Curious if this is an SF driver thing (a lot of really scared drivers here) or happens everywhere.
This is what happens often (happened twice today on my ride home):
You see a 3 or 4 way stop sign (stop in all directions), a car in another direction pulls up, stops completely. You are still 10-15 seconds from getting to the intersection. Instead of going because it’s their right away, they sit and wait. You stop completely, one foot on the ground, they still don’t want to go. You wave them on, and then they either wave you on in response, or slowly go. In reality, you were too far from the intersection at the time for you to run into them or get hit by them. If they just followed the law and went after stopping completely, they would be out of the intersection long before you could even enter it. As a result, they hold up traffic in all directions if theres traffic, and waste everyones time.
I’m trying to understand their mindset and why someone would do this. It’s called impeding the flow of traffic. I understand to some degree when I’m flying and they barely stopped fully before me (still frustrating), but when I’m not even involved in the stop sign situation because I’m way too far from the stop sign, I can’t see their logic. Only argument I can see is they are scared. And we all know how safe scared drivers are… lol.
This happened a bunch the last few days, after not experiencing this once in quite a while now (maybe 2 or 3 months). I used to have this happen every time I rode many times.
I get bikers run stop signs like it don’t exist, and I think some of this mentality comes from that. But at some point, your just sitting there and waiting for me to become are part of the stop sign situation, instead of getting your car the heck out of my way already, lol.
PS to cars: Treat me like a car. I can accelerate as fast as you can, can go the same speed as you can, and can stop way faster than you.
This happens often enough to me, one issue being the car driver can’t tell you are on an esk8.
Then they see you stop without dragging a foot and sit there wondering what that is
On any day I typically have to signal 2-3 cars to move cause they’re just sitting there staring at me
This is the opposite for me, drivers often want to kill me. Almost got hit last time by this driver that ran a red light and then proceeded to yell at me for not obeying traffic laws?? And this other driver was honking at me because Im waiting at a red light
It’s either that or they speed right pass you, cut you off then make a hard right turn. lol.
Out of everywhere riding… I definitely prefer SF riding since it’s expected for bikes to be on streets. Even in rural areas… cars don’t anticipate you being there.
I’ve learned to try and stay behind traffic instead of keep up with them… That 3 secs for waiting traffic to pass and catch the ride after most cars have already gone is much safer IMO and you can cruise without worrying about anything.
Car vs ESK8 = Car Wins… It’s definitely not worth being impatient. Cars own the road… I’m just glad I can share it… could be worse… no street riding.
250% agree and everyone I’ve mentioned this to can see why. I had this happen way more when I used to wear nothing. Happens much less now that I wear a full face helmet, leather gloves and a leather jacket.
Almost had this happen before too. Maybe it’s just my mindset, but I’ve got shit to do. Aint no body got time for you to look at me all confused and shit, wastin my time, haha.
If there’s many cars for example on MLK Blvd in GG, I’ll let them pass and tail behind them. If its a faster road that is. City blocks, don’t matter, they never drive faster than me. I’m usually way faster then they can go.
I have had a situation like this happen years ago where the drivers indecision caused a accident.
I was on my way home from a training ride. A on coming car was turning across my path in to a side street. Stopped, partly blocking the traffic on both sides of the road (putting them selves in a potential head on with on coming traffic), decided to floor it. Mis-judged my speed (~50kmh) and launched his car, wheel spinning… straight in to me… T-Boned
This happens to me even when I used to drive a car. The only way you can fight this stupidity is to NEVER go out-of-turn no matter how much they wave you on. If you make them sit there like an idiot before they finally have to go first anyway, then next time they will be more likely to just go, because they don’t want to get caught in a waving contest.
TL;DR: the more inconvenient you make it for them to do this, the less they do it over time
I just picture myself dead and i’m like god you f’kin idiot… if you were jus patient for 3 f’kin seconds… now look at you LOL at the end of the day it’s jus not worth risking.
Something kinda like this happed to me constantly today. Generally I don’t go fast into intersections. I look behind me for cars, slow to a crawl and get close to the curb to let right turn drivers merge right to make their turn. Sometimes I even stop when a lot of cars are there so I would follow the last car. Many times, these people would slowly follow me as I go to the curb only to realized I was stopping for them.
It’s definitely not worth being impatient. Cars own the road… I’m just glad I can share it… could be worse… no street riding.