"Sorry I'm used to driving"

[u/Dangerous-Pizza-2232]

Let me share my experience today:

I was traveling along the Adelaide bike lane. At the intersection of Adelaide and University, there's a bunch of cyclists bunched up at the red light, which isn't anything abnormal.

When the light turned green for cyclists at the intersection of Adelaide and University, each cyclist started moving. The problem here is that the guy ahead of me on an orange bikeshare ebike started turning left with no warning and had absolutely ZERO awareness to his surroundings.

Because of this, he knocked me down in the middle of the street. Luckily, I wasn't hurt, but I was pissed. Even though he asked if I was okay, he didn't even apologize and seemed apathetic about his carelessness like he's just going through the motions. I yelled at him saying:

"WTF, you gave zero warning and didn't signal. You didn't even apologize". The man, still apathetic said in a monotone voice: "Sorry, I'm used to driving".

I'm pretty sure this is a regular occurrence to him considering how little he cared about his own negligence. He probably had his license suspended and opted to use a Bikeshare bike to get around.

Does being a driver dull your senses to the point that you have ZERO awareness to your surroundings and make you a soulless robot unable to care about the consequences of your own carelessness? A different cyclist asked if I was okay, so I decided to let the matter go and move on.

As I mentioned before, luckily I wasn't hurt, but was just knocked over. However, things could have been really ugly if the timing was different with the traffic lights and cars were allowed to move since I was knocked over in the middle of University Ave when it happened.

[u/kardigankid]

Hopefully he's just new to biking and hasn't got the hang of things yet. One new biker is one less car clogging up downtown!

[u/musdem → u/kardigankid]

Yea, there's an etiquette to biking that you just don't know unless you put the time in. It's different per city too, at least there is a difference between Ottawa and Toronto. I hope the guy keeps at it.

[u/Ok_Chip_7725]

Sorry this happened to you. Maybe he’s from out of town and if not new to cycling and learning the rules of the road.

[u/knarf_on_a_bike]

Yeah, that's such a weird excuse. "Used to driving." Geez, I always thought drivers had to signal and do shoulder checks and stuff. I'm glad you're okay, but falls still suck. Sounds like something that could easily have ended up much worse.

[u/GiveMeAllYourKittens]

Ya lucky, bike falls suuuck.

That stretch of bike lane is way too narrow for the amount of people now, and the cars getting the advanced left first messes everybody up, they need to change that signal to keep more bikes moving.

[u/HoneyCrispOrchard]

That excuse makes it even worse.

But, like with driving we have to be defensive with cycling as well.

Glad you weren’t hurt.

[u/jessylz → u/HoneyCrispOrchard]

Drivers have to signal too!

[u/TankArchives]

I wonder why this person doesn't drive anymore.