It generally takes a lot to get me fired up...but I am very tired of having people yell out their car windows (at me or others) telling cyclists to get off the road. I usually tell them (yell back) that it is actually illegal for an adult cyclist to ride on the sidewalk. This often makes them more mad. Sometimes, if I'm able, I also add that roads and traffic laws originally came about for bikes, not cars. This often makes them blow a gasket. Pun intended.
The following three sentences are taken directly from the
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
On what types of roads can I ride a Bicycle? Bicyclists have the legal right to share the road on most public highways. Bicyclists are not allowed on interstate highways and expressways.
On one recent occasion I was pedaling (coasting, actually) and nearing this intersection on
Elmwood Avenue (pictured below). As I was coming to a stop a motorist pulled out in front of me, causing us both to hit the breaks hard. He rolls down the window and yells (surprise), Get the F*** off the road a**hole. After a brief verbal interaction he actually threatened me physically, right there in the middle of bustling Elmwood Avenue on a bright and sunny day. I was not on an interstate highway or an expressway, I was on a commercial and residential city street.
Another time, recently, when I failed to yield in front of the sign below (which is on the s-curves near
Delaware Park), a driver (you guessed it) told me to get off the road. When I pointed to the sign he
flipped me the bird as he hit the gas; if he wasn't frowning at the time I could picture him to be a nice little old man, someone's grampa.
I'm not asking that cars be removed from the road (but fewer cars wouldn't be so bad), just that drivers share the roads with cyclists...and not treat us rudely, or threaten us simply because we are both using the same road.
To read more about the rights, rules, and regulations of bicyclists at the DMV, click
here.
Urban Simplicity.
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