The tables on the road were only there for the inauguration day, but bike lane is here to stay.
Lady in pink would be killed if she came to Amsterdam
I damn nearly got murdered by an angry speeding cyclist in Paris, near a canal. I crossed the lane without realizing, not being used to their presence. Bike lanes are simply nonexistent where I live, and I was only staying in Paris for a couple weeks. The dude got super mad at me, like super super mad. To this day I still fantasize about throwing him and his fucking bike in the canal. I really should have done it.... why do I have to second-guess everything
I was being inconsiderate and dangerous in traffic, and it's the other guy's fault
Learn how to cry on command. That would probably have taken the wind out of his sails. I'm not a car freak. If I could get by in my suburban hell without one I would. That being said, if cars have to be aware of cyclists then cyclists need to be aware of pedestrians.
So if a pedestrian walked onto the road without looking or anything, you'd say the driver is at fault?
A cycle lane is to a bike as a road is to a car. A pedestrian is allowed to cross it after looking and checking that no vehicle is coming, and the pedestrian has to give right of way.
Cars have to be aware of cyclists when cyclists are driving on the road, since both have equal rights to be there. Same as a car has to be aware of another car or a cyclists of another cyclist. Both are allowed to use the road, so both need to be aware of each other.
If a car driver is expected to be aware of pedestrians, then a cyclist is to be expected to be aware of pedestrians. You can't have it both ways. A cyclist can easily cause serious injury to a pedestrian.
Is a pedestrian expected to be aware of car drivers on the side walk?
Is a car driver expected to be aware of pedestrians on the highway?
Yes, and also yes. personal responsibility for your own safety doesn't magically disappear because of paint on the ground.
Responsibility for the machine you're operating that can harm others doesn't magically disappear when it weighs less.
To be honest, it's a wrong argument anyways. The cyclist was aware of the pedestrian on the bike lane and he stopped in time. So the whole argument doesn't matter.
The actual point is whether the pedestrian was in the right to wander onto the bike lane, completely oblivious to his surroundings.
They were both in the wrong. The cyclist shouldn't be entitled to being an asshole because they're inconvenienced, and the pedestrian doesn't get to wander in the bike lane unaware of their surroundings.
It’s by momentum. The greater the momentum the greater the responsibility.
Edit: To actually respond to your examples:
No. It is the responsibility of the high mv cars not to enter the sidewalk, or to be incredibly cautious if they must.
Yes. It is the responsibility of the high mv car to look far enough ahead to respond to low mv (or rather high delay v) obstacles ahead. If this sounds impractical, the design of highways and the illegality of a pedestrian entering one makes unavoidable incidents of car-hitting-pedestrian-on-highway low enough to be practical.
Ok, let's put it differently: In the story we are talking about
So what's your point? The cyclist shouldn't have gotten angry and should have just been fine and dandy with the pedestrian walking on the cycling lane?
The equivalent would be a pedestrian walking on the road, and then drivers should be just fine with that. They aren't and neither should they be.
If a driver shouldn't need to be happy with a pedestrian wandering around on the road completely unaware of his surroundings, why should a cyclist be ok with the same circumstances?
You can't have it both ways.
That's what the law says in France, at least. People are supposed to cross on crosswalks, but if they don't and a car hits them the driver is at fault regardless. I can try to find a source in english if that's important to you.
Anyway, context is king here and what I didn't specify in my post above is that the space where it happened was quite crowded and ambiguous (especially for an alien like me who had seldom seen a bike lane at the time)
The whole concept of "being at fault" only applies to accidents. If you see someone breaking the law (e.g. walking across the road where it's not allowed) and you then purposely ram them with your vehicle, then it's not an accident and of course you are at fault then. If someone else breaks the law you would have to be an utter idiot to think that this gives you the right to legally murder that person.
I repeat: you'd have to be seriously braindead and messed up to belive that you can legally kill someone over a minor traffic violation.
If it's an actual accident though, e.g. if the pedestrian darts out between parked cars so fast that the driver can't stop in time, then it's clearly the pedestrian's fault (even in France) and the driver will not get in trouble.
Again, all of that is super basic.
A bike lane is not ambiguous. If you don't inform yourself of laws and customs in a country you travel to, then it's still your fault if you are too ignorant to understand basic traffic situations, and neither does ignorance excuse you from following the law nor does it make your wrong actions and lawbreaking right, nor does it give you any moral high ground.
Yea, exactly my point. I'm not denying that I should have been aware of the presence of the bike lane but it falls on the guy on a vehicle to be acutely aware of his surroundings and wary of potential collisions. I say this as a driver and a bicycler
Let me get this straight: You walked into a bicycle path because you weren't aware of your surroundings. The bicycle stopped because the cyclist was aware of their surroundings.
Getting reamed out in public must have sucked, and was probably overkill. But this sounds like someone safely avoided an accident when you made a mistake.
I say this as a cyclist who uses my Big Girl voice on dedicated bike paths and someone who's accidentally walked onto a bike path.
When I first started cycling in a heavy bike-commuter city I got yelled at, a lot, because there isn't a lot of public education on safely navigating bike lanes. Embarassing, yeah, but I learned fast.
I mean, honest mistake on your part, but still your mistake. Dude shouldn't have raged at you for an honest mistake, but you should rage at them even less, as they didn't even do anything wrong (except raging).
You'd be a somewhat justified if it happened in a pedestrian only zone or sidewalk, as it frequently does in my city but you were the one in the wrong area.
If the cyclist is anything like me, he was super mad because he almost killed the other guy.
That bitch just walkin' in the bike lane.
Bet there's some kind of psychological trick you can play on cyclists, distracting them with pictures of people walking in bicycle paths.
Everyone else in that scene could be raw-fucking mid-sized Gumby sex dolls and I'd still be like "Get out the damn bike lane!"
My hard line opinion is that roads are dead spaces. There is no opportunity for anything to grow or flourish; this includes things like community. More roads = more dead space.
If you want to activate a space, i.e. bring community back, reduce road space. And, of course, with reduced road space you need to counter balance with better infrastructure for other modes of transport to get people moving to and from.
Basic town planning! Looking at you... Local council...
Don't look up parking lot rules in america, dead space like it's going out of style just so crowds can shop on black Friday and Christmas.
Ohoho... I have seen those rules and having visited both California and Texas last year, I can safely say that I don't want any of that where I live. California was marginally better than Texas though but not by much.
It was insane to me that it was a 3hr public bus ride to NASA, and that included a 20 minute walk from where the bus drops you off.
...And those Stepford Wives-like suburban hellscapes with nothing but roads and freeways for miles.
Madness.
Get off the bike path grandma
In my experience cycling in London, it wouldn't be a bike lane without some doofus walking on it 😅
The after picture looks so much more welcoming, clean, and active. Like the place is suddenly more alive.
But small businesses will suffer if people have nowhere to park 😡
Tap for spoiler
/s
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