The Responsible Right Hook

I got this today.  Approaching an intersection, I was passed by an SUV.  As he passed, the driver signaled a right turn, and tapped the horn.  Thus I had warning to hit the brakes as the SUV swerved in front of me and around the corner.  Not really couteous, but at least the driver noted my existence. That makes him more responsible than many.

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Permalink Reply by Marc A. Irwin on June 22, 2014 at 12:57am

  Illegal, dangerous and life threatening don't equal responsible to me.

Marc

Permalink Reply by Chitown_Mike on June 22, 2014 at 4:02am
I get drivers at Milwaukee and Devon, when traveling north bound on milwaukee use the right turn only lane to skip traffic. Several times they have squeezed me between the proper lane of traffic and them passing me on the right, so when I hit that intersection I pull just past the crosswalk and sit in the center of the turn lanes path. That has gptten me several horns and cussing outs recently but I know I am safe.

But I don't think courteous is safe and this maneuver sounds more dangerous since some riders might look back and swerve into the path of the impatient driver.
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 23, 2014 at 3:59am

I'd consider it illegal, arrogant and irresponsible. 

Permalink Reply by dan brown on June 23, 2014 at 4:15am

I agree with this (below); but in all fairness I will take this (turn signal and horn tap) over no signaling, no tooting and driver texting / web-surfing while probably DWI (did I cover all the sweeping generalizations here ?) Oh forgot one : eating a bag of flaming hot cheetos while driving and holding a 40 oz. malt liquor between their legs. OK that's enough for now

Anne Alt said:

I'd consider it illegal, arrogant and irresponsible. 

Permalink Reply by JB17 on June 23, 2014 at 4:26am

I bring this up, because it is the same kind of action (an afterthought) but from a biker. Yesterday, I was on the Lakefront, biking on the right hand side because I tend to meander, it was around 3pm just past Oak Street beach going north and because of the weather it was not SUPER crowded. Well, a mother and her son are in front of me so I pull to the left going slowly to pass them. Then I here this "on your left" as I swerve more to the left because the kid suddenly moved. This woman SPEEDS by me at the same time I hear "on your left" and the kid moves. Fortunately she reacted goes by and yells "JESUS" at me with attitude as she speeds by.

My point is two things, like in your case the driver at least acknowledged you but almost too late. It drives me buggy when bikers say "on your left", at the same time they are passing you. It is too late as in my example above, I almost was in a bad accident. Just because you say, "on your left" doesn't mean you are in the clear. The "on your left" works that way in a bike race but not on the Lakefront path where most people are clueless about biking protocols.

Secondly, this is the Lakefront, if there had been an accident, this woman was in the wrong speeding by a mother and her child. Kids are so unpredictable, it is not like you are in a bike race where people know what the protocol is. It really gets me mad, bikers who think they have done everything right, when they speed by little kids. Use some common sense. I love bikes and this kind of attitude gives bikers a bad reputation.

Finally, I was going to post this somewhere and because your comment was indirectly related I figured this was as good a place as any. What is the attitude of this woman cyclist, I get wanting to go fast, but you don't speed by people on the Lakefront when there are kids wandering on the Lakefront. A lot of times the parents don't really have any common sense about the damage bicycles can do or what is going on.

So the attitude from this cyclist really got me mad, it is a two way street on the Lakefront and give and take. Around areas, like Oak St and North Ave, just because you say "on your left" doesn't give you the right to speed by. I wish cyclists used common sense instead of this attitude " I am a cyclist get out of my way".

Cyclists have to be proactively defensive not aggressive and not get angry because you have to do this. Cars will always win and kids have no clue what is going on, so BE AWARE and don't cop an attitude. 

Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on June 23, 2014 at 4:40am

The thing is that we appear to have an epidemic of angry drivers.  Two incidents over the weekend when I  was driving the family.   On Ashland I stopped for a person in a crosswalk.   The guy behind me laid on the horn and pulled next to me at the light and swore up a storm.  The thing about it was that I was able to stop for the pedestrian in the cross walk, resume driving and still get to the next light before it changed.  It cost the driver NO time, but they were being ill tempered.   In a similar fashion, I stopped for a pedestrian in the crosswalk on Irving.  This time the guy behind me pulled around me and nearly hit (and honked and yelled) at the three pedestrians in the crosswalk.  

We have to be extra careful as the Cars seem to be extra stupid right now.

In these cases I wasn't even in an "enemy" of the cars vehicle (the bicycle).  

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on June 23, 2014 at 4:53am

It is no so much an issue of so many people being terrible drivers, but instead the fact that so many drivers are terrible people. 

Permalink Reply by globalguy on June 23, 2014 at 5:46am

I've been noticing an uptick in "Drivers Behaving Badly" as well. What's going on?

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on June 23, 2014 at 6:26am

Power corrupts -or more rightly it just magnifies and releases the inner corruption and entitlement that is within mankind.  Give a human a 2500lb+ powered vehicle and that is more power than his tiny little brain was ever evolved to handle in a safe and ethical manner.  Is it any wonder that people go mad with power when put behind the wheel of such a powerful weapon?

Get out of my way!  I'm more important than all of you -especially you losers going too slow for my tastes...

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 23, 2014 at 6:43am

At least while they're driving.

James BlackHeron said:

It is no so much an issue of so many people being terrible drivers, but instead the fact that so many drivers are terrible people. 

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 23, 2014 at 6:44am

It's not the heat, it's the stupidity. ;)

rwein5 said:



globalguy said:

I've been noticing an uptick in "Drivers Behaving Badly" as well. What's going on?

Summer.

Permalink Reply by Rich S on June 23, 2014 at 9:24am

That's exactly the same thinking many people use to describe cyclists. I hate when I hear someone say cyclists are jerks. No the person you saw do something jerky is a jerk and they happened to be on a bike. They would probably still behave like a jerk whether they were driving, walking, horseback riding, skateboarding, flying magic carpet, or sailing the seven seas. For instance I can't imagine the biker Julie described being very nice no matter what the method of transit unless they were seated on a bus. 

James BlackHeron said:

It is no so much an issue of so many people being terrible drivers, but instead the fact that so many drivers are terrible people. 

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