Promote the love between bike traffic and car traffic

I don’t know if there’s a law addressing what cyclists should do at red lights (beyond stopping, of course). I usually continue up to the crosswalk past all the stopped cars, as if there were another lane between the cars and the curb.

Drivers, does that bug you? Is it just because you’re irritated at being stuck in traffic and being passed by a measly bike, or for safety reasons? I usually pull forward slightly in front of the first car to make sure the driver sees me. But still, I can see how the driver at the front of the line might have to adjust to the idea of having a biker beside him as he’s moving through the intersection and that might be slightly less than safe (especially if he didn’t notice me there). Usually cars approach me from behind so they’re used to the idea of me being there and they’re watching out for me. But when I pull up at the stop light, the first driver is watching the light, not me.

It gives me a small feeling of glee to pass all those cars that are usually passing me, but I can let that go in favor of more safety and car/bike love. Lately I have sometimes stopped behind the last car, and it doesn’t seem to slow me down too much. But I don’t know if it matters or is necessary. Bikers, what do you think?

Here’s a great post by “No Impact Man”, spurred by an initially unpleasant bike/car situation. Well worth reading, whether you bike, drive, train, pogo . . .

at a crowded intersection, I was cut off (at slow speed, so no danger) by a man in a convertible, skootching over to the right-turn lane. This provoked a typical response from me: “GAH rrrrrgh dammit!!!” as I awkwardly backed up and went around. I thought that the noise of the traffic would have covered up my grumblings, but either the man heard me or just realized on his own that he had inconvenienced a cyclist, because I got a genuine apology – a first (apart from a few apologies from truckers who nearly flat-out hit me because they weren’t looking). I got an apologetic smile, too. Yay! It worked – I was instantly un-pissed. I consider this a good sign – that I was considered a legitimate occupant of the roadway.

Here an article from our local news channel: Minneapolis bicyclist injured in hit and run accident

It’s not so much this news story that’s upsetting, it’s the reader comments afterwards, many echoing sentiments like, “Anyone who rides a bicycle in the city to go back and forth from work is an idiot, and taking their lives in their hands.”

I tend to follow the traffic rules for motorized traffic or for pedestrians, whichever are more convenient to me at any particular moment/intersection. I can see how this would be confusing to those vehicles I am sharing the road with.

And it has been thrilling and empowering to take over the streets in such a large mass of bike traffic. To not feel so small and vulnerable and alone, like any car could crush me if it chose to (and it seems that some might want to). But I have to say that I’ve been turned off by the hostile and antagonistic attitudes towards car traffic I have encountered there. I mean, maybe some of those drivers are bikers themselves, but they just had to pick their kids from daycare or whatever and they’re in a car right now. Or maybe they aren’t bikers… but that doesn’t make them the enemies of bikers and the planet.

And of course I have encountered hostility coming the other way too. I have seen a couple of “exposes” on the local TV news about “dangerous bikers” and I have overheard snippets of strangers’ conversation here and there that reflect that attitude.

Lately I have been going out of my way to behave in a more predictable manner on my bike, to stop at stoplights and signal my turns (at least if there are cars around). I have been making a point to acknowledge drivers who share the road—they’re the good ones and I wish there were more like them.