The closest calls I’ve had involve people turning right across the bike lane and these people have tended to be clueless, middle aged women.

I think if drivers paid better attention to their surroundings and used better judgment, things would be safer. Bikers definitely do some stupid shit, but as someone has pointed out, cars kill people, bikes really don’t. But, it also seems like California drivers are incapable of stopping fully at stop signs or using their signals, to things bikers out here tend to do, too. So maybe it’s less bikers or drivers and more Californians.

Bike traffic through the mission tends to be pretty light when I ride. Downtown, especially on Market street where lights have long cycles and there is little chance to blow through them the bikes really bunch up. I get a real sense of lawlessness when riding in those groups that makes me feel more vulnerable than riding with the cars does… people pass on the right, jockey to get in front of slower riders, spill over onto other lanes, ride on sidewalks and fill the cross walk while waiting. There seems little curtesy extended to other cyclists let alone any one else.

I tend to ride following Boise Idaho bike laws ( red lights = stop and cross only when traffic allows, stops signs = yield ). The more I ride the more I appreciate predictability and signaling of intentions in other commuters and try to ride in that style as well.

It’s downright terrifying biking on the street, but absolutely wrong and impossible to bike on the sidewalk.

I could really go for some better bike lanes. I’m tired of constantly fearing for my life.

i do think, critical-mass bullshit aside, that bikers and cars can co-exist on the road. i try to be patient with them, and usually they sense that and are respectful. as a car driver, you really have to take the higher road (yes, bad pun intended), as it’s completely wrong to use the mass of the car to scare a biker.

and no, i don’t buy this bike-superior-morality BS. cars pollute. so do all the products you buy. example: i don’t drink, so i don’t buy/contribute to all the bottles/cans/etc. that alchol concumption impacts. if you want to pull a morality play, then you need to look at it in absolute terms. (where’s that monk i met in myanmar? now that dude was low impact indeed.) cheers ya’all!

ps- I ride a fixed gear. I love it. Don’t hate.
pss- I also own a car, and drive it sometimes.

Maybe with the experience of being run over or doored, these kids on bikes with no brakes and knee-destroying fixed gears will slow down and take stock of the world around them. Maybe after plowing over a cyclist when making a right turn without looking in the rear-view will teach motorists to pay better attention. Maybe after being spit at by an angry cyclist for stepping into the bike lane on Valencia to hail a cab will learn to look left before they run into the street or maybe after being run down by a car or bus wile jaywalking they’ll learn to look up now and then. Of course, this is SF, the land of entitlement so may I’ll win the lottery some day without playing – because I get to.

Oh get off it.