this time of the year. (Although I still reckon the cretins were a bit thicker on the ground than usual at the top end of Swanston St the other day…)
What I did find noteworthy was Mr F•ck-Off's extreme reaction. And that's my key point: cyclist-vs-cyclist road rage happens, although thankfully it's still rare enough to raise an eyebrow (and make a blog entry!) Let's hope Chris's prediction in that regard is off the mark.
As to faith's suggestion that I should have faced him out, well this is the same stretch of pavement where I recently came off second-best with a pedestrian, so I don't suppose I was up for another tangle!
It's interesting that people (probably plenty of cyclists among them) think they've got you pigeon-holed when they find out that you're a cyclist. Some pundits even seem to have the astonishing ability to psychoanalyse others merely on the basis of their chosen vehicle of transport. Quite amazing stuff, really. Of course, we're not all "better people", no more than we are all "beret-wearing lentil eaters" or "smug self-righteous" greenies. But plenty of people are happy to generalise along those lines.
What an idiot.. riding without a helmet, on the wrong side of the road and acting like an arrogant prick.
But ... I was wondering what you think of the fact that another guy did a hook turn ? What do cyclists think of hook turns ?
You see, I'm new to cycling, and I find myself a bit confused when I approach an intersection with lights and I want to turn right. If the traffic has stopped still at a red light, I sometimes gather the courage to push forward to the front between the two lanes, so that when the lights change, I can turn right (wide).
But if traffic is already moving, I tend to opt for these hook turns, sometimes in 2 stages, where I kind of go forward, often close to the pedestrian crossing, and then stop and do a headcheck on my right to see when I can go right... usually, I end up waiting for the lights to change.
According to the Australian Road Rules, bike riders are allowed to make a hook turn at any intersection (except where it's explicitly prohibited by a "no hook turn by bicycles" sign):
So yeah, you are supposed to do it in two stages and wait for the lights to change.
I think the hook turn rule is very sensible: it's optional, so you can chose to make whatever turn is most suitable for the conditions. I'll often make a right turn from the right-hand turning lane but I'm equally happy making a hook turn.
Incidentally, the problem I had with Mr Bizarre Hook-Turn wasn't the hook turn itself, rather that his resting position was on the far side of the adjacent pedestrian crossing, meaning that he had to swerve back across in front of the crossing pedestrians when the lights changed.