I just don’t understand how a grown man can think it’s okay to ride his $5,000 bicycle in the middle of the street. I HATE Sagaponack cyclists—well, maybe not all of them. Just the ones like this. The Hamptons has these people all over the place, but they seem to have their headquarters in Sagaponack.
It’s just so stupid, and it seems to be a millionaires only club group of morons that do this. Freaking CHILDREN understand to bike on the side of the road. But apparently certain Sagaponack residents, or somebody riding through Sagaponack at the very least, do not.
It’s just not that hard to bike on the side of the road.
The guy in the video below was biking in the middle of the road for FIVE minutes while I was behind him, I finally had the sense to pick up my video camera and film him, and after about 30 seconds, he decides to move out of the way.
I don’t understand how a grown up with a driver’s license can think that it’s not OK to ride a bicycle in the middle of a traffic lane.
You claim that that is how people get killed? How do you figure that? It makes no sense whatsoever. You see the bicyclist. Your brakes work. Would you run into the back of a bus or a garbage truck going slow in front of you that you could see? Your argument that it’s dangerous is completely illogical.
Riding to the far right encourages close passing, especially in narrow lanes like the one in your video and it creates dangerous conflicts at driveways and intersections.
Did you not take driver’s education? Bicyclists have a right to use the road. Furthermore, the keep right law for bicycles in New York State, Section 1234 exempts bicyclists from the requirement to keep far right in “traffic lanes too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side-by-side within the lane” which this lane clearly is.
I never cease to be amazed by the arrogance of people who have never spent 5 minutes studying bicycle safety but still insist that they know what bicyclists are supposed to do. Here a few real experts. They will all tell you that you are wrong.
http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/index.htm
http://www.youtube.com/user/CyclistLorax
http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/animations/
http://cyclingsavvy.org
http://www.bikeed.org
http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/education/courses.php#101
Effective Cycling by John Forester, ISBN 0262560704
Cyclecraft by John Franklin, ISBN 0117064769
Seriously. Grow up. You have to share the road with bicyclists. The bicyclists in your video did nothing wrong. When they found a wide spot they moved over to let you pass. Your anger is silly and childish. You need to get over your ignorant delusions of entitlement.
The guy was in the middle of the road for five minutes before I took out the camera. I don’t have ignorant delusions of entitlement. You need to get over the fact that it’s dangerous to drive a bicycle in the middle of the road and blocks traffic. If you think that this is the “correct” thing to do you’ll just end up in the hospital after a driver crashes into you. Would you walk in the middle of the road too? Skateboard?
Honestly, there is no reason to debate with you, there is no argument. Keep on riding in the middle of the road buddy, I’ll visit you in the hospital when you get run over.
@David: Riding in the middle of the lane makes bicyclists visible and it discourages passing close and it discourages the “right hook” where a driver almost passes a bicyclist and then turns in front of them. It’s the safest way to ride in that situation and it is taught by ALL of the top bicycle safety experts around. I gave you multiple references. Did you check any of them?
You are exceptionally arrogant. You are pretending to be know more than all of the top bicycle safety experts around even though you have devoted ZERO effort to studying bicycle safety.
I have been riding for nearly 45 years. I have well into 6 figure mileage experience as well as extensive training and study in bicycle safety (see references above for a subset of my study meant for beginners). I know this subject better than most people. You know nothing about bicycle safety.
Congratulations on being another moron/idiot who thinks riding in the middle of the road is a good idea. I’m 30 years old and have 25 years of cycling experience riding bicycles on roads. You must be so proud/wise to have such bicycle riding knowledge.
Enjoy getting honked at. You must also have decades of experience getting flipped the bird on a daily basis. What a winner you are.
What happened when you saw those bicycles ahead of you?
You slowed down. How is that unsafe?
My I.Q. is 144. I have a degree in Mathematics-Computer Science from one of the top academically ranked universities in the country. Can you match that?
I also have extensive training and study of bicycle safety not to mention extensive experience.
When I use to ride far right like idiots like you insist that I should, I suffered numerous close passes almost every time I rode. Now, I get 1-3 per year and and that’s riding 6000-7000 miles per year, most of it on major roads.
I know what works. You’re only guessing because you’re a child making excuses over a trivial inconvenience.
And again, New York State Law, Section 1234 exempts bicyclists from the requirement to keep far right in “traffic lanes too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side-by-side within the lane” . It’s the law. Grow up. Get over it and quit whining like a little crybaby because you can’t handle waiting a few seconds or moving over to pass.
Bill, you are like the perfect example of what it means to be a person who deliberately loses all common sense in order to justify a behavior that you want to do. You’re in the exact same category as the motorcycle riders who refuse to wear helmets because it “obstructs my vision.”
When you ride in the middle of the road, you hold up traffic behind you. If a car is not paying attention, you’ll get run over. If you ride to the right side of the road, cars pass you, traffic is not blocked, and you are out of the way of a 3000 pound hunk of metal coming down the road.
It’s common sense Bill. You’re making excuses for yourself simply for the selfish reason that you enjoy riding your bicycle in the middle of the road. It has absolutely nothing to do with safety. Even a five year old child understands to stay out of the middle of the road. Do joggers run in the middle of the road? They travel just as fast as most cyclists.
Look, obviously you secretly love riding in the middle of the lane and get a kick out of pissing off drivers that have to wait behind you. It’s clear you’re not going to change and will continue to hide behind made up rules that make no sense whatsoever. We’ll just have to agree to disagree. I just hope you don’t get yourself killed one of these days.
I can’t believe you just quoted your personal IQ and told me you’re college credentials in this exchange. God you are such a loser, at this point, I’m just embarrassed for you.
I’m not the one making excuses here. You are. You have no common sense.
Are buses, garbage trucks, RV’s and loaded 18 wheelers getting rear ended all the time? Nope. Neither are bicyclists who ride in the middle lane. That’s a fact. Your ideas are conjecture based upon your lack of knowledge of how traffic actually works.
I have been riding for almost 45 years. I used to have lots of close calls but since I got safety training and started riding in the middle of the lane I almost never do and on the very rare occasions that I do, it’s a psycho motorist deliberately trying to endanger me to scare me, which ironically makes me not scared because I know they’re just trying to scare me.
All of the top bicycle safety experts in the world say that it’s safer to ride in the middle of the lane. It’s based upon logic and it’s based upon experience.
Your spectacular arrogance makes you think that you know more than they do. You don’t. You’re just another arrogant ignorant idiot who is making excuses for why you should have to suffer a trivial inconvenience. That’s ALL that this is. I care about safety which is why I studied it. I’m not arrogant enough to think that I can just make it up like you do. My point of view is based ENTIRELY on safety and entirely upon the teachings of real experts.
I posted this before but I doubt that you actually looked at it. It demonstrates how controlling the lane avoids several very common dangerous situations.
http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/animations/lane-control/
Bill, you seriously need to get a life. Garbage trucks? What the hell are you talking about?
Your IQ? Your college credentials? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills! Just stop riding in the middle of the road like a dumb ass! It’s not rocket science!
I can see you just fine when your riding to the right.