Jump to content

Motorized “pedestrians”


Magneto

Recommended Posts

Got a close call yesterday, thought I share. 

For starters I do not like to ride at night, local 4 and 2 legged wildlife come out to play and there is lots or road hazard lately. Shredded truck tires and boat stuff being most frequently noted. 

Yesterday though I was coming back home well after sunset, stopped at light to join local street after exiting expressway. Checked both ways as usual then concentrated on traffic coming up from the left so I can ease in. Give myself a go after spotting beak in traffic and looked right last time and there it was bicycle  bugger right in front of me, running on a sidewalk without lights and on good rate of speed. Thing is we have practically non existent pedestrian presence up these parts, easy to get complacent. Mental note to watch out for camouflaged high speed sidewalk bicycle  runners...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

Horrible! Damn ninja pedestrians and bikers coming out at dusk without lights are such hazard! In most jurisdictions, riding bike on sidewalk is illegal because it's so dangerous! As that idiot you almost ran over.... well maybe you should've run him over! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

I've discussed this with people who ride bicycles on the sidewalk (as a cyclist who does not) and suggested that even though they are supposed to follow the rules of the road and stay on the road things would be much improved if they picked just one set of rules and followed them. Want to ride on the sidewalk intended for pedestrians? Then stop at crossings, get off your bike and walk it across the crossing as a pedestrian. Well, that would be inconvenient. They only endanger themselves but put everyone else at fault, and since it's never enforced it'll never change. I'm sure there is a correlation between this behaviour and people who shave and do their hair while driving a car. It's the DGAF gene, want everything but responsible for nothing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

The worst ever was late at night, on a windy backroad.  A guy on rollerskates, completely dressed in black.....  

Not "death by cop" but "death by car???".

 

Luckily, a car in front of me spotted him, put on his hazards and had a wee word with the nutter...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So looks like bike mob is a common problem across different continents. Back in a day it was a bear to turn on the lights on a bicycle, but today with excellent led lights there is really no excuse. 
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

I run my mountain bike lights on my road bike if I ride at night.  They're brighter than a standard car headlamp and no one will miss them.  But I also have these reflective rim strip things that work really well:

 

https://www.ridewithfiks.com/

 

And sometimes these:

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N51XBDB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Mine are blue, and several times when I was riding on pitch black nights in Washington State, you could tell that the cars coming over the hill were hitting the brakes thinking it might be a speed trap 😄

 

When I first got the VFR, none of us grown ups would have put reflective strips on rims, cause it looks like boy racer trash.  But now...red reflective rim strips for all my friends, and much brighter LED brake and turn signal lights!

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member Contributer

I had a scare a few years back with my car and a kid on a skateboard. Full dark, foggy, there were some of those super bright LED flood lights but they were pointed to blind rather than illuminate. Smallish teen skater kid, dressed in black, moving fast down the sidewalk. I never even saw him, but suddenly heard a loud thump under my car. Turned out to just be his skateboard... he jumped back off the deck, landed on his ass and the board went under my wheels. Talk about relief. I talked to him for a couple of minutes to make sure he was okay, but I think he was just terrified I'd find something wrong with my car to blame on him and obviously wanted to get out of there. I'll call it a win... I didn't kill anyone that day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.