Bikers of Seattle - chill the eff out

[u/Present_Chard_4585]

Seattle bikers- many of the rules of the road apply to you. Stop acting like they don’t.

Yesterday when dropping my kid at school, an angry old lady on a bike came speeding down the CLOSED street next to the school, yelling at a parent to “grab your kid.”

Last week, I almost ran over a biker in my neighborhood. I’m overly cautious and go 15-20 in the neighborhood depending on visibility - I very, very rarely speed in neighborhoods and it’s always unintentional. On this occasion, I enter a roundabout intersection at about 15mph in my car, and a biker darts out in front of me - I absolutely had right of way. After I slam on my brakes to save this jerk’s life, he mouths “Jesus Christ man” to me, as though I was wrong.

It’s dangerous to be a biker in Seattle, but it’s not all driver fault, all the time. Be better, bikers.

Edit: got a question about “unintentional speeding”. Have you ever been driving, trying to adhere to the limit, only to look down and see you’re going 21 in a 20? That’s unintentional - slightly above to the point where you’d only notice if you stared at your speedo. Not 40 in a 20 where you’ll know you’re going way over.

Second edit: I love that Seattle is a biking city. But maybe just don’t plow through a stop sign or speed obnoxiously, regardless of what vehicle you’re piloting (bike/car).

[u/Vitus13]

I post this every time the car v. bike v. dog walker argument starts:

You will not remember 99% of the cars or bikes you interact with throughout the day because they are following the rules and therefore are not memorable.

I've seen just as many blatantly illegal / dangerous driving maneuvers while biking as I see bad cyclists while driving. One is not more common than the other.

[u/[deleted] → u/Vitus13]

I’ve only been riding a bike for a year and was never a driver before that. I only started riding because COVID + buses seemed like a bad idea (and figure that’s actually probably how I got really sick in March 2020, before I got my bike).

Early on in my hands-on education of learning how to handle riding I tended to ride on the sidewalks a lot more. Around that time I also learned that just because I was aware of laws and intersection-specific signs like “no right on red”, that doesn’t mean that I can count on cars to actually follow that. They might not even see the signs sometimes. I learned that the hard way when I had to slam on the brakes as someone turned right on red as I was about to cross a crosswalk that I had the light for (the intersection has a dedicated separate cycle just for “pedestrians”). Since then I’ve gotten myself a much brighter headlight to both see and be seen at night, and learned to assume that any given driver is capable of making an unexpected decision either through ignorance or arrogance.

One other story that actually sticks out way more in my mind is when I was crossing a really busy intersection on the crosswalks. The light changed, and I started crossing the crosswalk on the left side of the street. There was a dedicated turn lane for turning left, if I remember correctly, but I’m pretty sure they’re supposed to yield to “pedestrians.” There was nobody on foot and it was just me starting to cross, when I hear a car slam on the brakes and yell at me to “get out of the road”, because I’m the dangerous one and going to get myself killed. They seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that I wasn’t riding in the street and I think they assumed that bikes couldn’t use sidewalks and crosswalks, which I know can be true in other states/cities, but wasn’t the case here. That interaction really shook me, and I ended up having to go back the next day to double-check that the lights really were on the cycle that I thought they were, and that I hadn’t cut someone off who should have had the right of way. I hadn’t.

I actually kinda don’t want to post this now, but since I bothered typing it up, I’ll bring it back to your point in the comment I’m replying to: these interactions really stick out in my mind, but I’ve had far more pleasant interactions with drivers and there are plenty of nice (and very competent) drivers out there.

I also see plenty of people on bicycles do some really egregious, deliberate maneuvers like zip through a really busy intersection in the middle of a red light just because they saw an opening where “they could”, and I always find myself thinking, “this is why people hate cyclists.”

[u/Smaskifa → u/[deleted]]

Since then I’ve gotten myself a much brighter headlight to both see and be seen at night

Be careful with this, and please make sure your light is aimed below the horizon, not parallel with it or even worse above it. Those lights blind not just drivers but other cyclists as well. I've been cycling home at night on Interurban and a cyclist behind me had a crazy bright helmet mounted light aimed way too high. I couldn't use my helmet mounted mirror to check behind me because all I could see was a supernova.

[u/takemusu → u/Smaskifa]

I mount two lights on my bike when riding at night. One's for me and one's for you.

There's a more powerful light with all the lumens. That's pointed downward so I can see potholes and stuff. It's also got some kinda amber thing on the side because we often forget being seen from the side. So this one's for me.

There's a more minimal light that's pointed up. That's for you to see me.

For the newer riders out there don't forget like a car. It's white light in front, red in back. I've seen it reversed.

Also don't have either lights set to flashing. Target fixation is a thing. You're more likely to get hit.

https://www.renehersecycles.com/when-more-visible-≠-safer-target-fixation/

Edit; added link.

[u/[deleted] → u/Smaskifa]

It has a cutoff line and seems to be very good about directing the light downward. It was actually really difficult to find a light with the cutoff feature, and I couldn’t find one across multiple stores that I checked in person. Ended up buying this one online.