Comments on: Do some cyclists seek confrontation?

By: Treadly and Me

Treadly and Me — Tue, 15 May 2007 11:07:48 +0000

That doesn't strike me as entirely sane behaviour. All the more reason to avoid unnecessary conflict on the roads: there are nutters out there...

By: tuco

tuco — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:39:33 +0000

You guys might want to check out this story which just happened in Toronto - an off duty (and suspended) cop got out of his car and slugged a cyclist who was in front of him on the road and dared to stop at a yellow light.

If you follow the links - it was all caught on video

(P.S. just go to bikingtoronto.blogspot.com and go down a little if that link above doesn't work).

By: Treadly and Me

Treadly and Me — Fri, 04 May 2007 22:12:41 +0000

Well, I think it’s pretty unambiguous if a car is stationary at a traffic light and indicating a left turn: chances are they are going to make a turn, so when the light goes green you’ve got to let them go. However, if the lights are still red the car can’t be turning so it must be OK to pass.

By: jimmay

jimmay — Thu, 03 May 2007 04:47:57 +0000

Don’t forget there’s an ‘and’ in there: signalling left AND turning. And yes, cyclists are somewhat vulnerable to cars speeding up and turning left in front of them; regardless of the law, this is dangerous because they can underestimate the velocity of the bike. This is why many advocate ‘taking the lane’ so that traffic behind will be discouraged from doing this; bike lanes can make this difficult.

By: Treadly and Me

Treadly and Me — Wed, 02 May 2007 22:32:30 +0000

Ben's right in that you can often see drivers doing something that really is wrong and dangerous (either through ignorance or carelessness) and as cyclists we are particularly vulnerable. As a result, it's not surprising that we tend to explode when we're needlessly put at risk.

But this wasn't such an incident. No doubt backing off and letting the driver make his turn unimpeded would have inconvenienced the cyclist momentarily, but my experience tells me this is a better than escalating a pointless conflict. Keep your powder dry, as eccles suggests.

I think I've reached the same view as Damian—much of the bad stuff that happens out there you've just got to let slide with a shrug and a sigh. Bellowing at people is not going to change their behaviour. And in any case, like Damian, I've never found time to hurl abuse while I've been in a real pinch. (Although I've sometimes found a lungful of vitriol immediately afterwards!)

Further, I know for a fact that I sometimes make errors of judgement, so I can't really hold others to a higher standard. Well, actually I can: the potential impact of a driver's error of judgement is much greater than that of a cyclist, so drivers do need to be held to a higher standard. (See Urban Commuter's discussion of the dominant threat to see what I mean.) That said, being mindful that people make honest mistakes and are predictably selfish goes a long way to keeping yourself out of trouble.