In the past month, I’ve experienced three near-collisions. Not because I was wasted (shut up, everyone), not because I was freshening up my mascara in the rearview mirror, and certainly not because I was receiving road-head, but because… and I’m going to take a few deep breaths here… Bicyclists. On. Campus. Think. They. Are. Bloody. Pedestrians.
Newsflash for you, Walter Cronkite (no, this expression does not get old – I refuse to believe it) – bicycles move faster than pedestrians. And I am not a cage-fighter, my reflexes simply do not allow me to brake in time if you suddenly decide to zip across my lane without signaling.
Signaling is essential. I learned it when I was six. I was not, as much as I hate to admit it, a wunderkind – it wasn’t hard. Tying my shoelaces and mixing a decent martini were much bigger battles… *cough*
Sharing and caring is also a concept that the majority of us learn early on, unless we happen to be sociopaths, of course. One of the good things about cycling on campus is the fact that most people who drive cars understand said concept fairly well – unlike in other environments. Getting on a bike to go from your dorm to your chemistry class is cheap and convenient – and better than subjecting yourself to the infernal horrors of the bus system. The good things in life are free, or almost free, and learning basic bike etiquette is not a huge price to pay.
The girl who abandoned her lane and decided to turn left, without signaling or as much as looking, right when I was gearing up to pass her (cars move faster than bicycles, it’s a fact of life, much like death and taxes), she knew nothing about sharing and caring. I was turning right, so when I slid to a stop next to her, heart still firmly lodged in throat, I rolled my window and said, as politely as possible, “Could you please signal next time?”
Her ears were plugged up and her iPod was blaring so loudly that even I could hear the semi-mournful notes of Death Cab for Cutie – an oddly appropriate choice, all things considered. She didn’t hear me as she proceeded to dart across the road in front of an oncoming pick-up, firmly convinced that the pedestrian crossing would throw up a protective force-field around her. The pick-up’s brakes screeched, but she didn’t hear them either, of course.
Tragedy was avoided at the last possible minute and the Greek chorus in my head wandered off in search of wood-nymphs in the surrounding Duke Forest.
I hate car-culture with a passion (I wish I wasn’t forced to participate in it) – but even this was a bit much. Almost as bad, in fact, as that time earlier in the week when I was headed off campus – and a cyclist decided to pass another cyclist by veering off his lane and smack in front of me without so much as a signal or a backward glance – while we were on a frickin’ bridge.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is happening all around a place that is, the last time I checked, an elite establishment of higher learning. Off of to East Campus, within feet of the university – cyclists tend to be polite and watchful and unencumbered with blaring iPods.
This entire thing is a Holmes-worthy mystery of enormous proportions, but I am too busy trying to avoid maiming people to solve it.
Natalia A. 
I once almost ran over my highschool teacher when he was on his bike.
I still hold a lot of bitterness towards cyclists….I contend that the ones in California are the worst.
Paul almost ran over Diane Nelson once, I think.
Anyway, you could solve the problem by dumping the car and getting a bike, you know?
Or just move to Dubai.
`mankind will ride into hell on bikes, still listening to their infernal ipods’… the preacher has spoken.
But in Dubai can you hit someone, get 10 points, and claim road rage as your defense then write a best-seller about your road to recovery and option the screenplay for enough money to hire your own driver? I”m thinking NO.
Get ’em, Natalia – hit those fuckers. If you can’t come up with chapter 6 we go with plan B as outlined above. I”ll call my friends at Oxygen and Lifetime.
But in Dubai can you hit someone, get 10 points, and claim road rage as your defense then write a best-seller about your road to recovery and option the screenplay for enough money to hire your own driver? I”m thinking NO. But I”m not making fucks to Saudis or Egyptians so I’m not too familiar with the laws. Correct me if I”m wrong. (That guy from Sat night swore he wasn’t Arabic just Muslim and that’s why i had to wear the paper bag over my head, but he also said his pee pee would taste like strawberry and that was a damned lie….)
Get ’em, Natalia – hit those fuckers. If you can’t come up with chapter 6 we go with plan B as outlined above. I”ll call my friends at Oxygen and Lifetime.
Bicyclists need to learn that they are not pedestrians, for all meaningful purposes they are vehicles that must obey traffic laws. They would be safer if they recognized that.
How about US cities create bicycle lanes rather than blaming the cyclists?
There are far far more cyclists per car in Holland and China and cycling lanes ensure a pretty low rate of accidents.
How about in California where they have cycling lanes and don’t use them…..grrr…bitter…grrr.
In college we referred to these people as street nazi’s. The worst were the bicycle messengers. They combined the percieved invulnerability of the students with an irrational hatred of pedestrians. My response was to take up roller blading. If you cant beat em…
It’s not the lack of bike lanes that’s the problem – at least not on campus.
It’s. The fact. That. People. Need. To. Fucking. Signal.
There.
If you can’t beat ’em, hit them with your car. Then, once they’re down, kick ’em. That’s the american way!
Only campus drive and part of chapel drive have bike lanes, and they’re not really good ones. There aren’t any bike lanes in the rest of Durham.
Fucking. Signal.
Drive. Slower.
I’m not going to take this, “you’re just upset because there are cyclists on the road so you can’t go 100 mph in your evil, evil car” BS from anyone else – I’ve had too much of it thrown my way after six years of being a licensed driver.
FYI – I drive the speed limit on campus, if not slower, and I am always looking out for unpredictable behaviour on the road. I’m also a responsible cyclist – I learned the rules when I learned to ride a bike.
If you are going to make a turn, you signal. If you don’t signal, you risk getting into an accident – other people around you can’t read your mind – especially if you are going right to left – i.e. emerging from someone else’s blind-spot.
If you try to lecture me one more time about this – I might damn well blow a fuse.
I get upset thinking about the way my own mentality morphs when I get inside a car. I go from being hyper-aware of my proximity to other vehicles and concentrating on safety (while on a bike or walking) to being more impatient. Not saying you’re guilty of this, naturally, but it has been interesting/frightening for me to observe myself in this way. I’ve always felt threatened when biking around towns like Raleigh and Durham because I feel confident that most American motorists almost never get on a bike or take a cross-town stroll, and thus have very little idea of what it feels like to be a non-driver in a traffic situation. I agree that we need more bike lanes, but first I think we should look into importing foreign cyclists (preferably Italian) to raise awareness among Americans about alternate forms of transportation. I’ve heard that the job market for young Italians is pretty tight, so it might be a pretty popular thing.