Everytime you drive your car, you put yourself into the careless and reckless arms of bicyclists that don’t think they need to follow the rules of the road. How often are you driving down crowded city streets and see bicyclists that are weaving through stopped cars, running red lights, driving down the wrong way or cutting in front of vehicles?
The situation is fairly bad here in Minneapolis. I see it at least once a week. Just the other day, while I just pulled up to a stop sign and came to a stop, a bicyclist came up beside my car on the right and darted right out in front of my car to cross to the left. Now, I do make complete stops at stop signs (usually) but I don’t sit there and wait for long. That guy was very lucky I saw him coming and didn’t start driving away just as fast as I came to a stop. I don’t even think he realizes how close he came to disaster.
Have you ever seen a bicyslist stop at a stop sign? It’s a rare sight. Even if there are cars lined up all directions, they think they can just zip right through. Now, I’m not saying they should line up behind all the cars and go when there turn comes up, but they need to at least stop at the stop sign and wait for the cars going in the same directions turn and cross when they do.
Now, before everyone jumps on my case, I know there are many people who are model bicyclists. Groups like the Twin Cities Bicycliing Club and the Share the Road program run by the Minnesota DOT do try to educate bikers on the rules of the road and safe bike riding, but from what I’ve seen, the number of people with poor bicycle riding skills greatly outnumber the number of people that follow the proper rules of the road and bicycle safety.
I, for one, fully support police to stop and ticket these offending bicyclists. I do not want to hit someone on a bike. I have never seen a police officer ever stop a bicyclist to tell him that he is driving dangerously, even though I have seen these reckless drivers pass right in front of police cars. For some reason, they don’t feel the need to prevent possibly tragic accidents.
What we need is police officers to start stopping and tickets the most reckless bicyclists and start educating the public that the streets they ride are are not their free playground.
