Eye on the Street
Decatur Metro | October 4, 2010
Yountville, CA Photo submitted by Claire
Yountville, CA Photo submitted by Claire
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Love it.
If only cyclists in atl abided by traffic laws
If only motorists obeyed the traffic laws.
and if only all those motorists in Atlanta walked more…
and so should cars
“Share the Road – But Not the Rules!”
I support bike riders…..really. l I ike that it cuts down on emissions, folks are being active, etc. However….a bike is a vehicle, and if you ride on the roads, you must obey all traffic laws, signs, lights etc. As a walker, and a driver who obeys the laws of walking and driving, it urks me to see entitled cyclists ignore these laws.
Looks like the season is changing in Yountville.
Nice!
so need those biker signs here.
I hate to throw grease on the fire, but what is the reason that folks are upset when a bike rolls through a stop sign?
Safety? Law and order? Jealousy? Damn anarchists? Pandemonium if everyone did it? Two different standards for two classes of citizens? What?
Personally, I’d like to see the law changed so that a bike can treat a stop sign or red light like a yield. If there are any vehicles or pedestrians in or approaching the intersection, stop means stop, and the courts should throw the book at them.
However, it was ideas like this that made my Uncle Carl always suspicious that I was an anarchist.
I like the way you think. Anarchy in the Dec!
The funny thing is at a red light a biker could get off their bike and walk across in the crosswalk, but a car couldn’t. Just seems easier to treat red lights like stop signs and stop signs like yields – it isn’t a big deal.
Let’s face it, the design of our transportation infrastructure and the laws governing it are heavily weighted towards the gasoline engine. Which is why cyclists roll through stop signs. I would bet, though, that if you monitored any given stop sign, there would be a far greater number of cars rolling through it than bikes.
As an experiment I did exactly that. One busy day between 5 and 6PM I sat observing a neighborhood intersection specifically to see what the differences in scofflaw behavior were between modes. There were none. Almost no one came to a stop unless there was approaching traffic or crossing pedestrians in sight. Even police cars. Most residential stop signs are misplaced and misused as traffic calming measures to slow traffic. They are practically never enforced in Decatur as a matter of fiscal policy. This educates the road users to treat stop signs as slow or yield signs. One-sided criticisms of cyclists as the sole stop sign runners are misinformed at best. With very few exceptions, we all roll through stop signs.
I agree with this post with one exception. The stop sign at Coventry and ?Fairview? is enforced. I know this from painful experience. And enforcement works. Now, when I approach the sign, an entire vanful kids yells at me to stop.
never roll through a stop sign on coventry, you’re going to be busted at more than $100, and good luck arguing that it was only a “traffic calming” stop sign. The Decatur police do take this seriously, and if you’re unlucky enough not to be paying attention, then you’ll get a ticket. on the biker note, I agree completely with Rebecca. OBEY THE STOP SIGNS. heck, you’re already going faster than the lugs in cars on on Ponce.
Having watched two adult cyclists in full regalia blaze past the stop sign at 2nd and Oakview last week and cause the car in front of me to slam on the brakes, I say they should stop just like cars are supposed to stop. When I took a ride with one of Decatur’s Finest as part of the Citizens Public Safety Academy last year, the officer stopped near that intersection to show me how easy it is to nab an offender. It took only about 30 seconds for someone to roll through it. She only issued a warning, however.
You’re absolutely correct. Bicyclists are supposed to obey the rules of the road, and often don’t. They are endangering themselves when they blow through stop signs like that.
Recently, I approached a stop sign with my blinker on to turn left, prior to oncoming bikers. I stopped fully. As I began my turn, they did not stop, and I almost hit them. They gave me a dirty look. If you use the road on a vehicle, you should abide by the laws of the road.
I see this at least a dozen times a week around decatur.