For those of you annoyed at Mayor Greg Nickels’ proposed buck an hour increase at Seattle parking meters, I say enjoy even that bargain while you can, for if the Viaduct is ultimately replaced by the “surface and transit” option, parking will be removed entirely from many of the downtown’s north/south streets.
While I’m told that having cars speeding along the curb poses an increased hazard to pedestrians, eliminating street parking is really a pretty simple and inexpensive means of adding more lanes, and thus more capacity to city streets. Perhaps one safety solution might be to buffer pedestrians with a narrow bike lane, since urban bikers are already committed to putting their lives at risk in the service of less auto-centric transportation policies?
So you want to protect pedestrians from cars by using cyclists as human shields? I kinda like it, because I have damned little use for cyclists. I got hit twice in three days in downtown crosswalks by aggressive cyclists who raced through the intersection at high speed in disregard of the dozens of pedestrians in the crosswalks. If cyclists can’t do any better than that, I say ban bicycles from downtown, or feed the cyclists to the cars! Pedestrians shouldn’t be forced to put up with that kind of crap. It ought to be prosecuted as criminal assault.
I suspect those two cyclists knew you.
Our bicycle laws are crazy. Cyclists pay no road taxes but are allowed to peddle in the middle of our streets at 5 – 10 mph, impeding the vehicle traffic the streets were built for. If they ride after dark in the middle of the street wearing dark clothing with no lights or reflectors and get hit by a motorist who couldn’t see them — the motorist gets sued. They don’t have license plates or insurance, and when they run down and injure a pedestrian, they hop back on their bikes and ride off — sticking the pedestrian with the medical bills and lost wages. I’ve seen cyclists ride on crowded sidewalks at high speed. Many cyclists are pushy, aggressive, and belligerent. A bicycle should be treated like a car. Bicycle owners should pay road taxes, have license plates and lights on their bikes, be required to carry liability insurance, and leaving the scene of a bike-pedestrian collision should be a felony. If cyclists won’t go along with that, then ban ’em. They’re a public menace. I’m thoroughly tired of the attitudes and antics of irresponsible cyclists.
@2 You’re dead wrong about that. They were total strangers. Those motherfuckers came flying around the corner and raced through the crosswalk at high speed while the “Walk” sign was on and plowed through a crowd of pedestrians in the crosswalk. On those two occasions, I was the one who got hit and knocked to the ground. They had the balls to scream at me and act like it was my fault. I came this close — THIS CLOSE — to taking a swing at them. What they did to me constituted criminal assault and those motherfuckers ought to have their bikes confiscated and their sociopathic asses thrown in jail. One of them wore a Bucky’s Messenger Service jacket. The other was some anonymous asshole with a chip and a big mouth. I’ve seen the same thing on several other occasions when someone else got hit.
Just want to be clear that I in no way intended this post to be an anti-cycling rant. I support promoting bike commuting.
That said, bikes are vehicles, and cyclists should be ticketed when they fail to follow the rules of the road.
If cyclists want the community to respect and support them, then they have to behave in a responsible manner. It’s as simple as that.
The punks who work for messenger services are the worst offenders. I saw a news story about a week ago that said electronic legal filing may put bike messengers out of business. Good riddance!
I’m not against responsible cyclists who behave in a civilized manner. My rant is against the other kind. You can’t expect pedestrians who get run down by aggressive cyclists to have a good attitude about bikes. Every incident like that creates enemies for the cycling community. The cycling community needs to understand that and be more assertive about policing their own.
This post doesn’t make much sense.
Roger, I can see both sides here. I like riding a bicycle around but it is intimidating and while I tend to be patient and go with the traffic flow. I think in many people the intimidation just breeds aggressive retardation. Part of it is just a pissed off attitude that there is isn’t completely separated bike lane infrastructure. A big part of bicycle riding is really about flow and having to stop at every block for an intersection totally breaks up the bike experience. This is why the rails to trails and infrastructure like the burke gilman trail are so exquisite for a bike rider. So I can see that side of things.
But on the other hand even on the burke gilman trail I have seen total asshattery exhibited. Case in point, while riding my bike I came to an intersection that crossed the trail not that far from Gasworks park. A car was pulled up and about to continue on. It was clear that he had already stopped and was about to proceed into the perpendicular lane. Since I didn’t have much momentum I stopped because clearly he had the right of way and I didn’t know if he saw me. The driver being cautious acknowledged me and then started to pull ahead. Then behind me out of nowhere this asshat on another bicycle comes whipping past me and blazes out in front of the car. The car lurches and slams his breaks. And then the asshole yells and gestures at both me and the driver as if we were in the fault when he decided to just rip through the intersection with total abandon. That pissed me off.
Physically separated bike trails is the real answer. Realistically it would require re appropriating some percentage of the surface streets. A few key bike avenues. If they were completely separated and had overpasses for busy streets I would be willing to pay a toll or tax to use them. But the design needs to be such that I can go a pretty long distance without having to stop.
@9 I can see how you might be able to physically sequester bike from cars, but I don’t see how you can avoid requiring bicycles to stop at crosswalks. Frankly, I don’t give a rip for any “bicycle experience” that comes at the expense of pedestrian safety. Cyclists must yield to pedestrians, period. If they won’t the solution is to ban bicycles from pedestrian rights of way.
