Cyclist, our own worst enemy (Why hate cyclist)

Cycling around America or riding with my local bicycle club, I’ve seen my share of the good, bad and ugly of drivers.  I’ve been yelled at, given the one finger salute, had beer cans thrown at me, ran off the road and yes even hit by a pickup truck mirror while on the road.  I could go on with stories of bad people but this is not the point of the article.  What causes this behavior from drivers?  Why are some drivers so polite and others so visibly angry at a stranger riding down the road on a bicycle?  I observe that most of this intentional reckless behavior comes from male drivers under 30 years old.  Saturdays mornings I usually ride with a local Central Florida bicycle club.  Our route is popular with other cyclist and clubs as we ride through city streets to get out in the country away from traffic.  I feel safer riding with a group.  But this also makes us a target of the local red neck in his pickup truck.  Most of the time they are driving in the opposite direction but they feel compelled to roll down the window, flip us off and spew a mouth full of foul language at us.  I could go on but you get the point.

Not all local bicycle clubs follow the rules.

Here are the usual accepted courtesy rules of road for cyclist.

1.  Always be courteous to the public.  Never respond to an angry motorist with your own anger.
2. Always ride on the right side of the road and never more than two across to allow traffic to pass safely.  In congested areas ride single file.
3. Always obey all traffic signals and stop at all stop signs.
4. Never give the public or other motorist an excuse.

The rules are ignored by some cyclist and herein is the problem.  Example–There is one group of local cyclist that pretty much break all the rules.  They are not an organized club with leadership and don’t have the discipline to follow the rules.  They ride 3-4-5 across in a peloton formation racing within the group, blowing through stop signs and taking up the entire lane as if the road belongs to them.  The public sees this behavior and then begin to paint all cyclist with the same brush.

I see myself as an ambassador for cyclist.  I hate it when I see other cyclist behaving badly.  It gives us all a bad name.  Conversation at the local coffee house usually goes something like this.  “I see you are on a bike.  You are not one of those Ass******* that think they own the road are you.”  They just met me but feel compelled to inform me of their opinion of all cyclist.

The City council of Winter Springs Florida instructed the local police to cite cyclist for running through stop signs in the neighborhoods.

The city of Oviedo Florida police sergeant recently pulled over our club of about 30 cyclist and informed us that the city has received numerous complaints of cyclist taking up the entire lane and running stop lights.  Gave us a verbal warning to stay to the right and ride not more than two across.

Clermont Florida is a mecca of cyclist wanting to practice their climbing skills.  There are several big hills in this area that attract cyclist and as a result get the attention of the locals trying to drive to or from town.  The cyclist take up the entire lane and the drivers cannot see over the hill to safely pass the group.  The result is a long line of very angry drivers following behind the riders.

As a result of bad behavior the local cycling community has a terrible reputation as being a bunch of hooligans.

According to the League of American Bicyclist Florida ranks number 24 in bicycle friendly states.  23 other states are more bicycle friendly than Florida.

Florida leads the country with the most bicycle fatalities per capita.  Florida is the most hostile state for bicyclists, with 6.56 pedalcyclist fatalities per million people in 2011, according to data from the US Department of Transportation. In my personal experiences the city of Orlando Florida and central Florida in general leads the country in dangerous streets for cyclist.  Government has made progress in the past few years to add bike lanes but most of the money spent on roads and bridges is to relieve traffic congestion for cars and trucks.  Building wider, faster roads is making it worse for bicycle traffic.

Not all US states or communities have an adversarial relationship with cyclist.  The number one best city I have experienced is Vancouver British Columbia.  Dedicated cycling lanes, drivers that yield to cyclist and local support by government to foster good will toward bicycle travel.  The number one bicycle friendly state in my experience is Oregon.  They have well established bicycle routes, tunnels with warning lights you can activate while on your bike before you enter.  Cyclist have the support of government in developing safer cycling routes and public awareness.