Good Intentions

Sometimes even the best of intentions can go amiss, and it is true, sometimes too many chefs really do spoil the soup. At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful, never satisfied, and always upset bicycle snob, I have to write about some good intentions out on the road that generally go wrong, and that need to be fixed.

The cyclist's usual and greatest frustrations when it comes to dealing with automobiles are obviously those situations when the cyclist is nearly smashed and run over. These scenarios include cars making crazy left hand turns, drivers who are texting and unknowingly driving in the bike lane, and the infamous and terrifying blind right hand turn. While these are the typical cyclist gripes (and with good reason), there is another automobile action that is just as annoying, uncomfortable, and potentially as dangerous.

The situation I'm talking about is when drivers, attempting to be conscious of and helpful to the approaching cyclist, just stop in the middle of the road to let the cyclist complete his or her left hand turn. While I fully believe this is done with the best of intentions, and the hopes of somehow protecting the cyclist or of providing the cyclist with a high priority on the road, it is one of the most awkward and potentially dangerous situations for a cyclist to be placed into.

First of all, it's extremely uncomfortable because the cyclist, waiting for a gap in traffic in which to make the turn is suddenly and unknowingly thrown into the position of literally holding up traffic, as everyone must now wait behind this hyper-sensitive, awkward, stopped driver. Beyond this, however, it can be very dangerous if the cyclist is trying to turn across two lanes of traffic. With that one car stopped in the middle of the road, the cyclist feels pressure to hurry and make the turn then and there, but often, the cars coming in the other lane, or those stuck behind the suddenly stopping driver, speed past them. If the cyclist is pressured into making a turn at the same time that other cars are speeding around the traffic jam in the other lane, this could lead to a potentially bad collision. Finally, it's never a good idea for cars to just stop in the middle of traffic -- when drivers do this, they are putting themselves at risk of being rear-ended and causing a pileup. In short, when automobilists try to help bikers by suddenly stopping in the middle of traffic, they actually put everyone at risk: cyclists must uncomfortably make turns, cyclists risk being struck by traffic in other lanes, and the cars themselves risk an accident.

Throughout my daily commutes, I make several left hand turns, waiting for holes in the traffic to cut across the road, into the turn lane, and finally making the turn. In doing this, I've experienced the above scenario quite often lately, and while I'm sure the car drivers are doing this with nothing but the best and nicest of intentions, things work better and safer all around if we all just stick to the agreement: bikes are treated as real vehicles on the roads with rights and responsibilities, riding in the designated bike lanes, using hand signals to turn and enter traffic, etc. If everyone involved acts in accordance with this, the roads will be safer and more efficient -- automobilists can get to wherever they need to and so can the cyclists.