Secrets of the City

Anyone else totally underwhelmed by “roadguy”? His articles are naive at best.

And this new “information” will not be of any use. 90% of cyclists will continue to blatantly violate every traffic law in existence. The ultimate irony for me is biking to work the other day only to be nearly run over by a guy driving a VW bus make an illegal turn who I’ve seen biking the same streets.

MYTH: Cars can drive as close as possible to a bike lane without entering it.
FACT: Passing cars must provide a minimum of three feet clearance from a bike at all times even when a bicyclist is in a designated bike lane.

This is the only one I really care about and the one I wish cars would actually follow.

Two wheels good, four wheels bad.

“This is the only one I really care about”

Too bad you don’t “really care” about this one:

FACT: Cyclists are responsible for following all traffic laws on the road and on trails, including signaling for turns, stopping for lights and stop signs, using headlights and rear reflectors, and yielding to pedestrians at corners and crosswalks.

Anyone else totally underwhelmed by “roadguy”? His articles are naive at best.

I thought it was rather instructive and had the right attitude about people sharing the road and knowing what the rules are. Hard to know what makes a guy “naive” for citing rules instead of just foaming at the mouth or whatever it is less “naive” bloggers do.

oh for for fuck’s sake, already the douchebag haters come out

1) drivers drive like shit and break rules
2) bikers bike like shit and break rules
3) pedestrians … uh, jaywalk or something

just everyone shut the fuck up. the bigger your vehicle the more dangerous you are to others around you and the more careful you need to be. there’s an easy rule for you, ok?

I used to be obsessed with Roadguy. Then I got tired of always reading about roads…and bikes…and bridge construction… Also, the commenters on there are frequently ridiculous. There’s the anti-taxes guy, the liberal “everyone rides bikes in my utopia” guy, the anti-bus guy (maybe he and anti-taxes guy are the same, I forget), and they have the same arguments over and over again.

Actually, it’s a lot like here. But with more road talk.

Well, Wayne certainly keeps the tones of these things straight and fairminded so it’s not just a bunch of douchebag haters….

yes, because your smarmy sarcasm didn’t lower the tone already.

“hey everybody, some bikers don’t follow rules! watch as I bitchily call attention to this!”

Screw the rules, ubermensch don’t have to follow your pathetic small people rules.

“Smarmy sarcasm” preceding mine to your hate-feeled, monkey-like “BIKERSGOODCARSBAD” screech? Nope. No sarcasm. I meant what I said before the one where I extremely sarcastically suggested that you contribute anything at all to a discussion on bikes and cars. I hope it’s clear I did not mean that one.

Has RoadGuy ever done a piece on bike path etiquette? I’d have some opinions there.

I need to know which lane I should use on skates. It hasn’t really been an issue so far, but I’m curious. (FTR, I use the bike lane unless bikes are coming, then I move to the pedestrian path)

Too bad you don’t “really care” about this one:

yes, this is not incindiery at all, considering you quoted something about how bikes are required to follow the same rules as cars directly after.

even if you’re not directly saying it (way to be a passive-aggressive minnesotan, btw), you’re implying “hey fuck you, you still don’t follow the rules!”

Hey, the fella said “this is the only rule that I care about.” All I did was take him at his word.

backpeddler

Jane, I don’t think I’ve seen anything on bike path etiquette. But my memory is fuzzy. Though, not fuzzy enough to clearly recall him posting nearly the exact same thing over a year ago. (Provided by a transit intern instead of the MPD.)

also, way to be disingenuous

I usually don’t bike backwards.

Hey, the fella said “this is the only rule that I care about.” All I did was take him at his word.

If you were an idiot I might believe that, but as someone who is supposed to be an author, I don’t buy it. If you had that little grasp of the language you’d be writing for newsweek or something.

Well, I’ll grant you “smarmy,” but it still wasn’t sarcastic. I did take his post to mean, genuinely, that he didn’t care about the other rules. I mean, we’ve certainly seen bikers profess that their rules don’t count, that they shouldn’t respect traffic lights or speed limits, so it’s not a leap to assume, when a cyclist claims that the one rule that he cares about is the one that doesn’t apply to him, he means it. I just haven’t been able to grasp the logic that car drivers are so wicked that bikers are absolved from all possible blame. The “plight makes right” argument, I call it.

really? you’re honestly going to play dumb and say “golly gee whiz, I thought he really meant that was the ONLY thing he cared about!”?

or are you saying that you just jumped to conclusions that obviously because others (who? when? is this one of those ‘them’ moments?) have expressed such things, he must have been too?

you obviously have a chip on your shoulders which you’re not hesitant to hide. you started this digression, and don’t you forget it.

I’m not sure that getting super crazy defensive is going to lead to any meaningful resolution.

Well, gee, Wayne, I gave you “smarmy.” I tried to reach across the aisle to you, bruddah. Not sure what you want at this point. You might want to go back and see the tone before you got here, and how abruptly it changed when you did. Anyway, I got shit to do.

I’m not sure that getting super crazy defensive is going to lead to any meaningful resolution.

But it is going to be hilarious.

I need to know which lane I should use on skates.

As a cyclist, I find I get along best with skaters when they use the same lane as I do, keep aware of people coming up behind them, and don’t drift too far left with their swooshing.

I think we need some more Onion links, LOLphotos, and a graph from wayne to put this in the proper perspective.

Thanks, adam. That’s what we do. We use quad skates, too, so there’s not much of the swooshing. I can skate in a nice neat line for the most part.

What’s killing me is those bumps they put on the curb cuts. The wife thinks they put those in there to discourage skating.

I was once run off the trail into the dirt by a gaggle of spandex rollerbladers six deep who took over the (two-way) trail coming right at me. I had just gotten my wheel replaced that day after a couple weeks without a bike, and my tire immediately popped.

