— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Evil-doer.
Our all-time favorite TV journalist Stanley Roberts has turned his nanny cam back onto San Francisco's ever-increasing population of two-wheeled criminals. But this time he's not waging war on the Wiggle; rather, taking a look at the the 3-way intersection at 18th and Harrison. Witness:
Now, it might be worth pointing out that the offending bike lane and ghost rider in question doesn't actually cut through traffic, as they ride beside parked cars like it was any old stretch of road. (Might I add that it's incredibly common for motorists not to be required to stop in such cases either.) But I suppose nuance and reason is irrelevant in the media's war on bikes.
Comments (15)
I’m glad to hear it. I cross at the crosswalk there and almost get run down by a bike every day. I don’t have a problem with bikes slowing down to look and not stopping if the crosswalk is empty, but in my experience most of them just blaze on through without any regard for pedestrians. BTW, I’m obviously not talking about the ~10% of cyclists who stop for pedestrians there – they do exist, and we all appreciate their responsible cycling!
Hear, hear.
As someone who rides a bike … I hate how everyday i see people on bikes doing really dumb crap.. riding in the crosswalk to cross the street, riding on the side walk, blasting through four stops, etc. It is better that someone calls people out on this since, other bike riders don’t.
Yeah, I ride through this intersection twice daily, and most bikes don’t even slow down if they’re on Harrison going northbound, which pisses me off because I come across 18th and make the left on Harrison, so if someone is coming Northbound I have to be real careful not to get clipped. Last Friday, I was riding Southbound on my way home, and a rider in front of me nearly got hit by a car making a legal right turn from Harrison onto 18th because he didn’t slow down or have enough awareness to look out for the car ahead of him. So, of course, he goes off on the driver of the car. Douchebag.
I stop at stop signs and stop lights for one main reason - self preservation. I got into 2 accidents last year, one of which put me in the ER and subsequently in my dentists office for a very expensive false tooth to replace the one I lost after being doored on Shotwell & 17th (and I will admit I blew right through the stop sign just before it happened). So yeah, it took that for me to wisen up and ride carefully.
The other aspect of this is we get alot more respect from drivers by following the rules. Reckless riders make us all look bad. But I can’t control that, I can only control the way I ride, and I’d rather get respect and not get into any more accidents.
Oh yeah, I forgot, Stanley Roberts needs to get his ample buttocks onto a bike and spend a few days riding around S.F. so he can fully understand the reality of the situation, rather than stalking on street corners.
This is an intersection that raises the “be extra alter” level.
I drive a car much more than I ride a bike, but if the bike situation felt safer and more friendly, that would be great. I would like to more often get out of the car, and onto a bike. So I hope bike riders keep standing up for your rights without getting that “entitled” attitude.
Pretty mush all of Harrison is like that. The intersection at 20th (Flour and Water) is especially bad. I’ve seen people getting ticketed there before.
i’m not too quick to jump on the yeay this is great bandwagon. One of the cyclist in the video was close to getting right hooked. no signal being used, no stopping. The guy actually put him in the blame. he wasn’t shown to be running the stop sign and the issue of him talking to the driver showing non-violent body language is also a faux pas? give me a break. this guy is a joke. Be wary of supporting criticism that isn’t coming from an avid cyclist.
I’m all for an Idaho, and obvs. the most vulnerable road-users –peds– have right-of-way. All the time. No exceptions.
That said, I’d *really* love to see analysis of how many cars come to a full, dead, not-moving-anymore-not-just-FEELING-like-you’re-not-moving-anymore stop.
PS I’m now realizing that right-of-way is a foreign concept in this town, no matter how many vehicles are at an intersection – motorized or not. People are often VERY confused when I give them their due right-of-way and it makes me want to stop following the rules so predictable, alas…
In the grand scheme of things I don’t think this really ranks up there with any of the real problems we have in the mission. If Stanley really wants to run some hard-hitting journalism made he should set-up his hidden camera on Capp St. and interview the hookers and johns. Or spend a day at 24th & Mission where people seem to get smash-and-grabbed for their phones and necklaces daily during broad daylight. Or 16th and Mission and watch all of the crack deals go down.
His quasi-regular fluff pieces on cyclists running stop signs are getting kind of boring.
These fluff pieces get people all up in arms about something that is relatively low on the totem pole of “people behaving badly” in SF. If Stanley Roberts were to focus on the drug deals/theft/gang violence that happens on our doorsteps every night (the real people behaving badly), then maybe we can start focusing our anger, as a community, on something that really matters, instead of dumbasses that like playing chicken.
On that note, I’ll be starting my own hidden camera show based outside of my house called “People Actually Behaving Badly”. It’ll have less of Stanley’s melodious voice, but will involve more poop and needles.
As someone who has ridden bikes and skateboards, drives a car but mostly walks or takes public transit, bike riders are by far the worst.
How about the dude who probably stole that bike he’s holding? Is he ‘behaving badly?’
We have drones that are designed to decimate any enemy of the state, and these anti-American two-wheeled terrorist, shall be stopped! No matter where they may run and hide i.e. coffee shops serving nitrogen frozen bat-guano lattes , organic lesbian gluten-free bakeries, OWS rallies………we shall seek them out and deliver swift justice! FYI: that’s not a cloud in the sky
Nice. Hopefully he won’t stop publicizing this until the cops start enforcing the traffic laws for bikes as well as cars.