When I take my bike to school, there are those “School Crossing Guards.” One of them guards a 2 line drive in.
This man uses his STOP sign on pedestrians. Here I am cycling, this guy holds his STOP sign up high so I am like “ok, I can go right across at full speed without breaking or slowing down.” turns out no, what he actually meant was that all pedestrians (up to 5 people sometimes) should stop and the car should drive. 50% of the time in the car is a friend of his who stops in the middle of the crosswalk and starts chatting. I look and this and go like “my classes start in 10 minutes, so I am crossing.” They both, he and his friend look at me like I am some self harm guy jumping under a car, and start shouting at me like why I am going when the STOP sign is up.
This is seriously getting out of hand.
PS: I drive my bike on the sidewalk.
So, are you upset that bicycles are being held to the traffic code sections that explicitly apply to them? Because it sounds like you’re one of those people who gives bike riders who know how to operate in pedestrian areas a bad name.
I often ride my bicycle on the sidewalk around here, but I do so carefully and always give priority to pedestrians (of which there are few where I am to begin with, but I’ll get off the sidewalk for them). Legality be damned; this is the only way to not be flatted by some asshat in an SUV in some places. For instance, overpasses here have no shoulder at all but sometimes there is a sidewalk, and if you’re lucky there may even be a guard rail separating it from the car lanes where everyone is doing 60+ in a 35 zone with impunity.
I drive on the sidewalk and behave like a pedestrian. I probably should have known about the traffic codes you are talking about, but this has nothing to do with bikes, he shows it to everybody including other people who are trying to cross. What concerns me them most, is that those traffic guards, break the habit of actually seeing if there are cars around, meaning I am actually less safe when they aren’t there.
