I was stopped!

[clg114]

If you are on two wheels, you are invisible. Nobody else can see you and you have to ride with that in mind.

 

[Hazel_1914]

Wonder if she was making the hand signal for "stop" like drivers did before turn signals & brakelights. I do that sometimes while cycling; a lot of cyclists breeze through lights & whatnot like no one is there.

 

[Au Naturel]

Driving home late tonight through the inner city, after dark... I was at an intersection, and I was stopped, and I did see the cyclist so I stopped, it was also a stop sign anyway

Out of the blue she puts her arm out as if to remind me, as if I wasn't planning to stop, but I was planning to stop! I had seen her!

That almost made me angry, I almost felt like saying something, warm weather meant an open window... Basically it just bugs me, is trust in other people that low, let me repeat I was stopped!

That's my rant for the evening, short and sweet this time, why are people like that? I've had similar things happen before, where I was aware and someone seemed to think that I wasn't aware of a situation...

As an intermittent cyclist, I can only say that paranoia strikes deep. What is obvious to you is unknowable to a guy on a bike. The person is instinctively protecting themself.

This is not something to be upset over. The cyclist cannot possibly know your intentions nor are they going to assume that since there is a stop sign you haven't just made a perfunctory stop and won't just continue without checking. It is not unheard of for the driver of an auto to not see a cyclist right in front of them. They are looking for other autos and maybe pedestrians. Bikes don't register.

Every year we have the World Naked Bike Ride. It began as a protest against drivers who "didn't see" the cyclists right in front of them and so caused accidents.

The next time that happens, smile, nod, and if you can, give them a thumbs up to reassure them. Their fear should not make you angry.

 

[Crossbreed]

Wonder if she was making the hand signal for "stop" like drivers did before turn signals & brakelights. I do that sometimes while cycling; a lot of cyclists breeze through lights & whatnot like no one is there.

I use hand signals when there is a car present.

Every year we have the World Naked Bike Ride. It began as a protest against drivers who "didn't see" the cyclists right in front of them and so caused accidents.

(Then there is the problem of headlights...!

)

 

[Martha Ferris]

I'm over it really, it also just simply startled me as it came out of the blue, the trust thing still bothers me a little, yet I sense that trust has gone down in general anyway in all sorts of areas...

I have huge trust issues and that leads me to not make any assumptions about anything. We cannot assume what someone has seen or heard, what they understand or know. We cannot assume that they are perceptive.

Yeah, having huge trust issues can be annoying but I would rather be annoying than pay the price of making an assumption and finding out I made a mistake. Been there. done that. don't want it to happen again.

If I were that person on the bike in the dark I would rather call attention that I was there and make sure you knew that I was than assume that you saw me and get hit because you, in fact, hadn't.

Trust is not a given it is earned.