I was going to keep my mouth shut about this, but I decided that its been a couple days since it happened, and I’m still kind of annoyed about it, so here I am posting about it.
On Sunday afternoon I had just gotten off the bus at Queen and Carlaw. I had waited for the light to change so that I would have the proper signal to walk, and cross the street safely. The bus I just got off was waiting there at the corner as well.
About half way across the street, just about in the middle of the road, all of a sudden to my left, a cyclist came speeding out of nowhere, nearly missing me, about 1 foot in front of me. He turned right (heading west) along queen. He basically crossed over the cross walk for pedestrians (there were about 4 people there crossing), nearly missing at least 2 of us and continued on his way. I was a little more than annoyed that he almost ran into me (I was carrying some expensive music gear) and yelled “What the fuck!” – expecting he was probably going to ignore me, I kept walking east.
Then about 10 feet after I had crossed the road, he came up beside me and started grilling me about yelling at him. I told him that he almost hit me and the other people that were crossing the sidewalk (who had the right of way). He replied with “well, I actually only almost hit you”. I asked him if he knew the rules for cyclists, and he just said yes I know the laws. So I told him that he’s a vehicle, pointing out the fact that he crossed the cross walk at a dangerous speed, and nearly drove into me. He asked me if I knew the rules.
My point is, his ignorance really pissed me off. I have a great respect for cyclists, its dangerous riding on the roads, and they seem to do a pretty good job about it, despite in most cases, not having proper cycling lanes. I also respect them for taking a lot of flack lately, and fighting back about not being given proper consideration on the road. However, I believe that the inconsistant number of cyclists on the road who follow the rules, and don’t follow the rules will be the downfall of the whole ‘Cyclists are equal’ movement in Toronto. These people who don’t follow the rules are making it dangerous for themselves, and pedestrians – who probably aren’t wearing safety gear.
I TOTALLY agree!!!!!!
As a driver in Toronto I am VERY careful around cyclist almost to a fault. In the past year of living in the city I have seen how oblivious cyclists are. I have seen MANY of them cross streets with a red light and expect not only pedestrians to stop but also cars. It’s hard to avoid a cyclist when they’re coming straight at you. Not only that I’ve been run over by one as I got off a street car once and then I got run over by another one as I was crossing the street.
CYCLISTS DON’T CARE!!!!!!!!
when there is a bicycle lane half the time cyclists take over the WHOLE car lane as well.
I’m sorry I’m all about sharing the road but only to people who respect the laws and don’t abuse them.
Yowch, that’s my neck of the woods. I’ve never experienced everything remotely like that in all of my time in Leslieville.
There are the same cyclists on Church, where I cross the street to the side my building is on, and they don’t follow the rules either. They are always cutting us pedestrians off, when we have the right to cross the street and they need to wait like the cars. Most of them don’t know the laws.
I stumbled across your blog today Michael….
So. I’m a cyclist. And while I get frustrated with pedestrians and drivers alike when I’m biking somewhere, I know the rules of the road. And while I sometimes break them (when its 3am and there is no one/no cars at a red light or 3way stop so I go on my merry way), I have never almost hit someone.
Cyclists who have no awareness of those around them should not be biking. Most of them don’t even know that most ticketing fines that can be applied to any vehicle and it’s driver can be applied to cyclists. Which is why I think you should be able to be fined if your riding a bike on the sidewalk, because if anyone ever ran their car onto a sidewalk, well there would be an issue.
On behalf of cyclists everywhere, I am sorry this douchbag harassed you with his bicycle.
Cyclists have been taking a lot of flack for a long time, but so have those who drive cars in the city. Everyone needs to respect everyone else’s ways of getting from point A to point B. Be aware of your own space, and respect others. But, it’s Toronto, so I have little hope for this. I’ll just keep on being a mindful cyclist and hope the karma comes back to me.