The Dumb Cyclists and Pedestrians thread...

[Livetoride]

I see it every day.

And I'll admit to being a little less courteous than I should be sometimes.

On a day like today when there are a lot more people out walking, jogging and cycling, it is very difficult to be 100% courteous to everyone when you have to get to work and they're meandering all over the path in front of you.

Mind you, I dunno where all these people have been for the past few months...

Probably hiding away from the cold n rain

[bychosis]

You really have to wonder at some people. Went for a quick pedal before work today and saw a dumb jogger. Jogging on the road, on a roundabout, no shoulder lane, over the kerb from grassed park, 15 paces from a shared pathway along the foreshore. I didn't see where she ended up, but it looked like she was going to jog along the fogline past a row of parked cars. Also dressed in black, running with the traffic ie back to oncoming traffic.

[jasonc]

You really have to wonder at some people. Went for a quick pedal before work today and saw a dumb jogger. Jogging on the road, on a roundabout, no shoulder lane, over the kerb from grassed park, 15 paces from a shared pathway along the foreshore. I didn't see where she ended up, but it looked like she was going to jog along the fogline past a row of parked cars. Also dressed in black, running with the traffic ie back to oncoming traffic.

saw a runner I see regularly running over the bike-only path on the inner city bypass bridge (there is a separate path for bikes/peds)

[herzog]

You really have to wonder at some people. Went for a quick pedal before work today and saw a dumb jogger. Jogging on the road, on a roundabout, no shoulder lane, over the kerb from grassed park, 15 paces from a shared pathway along the foreshore. I didn't see where she ended up, but it looked like she was going to jog along the fogline past a row of parked cars. Also dressed in black, running with the traffic ie back to oncoming traffic.

Probably in the zone

[longshanks]

The dumb cyclist was me this morning. Note to self: Never ever undertake a slow moving vehicle that looks for all money like they are somewhat lost. Said vehicle was inching its way along the street then without indicating turned left just as i was at the middle pillar. I took evasive action then proceeded with giving myself uppercuts the rest of the way into work. Dumb dumb dumb.

[Xplora]

Epic fail action as I was going under the rail bridge at UWS in Parramatta today... flatbar coming the other way cut the corner, and we touched after a couple mind changes from both of us. No crash but that guy will NEVER cut the corner again... you can't do the wrong thing, ride too fast AND listen to your iPod at the same time

[orbeas]

A note to cyclist with good quality very bright lights, ADJUST them so their not blinding other cyclist as they may cause an accident ..a perth freeway north bike path rider
end rant

[Missy8787]

I am only new to cycling, but even l know to "keep left" on bike paths. I was out on a community bike ride with my partner last weekend and this poor cyclist who was not part of our group was coming towards us and heading in the opposite direction.

All the organizers (who are volunteers) would yell out that we had someone on coming, immediately you should move to the left when safe and keep an eye out in front of you. This poor bloke who saw the two women in front of me side by side on the bike path, very nicely yelled "excuse me!" over and over until he almost collided with them and was run off the path. She seemed so oblivious that he was even there. She didn't even turn around to look at him, just kept pedaling. Poor bloke. He was fuming afterwards, l don't blame him!

[g-boaf]

Oh that's normal - the riders going side by side who refuse to go single file when someone is coming the opposite direction. It used to make me a bit nervous when I had to pass them in windy conditions at first. Now I don't mind so much - but it's still not nice.

Keep left unless overtaking signs might be good on bike paths. We also need more signs instructing people that should keep their dogs on short leashes. Not these 4 metre long things. I've not had too many issues with dogs recently though - and I hope I'm not jinxing things by saying that.

[redned]

They shouldn't be side-by-side at all. In WA (and maybe other states) you shoudn't be two abreast on a shared path or cycle path.

[jasonc]

I am only new to cycling, but even l know to "keep left" on bike paths. I was out on a community bike ride with my partner last weekend and this poor cyclist who was not part of our group was coming towards us and heading in the opposite direction.