There should be a spandex tax implemented on cyclists. Call it a decency tax.
@10 when I walk past an intersection on the Burke Gilman trail I know to look both ways for bikes. And generally speaking the bike traffic is not that dense so I am not really waiting much when there is a bike or two that needs to cross.
Obviously an assessment has to be made for each intersection to determine density. But at intersections where there is high foot traffic and bike traffic have an overpass or under pass for the biker or pedestrian (whichever makes sense landscape wise). And places where there is still high cross traffic but no feasible means to separate, then I suppose you could have little crossing gates come up at the push of a button for the pedestrians.
A little fore thought and the system could work quite well.
But there is no accounting for human rudeness. I just spent several months down in Santa Monica and my girlfriend who is a nurse would ride her bike along Venice beach everyday to work. And while it was great to ride along the beach she would tell me stories about how she had to contend with human feces in the road and more than one incident where someone was standing in the middle of the dedicated bike trail (not the pedestrian trail) full on masturbating, singing opera and greeting the early dawn at the ocean. So it takes all kinds I suppose.
As the Jimmy Buffet song goes…
He was talking about Santa Monica when he wrote that song.
Rabbit at 7,
your rant (at other postings) is out of proportion. You claim you want to ban cyclists from downtown and then claim that you’re not against responsible cyclists.
I’m sorry you were hit (twice? are you sure you’re not just lousy at being a pedestrian?), I’m glad you recognise that responsible cyclists exist.
There are a lot of asshole cyclists out there, and I’d like to see more enforcement of the existing laws, but Goldy is right; we’re trying to do our part in the service of less auto-centric transportation.
slingshot at 11 – thanks for the utterly predictable spandex comment.
fuck you.
Gordon @ 9 says:
“A big part of bicycle riding is really about flow and having to stop at every block for an intersection totally breaks up the bike experience.”
Pardon me, but I don’t give a flying fuck in a rolling donut about your “bike experience,” and I don’t give a flying leap at the moon if you have to stop at each intersection. You and every other bicyclist are required by law to obey the rules of the road — period — just like every driver is, and every pedestrian is.
Am I entitled to walk across the street against a red light or jaywalk in traffic, because to do otherwise would not enhance the “pedestrian experience?”
Somehow I don’t think so. As for Goldy’s original post, the answer, of course, is to rebuild the Viaduct so that the traffic can flow. The “surface option” is no option at all, unless the objective is to ruin transportation in and through Seattle altogether.
Since the downtown is competing against business areas that don’t charge for parking, this will end up cutting revenue for the city. Just another stupid idea from the Mayor.
@12 It’s not practical to build a pedestrian overpass/underpass at every downtown intersection. Nor is it necessary. All it takes is for cyclists to stop for red lights and pedestrians in crosswalks with the “Walk” sign in their favor. There’s absolutely no excuse for anyone on a bike flying through a crosswalk full of pedestrians at high speed. If cyclists can’t do any better than that, ban ’em from downtown.
@13 “(twice? are you sure you’re not just lousy at being a pedestrian?)”
Let’s not get stupid or insulting here, especially at the same time!! I was in a crosswalk with a dozen or more other pedestrians, with the “Walk” sign on. One of the cyclists that hit me also collided with several other pedestrians at the same time. He just roared around the corner at full speed right into the group. This has nothing to do with being a lousy pedestrian. A lousy pedestrian is someone who jaywalks or crosses with the “Don’t Walk” sign. The cyclist was 100% at fault — and riding illegally and with wanton disregard for the safety of others — both times. Blaming the innocent victim is for Republicans and jerks, so fuck off.
@16 I quit shopping downtown long ago. I don’t even attempt to park downtown. If I have to go downtown for a meeting or event, I ride a bus. I can’t carry shopping parcels on the bus.
@17 agreed. Downtown is a specific case. I was talking more about a system like Burke Gilman through out the rest of the city and neighborhoods. A really state of the art bike system that connects the neighborhoods.
Downtown would require developing specific corridors for biking that are separated from the car lanes physically. Perhaps certain one way streets could have a middle lane completely fenced off. And for intersections impose little gates when there is a red light so that bikes can’t rush through into cross traffic or pedestrians. A biker could hop off their bike and walk around to mix with the pedestrians or turn. But no rushing through the lane unless their was a green light in their direction. Kind of like railway crossings. But in my mind downtown isn’t where the focus needs to be. The density downtown is such that you don’t need to really rush around on either a bike or a car. There is just too many people and cars.
I would rather spend initial infrastructure tax dollars expanding the Burke Gilman throughout the rest of the city.
Little gates? LITTLE GATES? Are you fucking batshit? Bikers should just fucking STOP when they are supposed to.
Because If shit like this keeps up, pedestrians will sooon be stomping the shit out of bikers who plow into them, and reducing their bikes to rubble.
We don’t need gates, fences, or a fucking bike overpass. We need people who do not obey the law to get cited or arrested.
Roger et al: a shitload more pedestrians are injured and killed by cars and trucks, many driven by drunk, distracted, or hyperagressive dipshits, than by bicycles. You know why people who have been hit by cars don’t threaten to beat up the drivers? Because they are in the hospital, or the morgue.
Chew on that for a moment, you stupid fucks.