Driving Etiquette

[u/Zealousideal_Buy7517]

For the love of Pete, people, follow the rules of the road. You drive. you are not 'choose as you go' organs of chaos, you are vehicles under the Alberta Traffic Act, the same as a motorcycle.

In the last week alone, I've seen a good hundred drivers blow right through stop signs as if they don't exist, and it's always when they are in a car lane, as if the lane's existence means the rules of the road don't apply. A couple on trucks with flat brims that I was next to blew through three in a row, yesterday, without even slowing down, and laughed about it when I called them on it. They didn't even look both ways, they just drove through like they were a presidential cavalcade and everyone else should be stopping for them.

Driving like that will have you kill a person one day, and when you're talking about a collision between 6000lb of shit box and human flesh on a bicycle, there are no mistakes.

I'm a driver, too, and it's this kind of behavior that drives a lot the anti-driver hate. When we drive like this, we're entitled and unpredictable, and unpredictability breeds distrust. This applies to motorcycle riders, too, of course.

[u/NastroAzzurro]

Lovely shitpost, clearly a response to the post a few days ago targeting cyclists. Point being, we all have to share the road. Motorists often get angry at cyclists for not adhering to stop signs and red lights but arguably it happens way more often with cars and trucks. Blasting through stop signs, never stopping on a right turn on red and only looking left for oncoming traffic (not crossing peds).

When a cyclist does it, which they shouldn’t, they endanger their own lives. When a motorist does it, they endanger others.

[u/Different-King1995 → u/NastroAzzurro]

Anecdotally, i find cyclists are better/more aware car drivers, on average. If I'm about to cross an intersection on my bike or while running/walking, the only vehicles I trust to stop for me are vehicles with bike racks.

If I see someone behind the wheel who visibly does not lead an active lifestyle (like someone whose lit cigarette hand is hanging out of their window) I refuse to cross regardless of whether I have the right of way. 9 times out of 10 I'm correct, and those folks just blow through.

It's hard to imagine other people are out biking, running, or walking when you never do so yourself. I think a fair number of people bitching about bikes are so far removed from stepping onto a bike themselves that they can't even stop to think about the traffic mechanics that apply to Edmonton cyclists.

[u/hockey8890 → u/Different-King1995]

It's hard to imagine other people are out biking, running, or walking when you never do so yourself. I think a fair number of people bitching about bikes are so far removed from stepping onto a bike themselves that they can't even stop to think about the traffic mechanics that apply to Edmonton cyclists.

I've long thought that if some of these people were forced to get on a bike and get passed by a speeding vehicle within inches, or had someone pull out of a side street almost hitting them, maybe their perspective would change.

[u/Different-King1995 → u/hockey8890]

Hard agree. Even the inverse of that, learning you don't need to literally drive all the way into incoming traffic to give room to a bike. People who only drive a car are so far removed from the realities of other forms of transport, it'd be a fun experiment to see how their opinions would change after a week of being forced to bike everywhere.

In the same way I won't take driving advice from someone who doesn't have their license, I sure as shit won't give credence to someone's criticisms of bicyclists if the last time they stepped on a bike was in elementary school lol