All the organizers (who are volunteers) would yell out that we had someone on coming, immediately you should move to the left when safe and keep an eye out in front of you. This poor bloke who saw the two women in front of me side by side on the bike path, very nicely yelled "excuse me!" over and over until he almost collided with them and was run off the path. She seemed so oblivious that he was even there. She didn't even turn around to look at him, just kept pedaling. Poor bloke. He was fuming afterwards, l don't blame him!

this solves the problem for me

[Mulger bill]

With oncoming side by sides. If you have time and there's no following riders, shift to the granny, stop the bike then hold it with it standing vertically on the rear wheel. Think about it...

[twizzle]

Saw the classic POBSO move the other day...

Aikman Drive, Belconnen, at the pedestrian crossing between Ginninderra College and Canberra Uni. I'm in the on-road cycling lane, riding next to two lanes of cars coming off a green light into a "form one lane" (FOL) with a ped (zebra) crossing about 5M past the end of the form one lane. It's a bad design - the ped crossing was put in place to stop students from an accomodation block getting hit by cars when trying to cross the road towards the campus. Mr POBSO on the other side of the road is coming off a curved ramp with a 90 degree turn onto the road. He starts off slowly... then hammers it over the crossing. I was watching the whole thing unfold from my vantage point of being able to see over the tops of the cars, but the cars in the left hand lane had little visibility of what was coming. Cars in the FOL and left lane suddenly had to cope with a car just before the ped crossing slamming the brakes on... cars going left and right trying to avoid rear-end collisions as they went from 'head checks while merging' to 'everything stopped'. I, luckily, was further back, so avoided being hit by the car that swerved into the bike lane.

The really stupid part? Mr POBSO had detoured off a shared pathway - and after crossing the road, he cut across the grass/dirt to rejoin it where it came out from the tunnel under the road. The way he rode actually takes longer than just staying on the shared pathway.

And I could feel the 'eyes of blame' on my back as we all moved off again - once again all cyclists being tarred by the same brush because of yet another idiot.

[twizzle]

With oncoming side by sides. If you have time and there's no following riders, shift to the granny, stop the bike then hold it with it standing vertically on the rear wheel. Think about it...

I've often wished I had a jousting lance when riding.

[Missy8787]

this solves the problem for me

Ha! That is awesome. My partner would love one of those.

I keep left everywhere, driving, on stairs, escelators etc. it's just become a habit and l don't even think about it now. The problem with the community bike rides is that unfortunately a few people go on them not knowing the rules for bike riding. I haven't read them myself, but it's common courtesy!

[jasonc]

this solves the problem for me

Ha! That is awesome. My partner would love one of those.

I keep left everywhere, driving, on stairs, escelators etc. it's just become a habit and l don't even think about it now. The problem with the community bike rides is that unfortunately a few people go on them not knowing the rules for bike riding. I haven't read them myself, but it's common courtesy!

The best thing about the airzound: it overrides the ipod affect!

[jules21]

this guy deserves a special award...

[tubby74]

Keep left unless overtaking signs might be good on bike paths. .

all the pathways around olympic park have centre lines with direction arrows on them, makes no difference to people at all, cyclists, walkers etc. probably the worst are groups of retired men out for their walk on a weekday, they seem to be proving something by blocking the path to everyone

[g-boaf]

this guy deserves a special award...

Yeah, and you got a GT-R at 10 seconds too.

[twizzle]

Had one of those moments this morning.... shared pathway, ped crossing at lights, a string of cyclists coming across and one of them was so busy chatting to his mate he completely missed that I was coming the other way and pulled out next to his mate! Head-on missed by both of us swerving, but he came pretty close to taking his mate out.

[Xplora]

Cranky old bloke coming down off Silverwater Bridge this morning, heading east... I'm glad he was going real slow because I wouldn't have had time to avoid him otherwise. I suggested that corner needed some care taken (because I normally thunder through there at 35kmh). The run down off the bridge has no right of way at all, it's a T intersection and I honestly can't avoid anyone coming down the hill at any speed so I've stopped worrying about it. I wasn't aggro about the suggestion to take care, and I received a "I know about corners, I've been riding for 50 years"... I've seen this bloke a few times on the path, and he must have been having a bad day, but sometimes you just have to take the feedback on the chin and admit that you aren't doing the smart move. If I wasn't sore from digging yesterday I might have been going 5kmh faster and another bike coming towards us would have meant he would have been hurt BADLY.
If you're reading this - letting other people take responsibility for your safety is a really bad idea.

