Check this out. Go to www.thelouisvillechannel.com and play the preview of the Target 32 Investigates on the right side of the page. The blonde guy you see there is Channel 32’s lead reporter, a training partner, and a very good triathlete/duathlete (for a Clydesdale). Anyway, he had a great idea to report on the growing number of road rage incidents against cyclists and asked the Louisville Bicycle Club if they could follow them on a group ride with cameras/cars/copter to document any incidents.
As you might guess, they got more on film than they thought. Group blew through 10 of the first 12 stop signs. The clip on the site where they are turning left and going every direction around this car is scary.
Now, if you are a bike group, and you know you are being fimed for a news report, and you still violate every traffic law imaginable… Let’s have a quick poll, is that arrogance, ignorance, or all of the above?
I agree, that certain groups of cyclists and individual riders( from both the roadie and triathlon ranks) don’t help matters at all due to their arrogant attitude about the use of the road. They seem to feel that when they are out there on their bikes, it’s all about them and all car-drivers are jerks.
On the other side there are certain car drivers that don’t help matters either. They seem to have the same opinion - that the road is for them and them alone. The reality is that we all share the same roads.
I know this group ride, have been on it a number of times. I have never seen anyone go around a car like that, especially at that turn. Most of the stop signs that are gone through are side streets with no traffic. Rarely have I seen the group not exercise caution. Could be a bad night or simply a different part of the group then what i have ridden with. This ride has everything from the race teams having a practice race at the front all the way down to people riding along and chatting. It’s a great ride. I’ll have to watch the report tonight.
All I have to say is that all the bikers on the left side of the center line at that intersection should get tickets. They are “motor vehicles” by state law…obey the traffic laws!! That makes EVERY motorist hate cyclists.
The only manuveur that I know of that a cyclist can do that a car cannot is: pass on either the left or right if it can be done safely. I do this all the time near my home in the historic district of St Augustine. I cycle faster then traffic around here and pass cars everyday either on the left or the right. Cycling around here is pretty nice. The area is small, not alot of people, and lots of people on bikes (not necessarily cyclists), so people are fairly used to cyclists around here. They are generally very nice and never beep horns at ya or push you off the roads.
The thing to keep in mind is that these previews often try to look as bad as possible. Not making excuses, but since i have never seen anyone do this on this ride I wonder if it’s a case of sensationalism. For all you know from the clip the car could have just driven into the crowd and stopped as they were turning, forcing evasive action. I don’t know but will be interested to see this.
I just watched the first half of the report (the rest later at 11) and they had a guy on a bike with aerobars, cameras front and back showing cars and trucks not observing the KY law of giving 3 feet to pass, ones cutting him off and almost sideswiping him. In KY riders have all the same rights as cars on the roads and can’t ride on sidewalks. They showed the tuesday night LBC ride and showed them running stop signs, all of which are side streets and what you don’t hear from the helicopter is the calls of “clear” as people go. They said no hand signals are used and while they mostly aren’t you could see some people doing it. The LBC has even hired an off-duty patrol car to ride at the bike on this particular ride and they criticize him for not stopping the cyclists. WHile I know the club is not perfect this report, so far, seems set on showing that cyclists are at fault almost exclusively.
I watched the report and think it was balanced. They reported a car vs bike incident happening at a rate of 1 every 3 days in Louisville, 3 deaths this year. Plenty of footage of both motorist and cyclist being reckless. Riding 4 abreast edging the center line, a group of 50 or more blowing stop signs, cutting left across an intersection and going by a stopped car inside and outside is just inviting more trouble. I’ll admit to rolling particular stop signs after slowing, so perhaps I’m disqualified for rendering an opinion, but what the LBC was shown doing is not right, and potentiates the problem. We’ve got to be doing it cleaner, better, and more courteous than what was filmed.
The LBC has even hired an off-duty patrol car to ride at the bike on this particular ride and they criticize him for not stopping the cyclists. WHile I know the club is not perfect this report, so far, seems set on showing that cyclists are at fault almost exclusively.
The reporter tried to make it as even-handed as possible, first showing what it’s like to ride on a relatively busy road with traffic essentially disregarding your presence on the bike, and then showing it from another perspective (the group ride) where they’re taking up the entire lane–and sometimes more–while the “hired patrol car” ignores the fact that they’re blowing through stop signs, riding 4-5 abreast and going so far as to have the patrol car roll through a stop sign himself.
As the reporter says at the end, public education is needed—in my experience riding on the open road, you either get people who will cross over entirely into the next lane to give you the wide berth or will pretend that the center lane divider is an invisible force field that will disintegrate their vehicle upon touching that line, hence passing within inches of you.
That’s why it’s imperative to find those back country roads (which present their own issues, I understand) where traffic is minimal…even if it means driving to the starting point of a ride.
Not saying the report is wrong I just think they kind of glossed over the bad car stuff and emphasized the bad rider stuff. I usually ride on back roads out near where I live, few cars, few stop signs and some nice hills. Plus a lot of options of where to go.
Yeah, I can see why the report could be interpreted that way…but I think we don’t realize as cyclists why we draw the ire of motorists at times. How many of us have witnessed first hand some of the antics displayed by the riders shown on the group ride in the report? Hmmm, see a lot of hands raised out there…or at least eyebrows.
Of course one bad set of bad behaviors does not justify another deadlier set exhibited by many drivers…it’s just that as a group we’re not always as blameless as we might like to believe…
Yeah, I can see why the report could be interpreted that way…but I think we don’t realize as cyclists why we draw the ire of motorists at times. How many of us have witnessed first hand some of the antics displayed by the riders shown on the group ride in the report? Hmmm, see a lot of hands raised out there…or at least eyebrows.
Of course one bad set of bad behaviors does not justify another deadlier set exhibited by many drivers…it’s just that as a group we’re not always as blameless as we might like to believe…
Trust me, I know where you are coming from. I get pissed almost every time I ride with a group at the lack of road ettiquette used. Check your pm’s in a few minutes.
House, remember too, the reporter is a triathlete, and he went into this report with the purpose of documenting road rage against cyclists. I think they then had to explain the actions of the LBC. And let’s face it, if you ride in Louisville, you have seen plenty of cyclists who believe the road is their’s and their’s alone. Not saying that justifies someone barrelling down on us with a 1500 lb chunk of metal, but it does exacerbate the problem. The thing that bothered me a bit was at the end, when talking about bike lanes, he said there were bike lanes in Seneca Park. I thought those were runner/walker lanes (b/c no sidewalks), and not bike lanes.