My commute continues to amaze me

[moose8]

So last week I almost got taken out by a lane changing, no-looking, no-turn-signal lady and I thought that was kind of bad after a longish stretch of no incidents on my downtown Boston commute. But then today I had something I have never seen and hope to never see again - a lady pushed her baby stroller into the lane in front of me off the curb and I swerved so as to not hit it obviously. She did it not in a cross-walk, and about twenty feet after a stoplight when I had a green light on a very busy downtown street (Tremont Street right by the Common). She clearly realized her mistake but I was absolutely horrified. If I ever hit a kid even if it was that kid's stupid parent's fault I couldn't live with myself. Anyway, it kind of shook me up and added to the long list of things to watch out for when commuting. I still can't believe any parent would push their infant child out in front of them onto a busy street when jaywalking. Just when I think I've seen every stupid behavior possible on a street, someone takes it up a notch.

[Louis]

Hey, at least she wasn't texting at the same time...

[Gat64]

That would have freaked me out too. Reading your post also reminded me of a Laurie Anderson bit where she talked about traffic testers in Paris:

"After doing these concerts in French, I usually had the temporary illusion that I could actually speak French, but as soon as I walked out on the street, and someone asked me simple directions, I realized I couldn’t speak a single word. As a result of this inadequacy, I found that the people I had the most rapport with were the babies. And one of the things I noticed about these babies was that they were apparently being used as some kind of traffic testers. Their mothers would be pushing them along in their strollers--and they would come to a busy street with lots of parked cars--and the mother can’t see what the traffic is like because of all the parked cars--so she just sort of edges the stroller out into the street and cranes her head out afterwards. And the most striking thing about this is the expression on these babies’ faces as they sit there in the middle of traffic, stranded, banging those little gavels they’ve all got and they can’t even speak English."

[jensenn]

you'd be surprised as to how often ive seen this happen. i live in brooklyn and not to sound ignorant so im not going to single anyone out, but there are certain neighborhoods i pass through where mothers just stick their strollers out onto the bike lane or street. craziest part to me is that on the bikes lanes, few times this has happened, they clearly see me (and other bikers) heading straight towards them and won't budge one bit. look me straight in the eye and i have no choice but to stop or go around her and the baby.

[zzy]

you'd be surprised as to how often ive seen this happen. i live in brooklyn and not to sound ignorant so im not going to single anyone out, but there are certain neighborhoods i pass through where mothers just stick their strollers out onto the bike lane or street. craziest part to me is that on the bikes lanes, few times this has happened, they clearly see me (and other bikers) heading straight towards them and won't budge one bit. look me straight in the eye and i have no choice but to stop or go around her and the baby.

Same here. I had a women push her stroller into the Kent Ave bike path (a painted green, fully separated 2-way bike lane) right in front of me, blindly between two parked cars. I just saw the stroller come out, dodged to the right and skidded to a stop. I couldn't believe a human was pushing it and it wasn't rolling on its own. The women acted completely incredulously.

[false_Aest]

Boston:

Same city where I saw a kid from North Eastern riding a bike down Huntington with a phone in one hand and a piece of pizza from Il Mondo in the other.

[vav]

Same city where I saw a guy ( probably the father ) carrying an infant on a baby bjorn riding on Atlantic Ave (read downtown-crazy traffic-····ty drivers) a couple of days ago. :no: I watched in disbelief asking to myself: is this guy out of his mind?

[druptight]

The other day on my commute in Boston, right near Haymarket, I had a guy (homeless?) step out into the bike lane right in front of me and bend over to pick up a half smoked cigarette butt, had to swerve around him.

[Benny Profane]

you'd be surprised as to how often ive seen this happen. i live in brooklyn and not to sound ignorant so im not going to single anyone out, but there are certain neighborhoods i pass through where mothers just stick their strollers out onto the bike lane or street. craziest part to me is that on the bikes lanes, few times this has happened, they clearly see me (and other bikers) heading straight towards them and won't budge one bit. look me straight in the eye and i have no choice but to stop or go around her and the baby.

I drove a cab in NYC about thirty years ago, so, yeah, I could tell you stories about certain neighborhoods. What can you say, but, the kids learn young to be a bit, uh, daring in their dealings on the street. Biking in Central Park on the weekend, I'm always amazed that a kid or two in a stroller isn't taken out by somebody most days. You get this look from the parent which sorta says "oh yeah, just try hitting us". Amazing. Darwin in real time?

edit: After all that, our cities have nothing on Amsterdam. I felt like a total rube in that town, constantly stumbling into the path of angry bikers. Maybe it was the last cafe visit that put me in such a state?

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . Boston dons't have a monopoly.

I think some of these people are just dumb--but many are just ignorant. They honestly think pedestrians have the right of way all the time in every circumstance. Or maybe it's a power thing where they are taking control in one of the only situations they think they have it. They're betting you will always see them and back down or swerve or whatever rather than deal with the consequences.

Of course sometimes they're wrong--you don't see them--and they pay with their lives. But I don't know how else to explain people looking me right in the eye and then walking out right in front of me as if they are daring me to hit them, whether on my bike or in my car.

BBD

[dnades]

Little micro dogs too. A friend saw one end up being a mushed spot on the road with a leash attached to it after a large truck crushed it. SPLAT! ugh. Seriously clueless people out there. No place like NYC.

