They very definitely should have stopped.
That is a pretty good example of one way a bicycle can confusing to cars. The driver is looking left, to merge with traffic. He doesn’t think he needs to look right, since he’s not crossing any traffic, besides pedestrians.
(Of course you’re going slowly and obviously, so they probably did see you there.)
They absolutely should have stopped, they didn’t even come close.
It’s not clear if the driver looked for people on the sidewalk. But even if they did, they may have only been expecting pedestrians. Meaning they may have looked a few seconds before hitting the stop sign, so they only checked far enough to make sure nobody was going to walk across. Bikes move faster, and they may not have expected a bike.
Regardless of the law, my general approach when riding anything on two wheels is to assume people are trying to kill me. Doesn’t matter who’s at fault, you’ll always lose if you get tangled up with a car.
T-roy, this is how you are supposed to ride:
NO. NO NO NO!
First Rule of Thumb is, when you are in a crossWALK, you WALK your bike across. Also, you STOP, same as you would if you were walking.
The big problem is that on your bike on a sidewalk, you are traveling WAY faster than a pedestrian. To a driver, you are not expected to be there, because a pedestrian would have been in sight on the drive up.
Second Rule of Thumb, for peds and bikes: you might have had the right of way, but you might also be dead.
Third Rule of Thumb: Get eye contact. Don’t go all extroverted actuary and look only at their tires.
Yep, I am finding ordinances of this. I was in the wrong and I will stay in the roads and walk crosswalks
To add, since I care deeply about you, if the road is unsafe to bike on, don’t bike on it. Stay off the sidewalks. Period.
Yeah, this. I always learned that you are not allowed to ride a bicycle on a sidewalk or in a crosswalk, so regardless of anything any car did it would be impossible for a cyclist to have the right-of-way while riding on the sidewalk and/or in a crosswalk.
Jesus hell, that was kind of exhilarating but also so dumb. At least she didn’t run a red the whole way, was all green, but the bus signaling right as she passed it on the right - what an idiot.
And don’t trust the eye contact. I’ve been on my orange scooter with my yellow flamed helmet and reflective jacket, made eye contact with a person making a left turn in front of me as I’m about to enter the intersection, and they still went.
T-Roy is allowed to ride on the sidewalk. And that particular sidewalk looks empty, so I would at least consider it. Of course he’d still need to hop off to cross the crosswalk.
Yeah, I’m definitely not familiar with all the local laws.
Don’t you get sweaty biking to work?
YES! But no one is in the office.
Reminds of a century I did some years ago. Towards the end of the ride someone was holding a sign saying “Stop looking at your tires. They’re not flat.” lol.
Add Airhorn as a bike accessory?
Another solution to this kind of situation, btw, is to veer left and then jump the curb to enter the little street somewhere far away from the cars. Again, not ideal, but sometimes an intersection just sucks.
Fortunately my last employer (Mercer Vancouver) had a change and shower room in its building with towels and soap supplied. Thus you could wear cycling clothes while riding to work and then, after showering, change into work clothes, which could be transported in a back pack and/or panniers.
This is a dangerous intersection
That is not a bike friendly route.
+1, that’s a good example of a road you could skip with a different route.
Or ride on the sidewalk (at a slow speed).