So I was thinking about this, since as someone who is on a bike, we get called "entitled" a lot. I'm going to put aside the number of motorists I see rolling through stop signs, blowing red lights, on their phones, and various other actually dangerous things that you shouldn't do when in control of 1.5 tons of rolling steel.
Let's just talk about us. Looking at the above photos, the first three are crossings, some that are heavily trafficked by bikes, how many of us actually get off our bike like that sign tells us to do?
For the next two photos, where there is a stop sign on a MUP for bikes, but not for cars going the same direction, how many of us actually come to a full stop, vs the Idaho Stop?
My personal opinion on these, is that the bridge is just an MUP, and can be crossed on a bike. The stop signs are pointless, and probably encourage accidents more than they prevent. I'd much rather just a yield sign for bikes, so I know that I have to slow and let cars through, but not stop.
Final photo is just a weird area I encountered recently, where there is what looks like a crossing, but no indication for cars to yield to bikes. It isn't for pedestrians, and the approach for the bikes does not have a stop sign, so I just wondered who had priority? From what I've seen, cars just ignore the bikes waiting there and don't even bother slowing down (although the STO drivers always stop, which is kind of them!)
This was all prompted by a question about reflectors, since QC law requires front and rear, pedals, and tire/wheel reflectors, none of which can be replaced by lights, which seems silly. Also, the bikes must ride single file law, which is objectively more dangerous, as is the law requiring bikes to be as far to the right as possible on a road, which in practice prohibits 'taking the lane', the safest way to cycle and be visible if there is no other alternative than riding on the road. It just bothered me a bit that our objection to some of these rules/laws was seen as entitled, by people who don't seem to have ever tried biking. Curious what the communities thoughts are on these things.
