On The Road
by: Bill Oetinger 7/1/2011
Not “Clear!” on the concept
There are a couple of common scenarios we encounter on bike rides all the time that are troublesome. Okay, yeah, there are tons of problems out there, but today I want to discuss just a couple. Both have to do with intersections and how we interact with other road users--cars and other bikes--when we are passing through them.
I’m going on a bit of a crusade here, hoping I can convince you to change some of your ingrained biking behaviors. If you have already considered these situations and find yourself in agreement with me, terrific. If not, I hope you’ll think about them with an open mind...
• Driver wave-throughs. Let’s face it: a lot of drivers don’t understand cyclists and are ignorant of the vehicle code statutes associated with cyclists. And the drivers don’t have to dislike bikers to get it wrong. One case we all encounter sooner or later is the driver who, with all the best intentions, attempts to wave a cyclist through an intersection when the cyclist does not have the right of way...as for instance when the biker is simply waiting on a side road, at a stop sign, for through traffic to pass, and a driver on the through road stops and signals the rider to go.
The driver is acting as if the cyclist-and-bike were a pedestrian in a crosswalk, whereas in fact the cyclist-and-bike represents just another vehicle on the road, the same as another car. Or else the driver is adopting a magnanimous, help-the-cyclist attitude, like a parent assisting a child. In most cases where you are faced with this misguided courtesy, please do not accede to the drivers’ wave-through. Don’t go. Shake your head and smile and wave for the driver to move on through.
Aside from the fact that both you and the driver would be in violation of the vehicle code if you did go, the more pragmatic concern is that, just because this particular driver stops, there’s no assurance that any other nearby drivers will do the same. There have been a number of cases where a waved-through cyclist has pulled halfway across the intersection, only to be mowed down by a second driver who did not stop.
Bottom line: bicycles are vehicles, subject to all the same laws as other vehicles on the roads. Bicycle operators must give way to through traffic at stop signs or red lights or when turning left across oncoming traffic. Never allow a misguided motorist to induce you to bend this basic rule.
Some drivers are so convinced of the rightness of their stopping, and of the righteousness of their good deed, that you may have to be fairly vehement in your indications that you aren’t about to budge. Stick with it! (But be nice about it.) They may drive on a bit miffed at what they take to be your ungrateful stupidity and none the wiser about the correct application of the vehicle code, but at least you won’t have aided and abetted them in their mistaken behavior, thereby confirming for them that they were doing the right thing.
• The lemming effect. This topic applies on all group rides. There is an unfortunate tendency among almost all bike riders to blindly follow the lead of whatever rider happens to be at the front of the group. This is especially true where riders are afraid of being dropped by the group: those in back will do almost anything to stay hooked on to the riders up front, and this includes barreling through stops signs en masse. But the riders in back are not solely responsible for this problem. Often, the riders at the front will be their enablers in this bad behavior.
Let’s start with the basic law: we stop at stop signs, and we give way to oncoming traffic at left turns. When a big bike group arrives at a stop sign, what typically happens? The front riders slow and perhaps even come close to a stop; they see it’s clear and they proceed. And as they do so, they call back to those following, “Clear!” The message is what’s clear here: we are telling all the riders behind us that it is okay to run the stop sign. Obviously, this is as wrong as wrong can be, but we do it all the time.
Not only is this wrong as a simple point of law, it is also dangerous, in that what might be “clear” for the riders at the front may not be equally clear and open when riders a ways back down the file arrive at the intersection. A truck approaching at 50 mph might not have seemed significant, off in the distance, when the first riders crossed the intersection. A few seconds later, that vehicle might be right on top of the following riders.
Do you want to trust your very life to the judgment call of that rider at the front? Or, if you are the rider at the front--the one calling, “Clear!”--do you want to take on the responsibility for the lives of those riders who might act on your advisory?
Although the custom of calling “clear!” is deeply ingrained in our culture of group rides, I am urging all of you to stop doing it, beginning now. You may call out, “Car left!” or something similar that will advise another rider of hazards ahead, but you cannot take on the mantle of authority that absolves any other rider of the obligation to stop and then proceed when safe to do so.
A subset of this same lemming effect occurs even without the intentional “clear!” call. As a single rider, you might dart through a small gap in traffic when crossing a road or turning left. That’s fine, assuming you’ve judged it carefully. But a gap just big enough for one rider might not be big enough for several riders. And if you, as the lead rider on a group ride, nip through that same small gap, are you going to pull half a dozen more lemming-cyclists through behind you, where they’re not going to make it? There are moves you might make alone that are not appropriate in a group. This works both ways: not only do you not want to lure other riders into danger, but if you are the following rider, you don’t want to follow along blindly, without seeing and assessing the situation on your own. Never ever let any other rider do your thinking for you. No one is responsible for you but you.
All of this stopping and starting at intersections may cause the riders in back to lose touch with the riders in front. Horrors! The dread of being dropped is what causes us to indulge in this lemming-like, scofflaw group-think. The solution to that part of the problem--if we are going to stop--lies again with the front riders. If you get through the intersection but see behind you that some of your group did not, then sit up and soft-pedal for a few minutes, until your friends get back on. They even do this in races: no one profits from someone else’s problem. If you can’t manage this simplest bit of patience and courtesy, then why are you coming on a group ride?
If, as a bike-culture custom, we understand that the riders ahead will wait for those caught at the intersection, then those behind should be less inclined to dive into traffic like kamikaze pilots.
We recommend some further reading on the subject. The Twin Cities Bicycling Club in Minnesota has prepared a nice primer on all sorts of cycling topics at this site. In the context of the discussion here, read items 15 and 16...
http://www.biketcbc.org/tips/
Bill can be reached at srccride@sonic.net