[high_tea]

Cranky old bloke coming down off Silverwater Bridge this morning, heading east... I'm glad he was going real slow because I wouldn't have had time to avoid him otherwise. I suggested that corner needed some care taken (because I normally thunder through there at 35kmh). The run down off the bridge has no right of way at all, it's a T intersection and I honestly can't avoid anyone coming down the hill at any speed so I've stopped worrying about it. I wasn't aggro about the suggestion to take care, and I received a "I know about corners, I've been riding for 50 years"... I've seen this bloke a few times on the path, and he must have been having a bad day, but sometimes you just have to take the feedback on the chin and admit that you aren't doing the smart move. If I wasn't sore from digging yesterday I might have been going 5kmh faster and another bike coming towards us would have meant he would have been hurt BADLY.
If you're reading this - letting other people take responsibility for your safety is a really bad idea.

Did he ping his bell? Here in Brisbane, people seem to think that bell-pinging cures the need to give way, not to mention the obligation to overtake safely I'm starting to think there's some road rule known only to those in on the conspiracy. Maybe one day I'll see the fnords...

[tubby74]

hopefully the groups I came across were not normal, but the behaviour in the spring cycle event was awful. single riders ignoring the bike lane to block the road. Dozens going round both sides of cars and 2 riders (just 2 out of 20 or more) stopped at the lights then proceeded through the red. The policeman who saw lights changing and decided to meander across the road on his mtb, in front of cars that had a green arrow the whole time and had to stop to avoid him. Have to say the event did a lot to ingrain the view of cyclists as a menace on the road

[ft_critical]

A steepish downhill section of ‘shared’ path; trees concreted into the middle of it and a wall on one side. I am rolling slowly down on the left side. There is a major pedestrian crossing ahead. A lady in white kind of hesitates; I slow to a virtual stop and smile-nod (smod, that should be a word) for her to move across in front of me and onto the crossing as the light is green. As I roll slowly forward, someone t-bones my back wheel. They fall with a loud crash. It is a woman on a laden mountain bike. She has ridden across the crossing and straight into my back wheel at right angles. To be honest I am stunned. I stare at her so for a while. Finally, I resolve on, ‘are you okay?’ She struggles up muttering. I can’t help myself, ‘you should watch where you are going, you know.’ I set off. Then I hear from some metres behind me, ‘it wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t riding so slowly.’ I can’t believe it.

‘So you crash into my rear tyre and fall off and it is my fault, is that right?’

‘Just go on if you are going to turn into an a..hole,’ she retorts, among other things.

Seriously, spring is the season of the deranged.

[weme2b]

Yesterday night, 7:45PM, driving along a 60km/h main road (Barclay Rd for those of you playing at home, passing Muirfield High School). Sun's set for over half an hour so it's getting quite dark by now. I'm in the far left lane, traffic is light so I'm close to 60 on a slight downhill slope going around a moderate right hand bend in the road. Suddenly I see an object approaching me, in my lane. That can't be right...

It's an idiot teenager, maybe 16, blonde, on his little black BMX, wearing a black backpack, of course no lights. Forget if he had a helmet - probably not if I can remember his hair colour. He's in my lane (the far left lane on a road with two lanes each way) travelling in the wrong direction, in the dark. He just weaves past me on my right in the empty lane without a care in the world. As I drive on, I watch him in the rear view mirror and he's weaving back to his left - staying on the wrong side of the road - as another car approaches from behind me.

I was too stunned to get on the horn (actually I'm quite calm by nature so I rarely, if ever, resort to the horn). Just don't understand why you'd be so plain, stinking dumb to ride on the wrong side of the road weaving in and out of cars going at 60km in the opposite direction, in the dark. Especially when your side of the road is pretty much free of traffic. He'd be lucky if he got home that day.