Opinionated Blogger Friday: That Thing Drivers Sometimes Do When They Think They're Being Helpful But It's Really Kind of Annoying

After you've been riding with traffic a while, you start to get a feel of the flow of things. It doesn't take long, really, the human brain, being the amazing machine it is, starts to recognize relative speed and direction, and to start predicting where cars are going to be based on where they are.

After a bit more time, you start to time your own moves, like when you're about to make a left turn, you get over to the left side of the lane, look at the line of oncoming cars and slow down a bit, getting your own speed just right to hit the next gap that's big enough for you to safely ride through.

Then somebody comes to a stop to let you turn, and your rhythm goes all to hell, and you nearly fall off the bike. They give you a big smile and wave you through magnanimously, while you struggle to get your feet back on the pedals and wave a less-than-heartfelt "thanks" to them.

It would be one thing if there was an unbroken line of cars zipping along at 900 mph and your only hope for making a turn alive is that someone, anyone, slows down a bit a and lets you go, but with normal traffic there are plenty of gaps and the person who does this always seems to be the LAST person in any line of cars.

It happens when you're trying to cross a busy intersection, too, or when you're approaching a four-way stop sign. The last 99 times things went a certain way, and you took your turn as if you were operating any other wheeled vehicle, but the hundredth time somebody changes the pattern, you're thrown a curve ball and you swing and miss.

On the list of nuisances that can befall a cyclist, this ranks pretty low. After all, when there are homicidal middle-managers in SUVs trying to smear you against parked cars, or drunken frat boys lobbing glass bottles at your head, someone being nice to you hardly counts as much of a problem.

But, aside from the fact that it messes up your flow and therefore totally blows your carefully cultivated sense of cool, there are a couple of problems inherent in this kind of behavior.

First off, it belies a common flaw in the way many Americans drive, which involves treating the brake and accelerator as on/off switches. You're either driving the speed limit or you're stopped, there's no sense of adjusting speed to accommodate road conditions. Not everyone drives this way, nor is it exclusive to U.S. drivers, but it's far less common in places where the streetscapes are more integrated, with pedestrians, cyclists and drivers adapting to each other on the fly.

The other reason this behavior is a negative indicator is that it means that, in some folks' eyes at least, bicycles are still a special case, not a normal part of traffic. On a bike you're still a bit childlike, to be treated with extra care rather than expected to be a responsible road user. This, in turn, reinforces the idea that bikes don't belong on the road with "grown up" vehicles, and makes it harder for cyclists to be accepted.

Overall, though, I'd rather someone throw off my groove by doing something unexpectedly nice, like waving me through a turn, than by doing something unexpectedly obnoxious, like accelerating to keep me from turning in front of them, or cutting me off to get to a parking space. Enough of the latter happens that when someone's unexpectedly generous, I'm more frustrated by my own uncool flailing than I ever could be at the driver!

Opinionated Blogger Friday: The Courteous Cyclist Movement

Design by Sarah Becan

For the last hundred years or so, throughout much of the world, cycling for transportation has been a pretty normal thing. You had somewhere to go, you didn't feel like walking, you either didn't own a car or didn't want to use it, so you rode a bike. No big deal.

However, in America and a lot of other industrialized nations, the automobile quickly took over as King of the Road, and it wasn't until the end of the 20th Century that bicycles started to recover a significant place in the transportation hierarchy. More people have started to commute by bike for economical, environmental or health reasons, or because they're finding it's actually quicker and involves less hassle than driving in many circumstances.

As a result though, the bikes have become more common and more noticeable, and cities and towns are adding bike-specific infrastructure such as bike lanes and bike corrals. Most people view these changes as either good news or not terribly interesting, but a small and vocal minority have a negative reaction. Some complain that encouraging more cyclists will make the streets more dangerous for pedestrians. They say they worry about cyclists running rampant and knocking down little old ladies. Drivers complain about being inconvenienced by scofflaw cyclists, and by having precious road space given over to bike lanes, and bike racks taking up potential parking space.

When faced with this animosity, many bike commuters will instinctively respond with "but that's not me!" and go out of their way to quickly identify themselves as one of "the nice ones." Transportation groups issue flyers and put up web sites making sure cyclists follow the rules of the road and be polite (such as NYC's "Don't Be a Jerk" campaign).

While being a courteous rider is a good thing (although I would argue being a predictable and visible rider is a lot more important), I'm starting to feel like this kind of thing is missing the point.

Let's look at New York City, as an example. Over the last decade, the number of cyclists has increased by something like 250%. Meanwhile, the number of pedestrians killed by cyclists over a five year period was...three. I believe more people die by tripping and falling because they're looking at their phone rather than where they're going. Meanwhile, in the same city in six months more than 7,000 pedestrians and cyclists were hit by cars, with 79 fatalities.

As for bike lanes, looking at NYC again (it's a good case study, because the city has been launching a lot of initiatives to make it more bike-friendly, so we can see the changes, plus, it's the only major city I regularly hang out in), the increased number bike lanes has resulted in fewer bike/car collisions, fewer bike/pedestrian collisions and even fewer car/car collisions (drivers instinctively slow down a bit on narrower streets, bike lanes take up room and make drivers more attentive, therefore, safer), meanwhile in areas where bicycle parking is abundant, local businesses do better. It seems like people who are driving by at 40 mph and who can't find a parking space tend to stop for coffee less than those who are cruising along at 12 mph and can lock up anywhere.

Other studies have shown that, while there are indeed city cyclists out there who flaunt traffic laws, MOST cyclists stop for red lights, ride with the flow of traffic, yield to pedestrians and keep off the sidewalks. It's just that, due to our natural cognitive biases, we only notice the ones who are being jerks, while tuning out all the normal, polite riders.

In short, while good manners are admirable both on and off the bike, and I certainly pride myself personally on being a civil and community-minded commuter, everything I've seen and read makes me think that it's not us pedal-powered road users who have the courtesy problem.