Incident 1
Monday morning I was biking my normal route to work which takes me North along Hamline ave across highway 36. Just past 36 is the intersection of Hamline and County Road B2. To the left (West) is the Rosedale Mall, to the right (East) is the Roseville High School. As I approach the intersection a white car nudged out as if looking for room to sneak forward and turn right at the then red light. This car, however, gets back in line and continues straight. As a biker I have stayed safe and alive by never fully trusting cars. So when this car, of which I am now riding alongside, turns to the right nearly hitting me it is terrifying but not surprising. I swerve to the right, turning with the car and yell at them. They stop and I scream something about using a fucking turn signal, then I continue my ride. I do have to get to work after all.
Incident 2
Wednesday evening coming home from work I am biking (east) along the trail on County Road C. This trail rocks because it is a long stretch where I don't have to worry about cars or stops and I can just zip along. That is until I come up to the Snelling/County C intersection. If you see a pattern here, yes, most conflicts between cars and bikes happen at intersections, where paths cross. Anyways, this light is almost always red when I arrive which is fine because it is a very busy intersection (seriously Snelling is actually highway 51 with a 50mph speed limit). When it is red I pull right up to the end of the sidewalk/trail ramp and the street. If you look at the GoogleMaps link in street view you can see that there is a right turn lane right along side the bike lane.
The timing of the lights goes North/South traffic, then a turn arrow for the East/West traffic, then a full green light for the East/West traffic. When the turn arrows are over the east/west straight bound traffic gets to go, including anyone using the trail (such as myself).
In this case the light was green as I approached. Now this is actually a bit of a dangerous situation for me because people rarely look where they are turning and never look for someone coming from the side. As I ride past the line of cars waiting to turn right I attempt to catch someone's eye so they can at least know that there is a biker coming. No luck. I come to a stop at the intersection as drivers continue to turn right, ignoring the glowing green light and crossing sign signalling that I have right of way. I inch my way into the street attempting to assert myself. (If you've never biked in traffic then one thing you should know is that you must assert yourself. To do otherwise is to cede your right and your safety to unaware 2000lbs metal slabs moving 30+ mph. Read this succinct guide to the rules of the road for some more info.) None of the cars seem to care as they just veer a little further away, continuing to turn. Now that the crossing sign has turned to the 25 second countdown I stick myself out there, raising my hand for visibility, essentially blocking the way and forcing the next turning car to stop (the driver seemed a bit miffed). I begin to ride on now that the way is clear.
This sort of disregard for cyclists and traffic laws is fairly typical of motorists. And it is not because motorists are evil bike munching bogeymonsters. They are people. People are tired, inattentive, in a hurry to get home etc etc. But what really got to me this time was that as I was biking away the driver, who I had forced to stop, yelled out "You're NOT a pedestrian!" I tried, and failed, to yell back "I'm on a bike trail and have a green light!". What came out was "ArghI'm on a bike, FUCK YOU!" Which I'm sure helped to endear me, and cyclists in general, to all of the waiting drivers which I was now riding past.
Incident 3
Over the lunch hour on Thrusday I decided that what I really needed was Chipotle. So I ordered online, hopped on my bike and set off. On the way back I am biking in the street (no bike lanes in New Brighton) on the right hand side coming up on the turn for the office. There is no other traffic on the road which makes it all the more confusing when a car coming up behind me honks. Not so much an angry honk, or a warning honk... in fact I'm not sure why he was honking. As the driver passes me he is clearly looking down at his phone. Perhaps he was honking at the a ghost, or the wind. My impression of the driver: "damn this wind - honk - always thinking it gets to wind all over the place... indistinct grumbling... passing this biker reminds me that I need to send a text".
Incident 4
Thursday evening, just leaving work, I have claimed the lane in order to turn left onto a busy street. I signal as much to the two cars behind me as I approach the stop sign. I cease my signal in order pump up the rest of the small hill and come to a stop. As mentioned before it is a busy street, 4 lanes plus a median, with 40+ mph traffic including semi trucks. The traffic coming from the left clears and there is a gap in the traffic from the right. Now I could maybe make it but I'd be starting from a dead stop and the wind is against me. I'm a smart biker so I don't go if I could "maybe" make it. The corollary to "maybe I could make it" is "maybe I won't make it". So elect not to maybe become an asphalt burger and stay put for the next gap.
The driver behind me throws a shit fit.
He shoots off a long angry honk, yells his head off and gestures emphatically. Of course, I can't actually hear him, he is 10 feet behind me with his windows rolled up. His muffled anger combined with the arm waving makes him seem pretty silly, especially after all the crap that's happened this week. He is clearly angry that I am not on the right side of the road and that I chose not to attempt to cross during the last maybe opportunity. I yell back and signal that "I'm turning left" but he remained angry and under the incorrect belief that bikers must always be as far to the right as possible. Less than a minute later there is a gap which is not a maybe and I bike across. He grumpily zooms past. The best part, he and I leap frog past each other for half of my ride home, stopping at all the same lights and taking the same turns.
Overall
Thankfully Friday was uneventful due to the relatively light traffic. Not sure why but there is always less traffic on Fridays. Perhaps less people go into work, or go to work later and leave earlier; a topic for more thought at another time. But back to the issue at hand - this week - it sucked. On an average week I probably only have one bad incident while commuting. But while this week may have had a larger amount of crap none of it was actually unusual. None of these stories will be surprising to anyone who has commuted by bike for any period of time. I'll have some analysis for you in the next post.
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