[54ny77]

I see that endangerment all the time in Manhattan, committed by parents and caretakers alike. The former, well that's their own damned fault for being stupid. Shame on them. But the latter is what really gives me the chills. That's someone else's child. How to monitor something like that, have a GoPro on there that's motion activated and watch it end of day? Absurd as that sounds, maybe that's a solution to what is, sadly, a problem.

[redir]

Ah city life, so glad I gave that up a long time ago :p All I see is cows on my morning commute.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-R21dfWxzfuE/UiiP3gyePeI/AAAAAAAAI7g/VjKWUIE50IA/w1358-h766-no/2013-09-05_07-46-34_624.jpg

[Likes2ridefar]

Little micro dogs too. A friend saw one end up being a mushed spot on the road with a leash attached to it after a large truck crushed it. SPLAT! ugh. Seriously clueless people out there. No place like NYC.

a few times a week i get to witness this crazy woman under the west side highway by the trump condos yelling at pretty much everyone to slow down as she walks her two rather large dogs down what is primarily a bike path in this section. I always want to suggest going to the path a few meters to the west where she could enjoy a fantastic view along the Hudson and not worry about her dogs being run over....

[n_maher]

I find the riding a bicycle requires the same attitude as riding a motorcycle. Assume that everyone is an idiot that isn't paying attention and that they will always do the one thing that you would hope that they would not. I ride 95% of the time on country roads with little to no traffic and there are still significant hazards. I've nearly hit turkey, deer and other assorted animals that would do significant bodily harm but the worst was when I came upon a woman walking her dog on one of those retractable leash devices. As she saw me approach she started to let out line and allowed the dog to walk all the way across the road so that the dog would not be in my path. I slammed the brakes and managed to stop short of the trip line that she'd created and at that point she realized what she'd done. :eek:

[shankldu]

i ride a cyclocross bike on the sidewalk after have been almost killed many times .

[merlinmurph]

People are looking for cars, they're not looking for bikes. It's especially nasty in the city when people are walking out between cars, take a quick glance (for a car), and step right out in front of a cyclist. Problem is, a lot of times, the cyclist takes the heat for what is clearly the ped's fault.

A few years ago, a good friend of our fair mayor did exactly what I described above and raised hell after he got hit by a cyclist. After a lot of publicity and the guy raising a huge stink, I don't know what the final outcome was....

But, you're right, moose, I don't want to hit a kid no matter whose fault it is.

[alessandro]

i ride a cyclocross bike on the sidewalk after have been almost killed many times .

Do you feel safer on the sidewalk? You may not be. As merlinmurph said, people are not looking for bikes, and they are definitely not looking for them on the sidewalk. Cars turning in and out of driveways and sidestreets are expecting pedestrians moving at 3-4 mph, not bicyclists at 10-15 mph.

[Likes2ridefar]

Do you feel safer on the sidewalk? You may not be. As merlinmurph said, people are not looking for bikes, and they are definitely not looking for them on the sidewalk. Cars turning in and out of driveways and sidestreets are expecting pedestrians moving at 3-4 mph, not bicyclists at 10-15 mph.

in nyc you'll quickly get yourself a ticket riding on the sidewalk.

[dawgie]

Myself, I'm amazed by the runners and walkers wearing headphones, who seem to feel that imparts a force-field around themselves. I can't tell you how many times I have almost hit runners wearing headphones, even tho I clearly called out "bike left," because they veer or turn around in bike path without looking first.

My other pet peeve are walkers who spread across the entire width of a MUT so they can talk, and then refuse to make room for bikers, walkers, runners traveling in the other direction. That's just rude.

[Likes2ridefar]

Myself, I'm amazed by the runners and walkers wearing headphones, who seem to feel that imparts a force-field around themselves. I can't tell you how many times I have almost hit runners wearing headphones, even tho I clearly called out "bike left," because they veer or turn around in bike path without looking first.

My other pet peeve are walkers who spread across the entire width of a MUT so they can talk, and then refuse to make room for bikers, walkers, runners traveling in the other direction. That's just rude.

having commuted for about 10 years now daily down the MUP in Manhattan on the west side, the only thing I can add is get a bell that dings, hammer on metal type thing... it's far more effective than a voice and less effort. It penetrates most headphones and can be heard from far away.

I used to be conservative but now I ring it every single time I come from behind a cyclist, walker or jogger.

[jeffreng58]

Boston, ppfft. Try cycling in NYC. :banana:

[BumbleBeeDave]

Myself, I'm amazed by the runners and walkers wearing headphones, who seem to feel that imparts a force-field around themselves. I can't tell you how many times I have almost hit runners wearing headphones, even tho I clearly called out "bike left," because they veer or turn around in bike path without looking first.

My other pet peeve are walkers who spread across the entire width of a MUT so they can talk, and then refuse to make room for bikers, walkers, runners traveling in the other direction. That's just rude.

. . . and yell "Behind you!" when I am still at least 50-80 feet away. If there's no reaction I slow down and come up behind them and slowly ramp up the volume. With one guy recently he was rollerblading in zig zag right in the middle of the path with his earbuds and I followed along behind him for at least a full minute yelling. Finally I got close enough to tap him on the shoulder and scared the ^#%$ out of him. Fun times . . . :rolleyes:

We also had a woman very seriously injured last year at the bottom of a hill on the bike trail as it passes through the local closed landfill. Runners will do repeats on this hill, running up, then walking back down. With her earbuds on she got to the bottom and turned around without looking--right into the path of a bike coming down the hill. Not a darn thing he could do . . . :(

BBD