Driver-Cyclist interaction

Saturday, May 31. 2014

Driver-Cyclist interaction

by way of introduction, i am both an enthusiastic driver (who had a brief career as a mediocre club racing driver) and an enthusiastic cyclist (who will probably never race, but does enjoy long rides). i tend to ride on bike paths or out in rural areas where i know the roads well. urban cycling scares me, as way too many drivers are not paying attention.
so yesterday i found myself on NY 155 heading north, and then taking the short slip ramp onto Washington Avenue Extension (this is in Albany, NY, for those of you who aren't from around here.) A cyclist was crossing 155 from my left to my right and our paths were about to cross where the slip ramp merged into Washington Avenue Extension.
so what did i do? well, being a cyclist myself, i recognized two things - first of all, that per the rules of the road, he had the right of way and i was obligated to yield it. and second of all, that most drivers don't really get this and he was probably going to be very concerned about my intentions and my attentiveness.
so as i came around the slip ramp, i deliberately hung back and paced him, while looking straight at him. when he looked over at me to see what i was about to do, we made eye contact. this turns out to be enough information for him to decide that we are actually going to follow the correct rules of the road, so he signaled that he wanted to move across to the shoulder. i waited for him to do so and then gave him plenty of room on my right as i accelerated by. and he was apparently very appreciative of the fact that it was all done correctly and waved at me as i moved on.
what can we do to teach every one, drivers and cyclists alike, to do these things properly?

Posted by Richard Welty in Bicycling at 17:56 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

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Not sure if it's possible. My general level of trust for drivers is darn low -- 20-30% of them fail to signal right turns at intersections, and this on one of the roads in Cambridge with the heaviest bicycle commuter traffic (I counted a dozen bicycles stopped at a light, and there more that I did not count). I saw a guy doored Friday on Mass Ave (fortunately, he survived) another one of the very heavily traveled bike routes (there were two of us right behind him, and I think another in front).

So if we can't get drivers to master opening doors and signaling turns in Cambridge, I think the sort of interaction you had is about as common as the Grey Parrot whistling Monty Python songs (there is one, on Youtube, he's not pining for the fjords though that would be a wonderful thing for a parrot to learn).

I would add that cars tend to make drivers somewhat deaf and dumb. You can't really carry on a conversation, like you can between bike and bike or bike and pedestrian.

#1 dr2chase on 2014-06-02 00:17 (Reply)

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