Columns May 6, 2015 at 4:00 am

Cars vs. Bikes, Vol. MCMLXIV: Passive-Aggressive Prius

Steven Weissman

Comments

1
Yet another reason to prepare to leave this tightly-wound state to its own self-rightous crazies!
2
Wow he stopped... he wanted the LW to be grateful..didn't get what he wanted or expected...explodes...gonna have a long, rough and lonely life.
3
I think it is the case that the thing drivers fear most is hitting a pedestrian or bicyclist. Likely he stopped because it looked like LW wanted to cross (at a crosswalk, like a pedestrian). He braked hard enough for it to be an issue for the people behind him, with honking and probably some adrenaline on his part. LW decides, possibly for good cause, not to cross at that spot and pedals off. Getting out of the car might be a bit much, but I think any rational person can see both sides of this. I know this is an old saw, but when you have riders behaving as slow vehicles or fast pedestrians, and switching as they see fit, often second by second, you're sometimes going to confuse and startle even the most focused and well intended driver. I just spent 2 weeks driving around London- a very bike intensive city that has very few bike lanes- and found it much easier to negotiate and predict what the bicyclists were doing. I'm not sure why that is, exactly. Also bike helmets are not really a thing there.
4
Bicyclists are the worst.
5
Maybe your middle finger shouldn't write a check you apparently can't cover. You wanna flip someone off, be prepared for the potential consequences...
6
"Was your jacked-up diesel truck in the shop that day? Were you forced to drive your wife's emasculating Prius?"

Ooh, such macho talk from a guy riding A BICYCLE.
7
@4 No, certainly not. But both riders and drivers need to be a bit sympathetic to the cause of the other. Drivers should be more focused, more patient and give riders more space if they can manage it. Riders need to understand they can make changes of direction and speed more quickly than cars, and because they are so much smaller, often emerge from places drivers aren't expecting, or decide to be pedestrians for a bit, or try to ride between lanes. All of this makes sense if you're a rider trying to get around quickly, but it also makes it hard to guess what you're going to do.
8
It's a funny thing about IA. I'd be more sympathetic to the rider if he didn't run home and write a letter to his local alternative weekly. Now I just think they're both children.
9
more and more of these roaming the streets of Seattle everyday- rageaholic pushy brotards.
10
I hate 90% of bicyclists and 95% of pedestrians. Rules apply to those locomoting on two wheels or legs as well as drivers.
11
I'm no hard-core bicyclist, but I do take a ride from time to time. Sometimes I'll even venture into Seattle just for the fun of it. It's an eye-opening experience to see things from the two-wheeled perspective once in a while. Give it a try sometime. It actually makes you a better auto driver.
12
Looks like bicycling has been a miracle for YOUR personality. Why doesn't everyone do it, I wonder...
13
Bicyclist/car driver feces throwing incident will happen, just a matter of time.
15
What I've noticed now that I spend time around the city. Cars/drivers are assholes to bicyclists, yet the bicyclists are even bigger assholes to pedestrians. After getting passed with ZERO clearance on a wide open Myrtle Edwards Park trail by a speeding bike for the 25th time I knew it wasn't just random. I guess I need to go shove one of those Segway riding tourists over to keep the circle intact?
16
@11 Wow I guess I'm not the only person in the world who sometimes rides a bike and sometimes drives a car and I even walk sometimes. From my experience there are inconsiderate assholes using every form of transportation and from reading IA comments, I know the world is full of self-righteous haters who can't get over their road rage and realize we're all humans.

@8 nailed it
17
The finger came after unneeded hard braking, uncivil honking and general idiot driver angst established and strengthened with the hot-head chase and obscenities, thus well-deserved and heartily saluted in bicycle world. Fn idiot Prius driver, no doubt an exception to the rule on Prius drivers generally. OTOH, SDOT employs idiots whose work obviously pits motorists against the world.
SDOT is worse than Metro, neither as bad as WsDOT, but all regularly rated among the nation's
"worst" DOT and transit agencies.
18
Wait...You are a bicyclist and you were crossing in the cross walk? Umm you know you are supposed to follow the ROAD rules not the pedestrian rules right?

You shouldn't have been in the cross walk, you should have been on the road waiting at the light like any other vehicle.
19
f-tard? wow. do you stop at slurs against mentally handicapped people or do your slurs extend to other minorities and groups?
21
@18 it is not illegal for a bicyclist to use a sidewalk or a crosswalkv in Seattle. However they must yield to pedestrians. http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/bi…
22
If there is a person waiting to cross, cars are required to stop. Its a law. Pretty sure crosswalk or no crosswalk, its the law. So dont stand at the side of the road looking like you want to if you dont know what you are doing. Ok he was maybe as douche for not noticing the oncoming traffic, but I have pretty decent reading comprehension, and I'm pretty sure you said he pulled into a driveway and GOT OUT OF HIS CAR before attempting to run after you swearing. So he DIDN'T chase you down in his car. He went out of his way not to. And YOU rode away like a big baby.
23
@1 yes, please go, thanks.
24
Prius drivers are the worst. Bad at checking blind spots, timid about passing (and yet never leave enough passing room) and then they think they're doing the world a favor and everyone else is insufficiently grateful.
25
I approve of this very old-school IA.

