Frazz by Jef Mallett for October 04, 2014

He’s resplendent in his white Speedo.

It should read, “Sometimes even factions of good tribes behave badly.”

I stopped riding when a fellow rider (was a good rider, and obeyed the rules of the road), while riding alone, was run off the road, which itself did damage, but then was SHOT with a .22 gun. Not only are drivers insane, they go above and beyond what road rage normally covers. I don’t think bike riders are paranoid enough, and it’s not paranoia when it’s true.

I was following a cyclist coming up to a stop sign at a T intersection with an almost blind curve off to the right. He signaled a left turn, and I was impressed that he actually signaled, but then he blew through the stop sign without even slowing down. If there had been a car coming from the right he’d have been creamed.

Reading these comments makes me want to stay off the road altogether!

We good cyclists are out there, and we’re not as rare as 5%. I’d say we’re closer to 50%… but that’s still way too many jerks and idiots. I really wish that the police would start pulling over the ones who ride on the wrong side, or blow through red lights, and then maybe they’d behave, and other drivers would treat us with more respect.

But being a good cyclist does not mean riding on the shoulder instead of in the traffic lanes. Would you drive on the shoulder? No, because it’s usually not a very good surface, and that’s even more relevant for a bike than for a car: Your car won’t fall over if it hits a patch of loose gravel. We’re traffic, and belong in the lanes with the rest of traffic.

I don’t think cyclists or motorists get to claim any moral high ground. A friend of mine made the news when he was on his bike and had a disagreement with an SUV driver who made his point by hitting him, dragging him some 50 yards, and leaving him for dead. He’s slowly returning to functioning level, and I’m hoping there’s not a sane judge around who’ll let off Mister Wheeler lightly.

Roads are maintained mostly with gasoline taxes. When cyclists start paying gasoline taxes then they will have a “right” to the road. Until then they are merely tolerated.

In most cases, I have no problems with bike riders on the road (would actually be one if I had a bike and if there was a direct route to my work that didn’t involve the freeway), but there are a few who I’ve seen run stop signs and even stop lights. Drivers need to understand that, in most cases, bikers are actually supposed to be on the road instead of the sidewalks. The only exception really is when the “sidewalk” is actually a designated bike path, which is the case in a few parts of town along the busier roadways, and in that case, it does get frustrating when a biker is in the road instead of the bike path that goes right along side it…but, still, that’s the minority here.

Either way, the worst was when I saw a clearly intoxicated biker talking to a police officer after an outdoor concert, and he asked the officer if it was legal to ride his bike drunk, and the officer told him it was, so he went and did it anyways. Just because something’s legal doesn’t mean it’s smart or safe!

Structural solutions are really the best answer. You can ask people to behave differently until you’re blue in the face without any success (and you may even get belligerent resistance), but they will change their behavior naturally when you change the nature of the landscape to encourage it.

When Americans thought it just a “fantastic new convenience” for almost everyone to have a car, cities tore out public transit structures, we paved and marked roads to accommodate only cars, and we spread out into sprawling suburbs. Now we realize this strategy has some downsides (economic, environmental, and psychological), but alternatives are difficult given that sort of landscape. Even if people want to be safe and cooperative citizens, it’s often impossible — so motorists are delayed by bicycles they cannot get around, and cyclists are tailgated and passed frighteningly close by cars. No one is happy, and everyone complains that the “other people” are the “real” problem.

My city has been putting in bike lanes on major streets over the past couple years, and it helps immensely — motorized traffic can move more smoothly even with fewer lanes because those lanes don’t get “obstructed” by slower means of transport, and cyclists have a safe lane to ride in. Public transit options are being expanded and enhanced too, which also helps alleviate traffic congestion. It’s really pretty awesome.

For anyone who’s interested (I love this stuff!), here’s a nice overview of some of the ways in which design can be used to encourage particular behaviors: http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2011/09/12/architecture-urbanism-design-and-behaviour-a-brief-review/

Look, some people are stuck in heavy traffic on a public roadway while other people around them are simply out in their own cars and see no need to concern themselves with other people’s problems.

I bought a 2015 Subaru Forester 1 month ago. Amongst all the charges was a $911 “Highway Use Tax” for North Carolina. Do purchasers of bikes pay a tax like this?

I rarely bike these days, but when I was younger, I did, and yes, I biked in traffic. When I biked, I followed all traffic rules. I stopped for lights and signs. I signaled turns and stops, and I kept up with traffic, which meant going 35mph, usually. I never had an issue with any motorists because I didn’t slow them down. I think the problem with most cyclists today is precisely that they don’t follow the rules. They run lights, they don’t signal, and they don’t keep up with traffic. People have a problem them, not because of what they are driving, but how they are driving.