Next time I’m going to barrel into anyone going on the wrong way on my side of the trail.

the bigger your vehicle the more dangerous you are to others around you and the more careful you need to be. there’s an easy rule for you, ok?

Coming in to work this morning: I’m approaching an intersection for a right turn. Big Cadillac decides to zip around me, only to then pull over in front of me to make his own right turn, while I’m still located near his rear wheel.

wayne got fruitbooted to the curb. lulz.

I’ve often wondered about those bumps myself. Maybe they’re installed to provide traction on the sloped sections for pedestrians, so they don’t slip out into the street in the winter?

that still doesn’t make it ok to go the wrong way.
I think bikers who do that are idiots too.

what bumps? the onse at curb cuts?
I’m not sure if they’re for traction or the blind. or both.

We considered all of those… the working theory now is that they hate us and want us to fall.

(And yeah, the bumps on the curb cuts are the ones I mean).

What’s killing me is those bumps they put on the curb cuts. The wife thinks they put those in there to discourage skating.

If you’re talking about what I thin you are, I’m pretty certain that they’re ADA complance features to provide traction for wheelchairs and people with mobility disabilities.

yeah I figured it was an ADA thing, because they didn’t start appearing until anything built after the ADA got all gung-ho.

roadguy missed a good opportunity to clarify what motorists are SUPPOSED to do at intersections like the greenway crossings at minnehaha ave. and e. 28th st. – YEILD TO PEDESTRIANS AND BICYCLISTS IN THE INTERSECTION.

drivers can’t even yield to one another when they’re supposed to, why on earth would anyone think it would be any different with other modes of transportation?

I believe the “bumps” at the wheelchair access points are intended for the safety of us able-bodied types in winter. I think they are for better traction on the slopped sidewalks when covered ny ice and snow.

Good Question?

yeah I figured it was an ADA thing, because they didn’t start appearing until anything built after the ADA got all gung-ho.

When the original curb cuts were installed, they failed to take into consideration that the typical smooth concrete finish provided poor traction on the incline, and they had to redesign them.

roadguy missed a good opportunity to clarify what motorists are SUPPOSED to do at intersections like the greenway crossings at minnehaha ave. and e. 28th st. – YEILD TO PEDESTRIANS AND BICYCLISTS IN THE INTERSECTION.

To be fair, it can be confusing. Crosswalks, autos are supposed to yield. Trail crossings are not usually considered crosswalks, and trail users are required to stop and yield to oncoming traffic.

I had a great experience in cambridge, ma one winter (not too far from harvard’s campus, actually) where there was a curb cut for a driveway that led to underground parking for an apartment building.

Well, the driveway down was very very steep, and there had just been an ice storm … don’t worry, I didn’t fall in and get stuck at the bottom all night. But it could have very easily happened.

There wasn’t really a point to that story.

What annoys me most, is when at intersections or trail crossings, some cars will stop and try to wave me through, even though I’m stopped and they have the right of way.

It’s not safe for them to do that. Many other drivers, either in the other lane going the same direction, or in oncoming lanes don’t stop and can’t necessarily see me, and I can’t always see them, so I try to wave them to go. Sometimes, they’ll just sit there and keep waving me through,and getting more frustrated when I won’t cross.

YEILD TO PEDESTRIANS AND BICYCLISTS IN THE INTERSECTION.

I think bikes are supposed to yield to cars at these intersections.

it takes forever to cross some of those intersections at busy times of day. almost negates the advantage of having an off-road bike trail.

I think bikes are supposed to yield to cars at these intersections.

if you are unsure what to do at these intersections specifically, tilt your head ever so slightly upwards and read the sign above the crosswalk that says, “Yeild to Pedestrians and Bicycles in the Crosswalk”.

it is white, has black lettering, is written in English in Helvetica font.

The curb cut bumps are required by ADA, but it’s not for traction, it’s so that the blind / visually impaired don’t accidentally walk into the street. Curb cuts are great for those in wheel chairs, but if you’re blind and using a cane, you’re used to the drop-off of the curb to alert you when you’re at an intersection.

The bumps (technically called truncated domes) serve as an alert. You’ll notice they use the same bumps along the LRT platforms for the same reason.

if you are unsure what to do at these intersections specifically, tilt your head ever so slightly upwards and read the sign above the crosswalk that says, “Yeild to Pedestrians and Bicycles in the Crosswalk”.

it is white, has black lettering, is written in English in Helvetica font.

Yes, you always yield to someone already crossing. The thing is, drivers don’t always have to stop to allow someone to ENTER the intersection.

To clarify, Wayne is right, it’s not the only rule I care about but it is the rule I care the most about, especially since there are few things worse than getting shoved into a curb or parked car because an asshole driver decides he has to see how close he can come to me without actually hitting me.

What I think drivers don’t fully consider (for the most part) is that if they hit a biker, they get a dent in their car. The biker ends up in the hospital.

That’s certainly not a fair tradeoff or, to me worth the risk.

if you are unsure what to do at these intersections specifically, tilt your head ever so slightly upwards and read the sign above the crosswalk that says, “Yeild to Pedestrians and Bicycles in the Crosswalk”.

it is white, has black lettering, is written in English in Helvetica font.

I just biked through the Minnehaha and 28th St. Greenway intersections. The sign says “Stop for Pedestrians in Crosswalk”.

You had the color and font right, though. Nice work.

Properly, Helvetica is a typeface, not a font. The font would be the specific expression of the typeface, such as Helevica Bold Condensed, or Helvetica Narrow Oblique.

lol. noted.

Three years of working as a designer. We tend to get fussy about typography.

I know a guy who can guess Pantone colors with in two or three numbers. Designers are sick people.

Designers are sick people.

Truer words were never spoken.