I was on foot and some guy who stopped to let me cross in a marked crosswalk yelled at me because I didn't express my gratitude. I've been called names by people on bicycles who didn't think I was using the sidewalk correctly.

Humans are just the worst.
26
I've never had to deal with a cyclist who forced me to merge onto I-5 at 30 mph, parked themselves in the left lane at 50 mph or otherwise refused to let me legally pass.

Prius drivers on the other hand...
27
I think we need more of this road rage to escalate more frequently. Think about it: after the initial bloodbath on the streets we'll eventually get rid off all the fucking assholes: drivers and cyclists alike. Then peace will settle in our fair city.
28
@22 is correct. A crosswalk exists at all intersections, be it a painted crosswalk or not, unless another traffic control device (walk signs) or "crossing prohibited" signs regulates the intended crossing.

@15, The state law on passing bicyslists is other vehicles need to give enough room so as not to clearly avoid contact. Somehow, bicyclists have translated that into "3 ft" locally based on other rules that other states have. The cyclists should apply the same made-up 3 ft rule for peds.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?…
29
.... so as to clearly avoid contact.
30
@27 if you take a bit off the top, more people will just move into the rage-vacuum.

Basic physics, yo.
31
Have to admit it kind of pisses me off when people stand right next to a crosswalk, looking as if they may want to cross. I stop, just to be sure, and then they stand there looking at their phone, chatting with a friend, staring off into space, etc.
32
@31:

Yeah, some pedestrians at crosswalks these days seem to be a completely different breed of stupid: they'll stand there staring forlornly out across the intersection as if the very idea of crossing has actually put them into some sort of existentially-driven fugue-state, and when you stop to let them across half the time they will stare at you with a look of openly hostile incomprehension that leads one to believe they are either mentally-challenged or else come from some remote foreign land where the entire concept of intersections, cross walks, and the like must be completely unknown.
33
It is sad to see what I, Anonymous has become. It used to be one of the first things I read each Thursday - back before teh interwebs. Now notsomuch.
34
I ride, walk, and drive pretty equally and there's morons in all methods. On a pedestrian and on a bike I will not cross at a cross walk unless all drivers are stopped and I can make eye contact because i've been hit multiple times downtown by people doing the "california" rolling stop and not really paying attention. Or they are looking down at their phone and start moving forward as well. Just because 1 person stops doesn't mean you walk.
35
@33,

Had the exact same experience. Loved it when it involved putting pen to paper, obtaining postage and crafting a semi-articulate, passive aggressive rant. These days it's just dumbed down to cater to the every-idiot demographic. It's Yelp, basically, and really a shame.
36
Good thing Seattle spent tens of billions on transit and tunnels.

Now there are no cars in Seattle.

Except for that one isolated car.

37
It's hard to feel sorry for Seattle bike riders. You're uninsured, unlicensed, don't follow any rules, and put everyone at risk with your pompous, self righteous, entitled and idiotic belief that everyone is supposed to cater to your whims, read your minds, and give you the right of way. I look out for bike riders and am careful simply because they are people. But, come on! It's comical to hear a bike rider whine about being yelled at. You know you yell obscenities and shake your fist more than anyone. You probably practice in the mirror. The hostility, the attitude, you just don't make a good case for yourselves. All you're doing is turning everyone off. Wise up and stop being such assholes.
38
He ran from a guy driving a Prius.
39
@32: sounds like you've encountered me. I'm just waiting for cars to clear, move kind of slow due to multiple leg injuries, and wish to not make people wait for my slow ass.
41
@22/28. If the bike is in the road waiting at a stop sign cars should not act like it is at a crosswalk. The author is very unclear with his crosswalk reference so we have no idea if he was in the right or wrong here.
42
Right on, cyclist!! Like you, as a led, *I* will decide where and when I'm going to cross the effing street and do not need your idiotic help and had advice.

we've become such a pansy society when nobody can admit that maybe they weren't right or misread the situation or whatever the F people need to get over themselves and learn to appreciate life stead of always looking for reasons to get angry. I support the cyclist
43
*as a ped
44
OK, everybody just fuck off.
45
@17
Do you have any sources for WSDOT and SDOT being in the nation's worst agencies? I'm 99% sure you made that up.
46
Aren't you glad you were on a bike? I have noticed road rage tends to happen in people locked in metal cages like that.
47
ps, what was passive about the Prius driver? (seems like he was just aggressive!)
48
Sorry:

Im not sure what happened in the case but the bicyclists Ive encountered are the rudest , inconsiderate, selfish people . I stating this as a pedestrian with a disabilty.
49
@ 16. Wait a minute, back up; You ride a bike, you drive a car AND you walk?! No wonder your comments are always so full of perspective and truthiness – I’m convinced there’s nothing you can’t do.

(But seriously, I always enjoy reading them. Keep up the hard work of being a real person in a sea of shockingly entitled asshats.)
50
I love all of those two-wheelers who think that loving the environment exempts them from treating their fellow man with even a minimum of respect. Where I live, most of the people ride on the sidewalk, because there are very few bike lanes. Many of said group like to ride at 15-20 mph down crowded sidewalks. I've seen old people almost clipped by bikes. I shouted at a biker who did that to me, and he shouted obscenities at me and went out of his way to turn around, go to the other side of the road after I crossed to avoid his crazy ass, and tried to intimidate me. Drivers are often more courteous than chodes who creep around on their in-line wheelchairs.

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