Interesting study

[johnridley]

http://www.etcproceedings.org/paper/the-roots-of-driver-behaviour-towards-cyclists

The roots of driver behavior towards cyclists.

Really it explains a LOT of different kinds of behavior, but in this particular case it studies the pressure that drivers feel from OTHER drivers to treat cyclists badly, and also the tendency for drivers to overlook (or not even notice) bad behavior from other car drivers while causing a huge stink about the same behavior from cyclists. Also some other behaviors.

Again, these tendencies are not at all isolated to drivers or all against cyclists either. They apply to any "us" vs "them" situation.

Some of the infrastructure comments are interesting too. They did some investigation of what many of us believe; that bike lanes actually make the streets more dangerous for cyclists, if they're not done right (and they usually are NOT done right).

Comments

[dark-fx.livejournal.com]

Personally, I've got no beef with cyclists that follow the rules of the road. The biggest things I have issues with are cyclists that don't signal turns, and ones that think they can suddenly turn into pedestrian traffic with regards to stop signs and stop lights.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have the same beef with those cyclists. The point here is that if you talk to some drivers, they will tell you that ALL cyclists run red lights, blow signs without slowing, and are generally a menace. And almost every car driver will tell you that of course they stop at stop signs, but if you plant a video camera next to a stop sign, you will find that, in the absence of cross traffic, something like 1 in 20 to as little as 1 in 50 drivers actually stop. I've seen video of intersections that runs for 10 minutes and NOBODY stopped unless there was a pedestrian or cross traffic. That's zero out of hundreds.

One of my problems on the road whether on a bike or driving a car is that I *DO* follow the rules. This means that when I come to a stop sign, I have to be really careful to not get rear-ended, because it's incredibly rare to see a car actually stop at a stop sign. When I stop and there's a car behind me, almost every time the car winds up nose diving as they jam on their brakes in surprise at someone who actually stopped.

Car drivers hardly ever signal turns. I should qualify that; they don't signal turns in any way that is useful or meaningful. For whatever reason, at least here in Michigan, people seem to think that the proper way to signal a turn is to turn the turn signal on RIGHT AT the intersection, or even as you start the turn. That's WAY too late. If you don't signal the turn at least 100 feet in advance, there's not time for other road users to accommodate your intentions. If I am riding my bike and see someone behind me that wants to turn right at the next red light, I'll move to a far left position to allow them to complete the turn. If they don't signal, I can't really accommodate them.

There's one light that I go through every day, and almost everyone turns right there, and almost everyone fails to signal the turn. It's gotten to the point where I just assume that everyone behind me is turning right; 4 out of 5 do, but maybe 1 out of 10 signals it. So if I'm at the front at the red, I move far left in the lane so that my front tire is on the stop line and about a foot to the right of the center line. Usually between 3 and as many as 7 or 8 cars turn right on my right, none of them having signaled a right turn.

[madtechie2718.livejournal.com]

One of the things I've noticed since Oxford went to a blanket 20mph speed limit is how a cyclist mkes motorists break the speed limit.

I have a GPS on my bike, I'll be cycling at 20mph on a clear road and motorists are somehow *forced* by my mere presence to overtake me - then, realising they are doing 30 in a 20 zone, pull in front of me and slam the brakes on again.

I can only assume that they are so used to always overtaking cyclists in a 30mph (or faster) zone that they cannot unlearn the behaviour.

Interesting article, but even more interesting to see if our continental cousins have similar problems.

Bizzare....

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's just an unlearned habit; it seems to be more than that.

It's a well observed phenomenon, posted by many in bikeforums, that if there's a bike, IT MUST BE PASSED. You can NOT not pass a bicycle; whatever you have to do is OK, if you do it to pass a bicycle. People post about doing OVER the speed limit on their bikes, like 35 or even 40 in a 25 or 30 MPH zone, usually going down a hill, and someone will be behind them and will speed up to FAR over the limit to pass them, then, as you say, slow way down after passing, usually to less than the speed of the bike.

This is not even mentioning that if you come up behind a bicycle that's within 100 feet of a stop light that's red, you MUST floor the accelerator, whip around the bike, then slam on the brakes at the light. Then of course get mad as hell if the bike passes you.