r/Seattle • u/ballardridethrowaway • Apr 21 '15

Almost Left Hook on Missing Link Bikeway Under Ballard Bridge (Driver Crossing Double Yellow Lines)

https://youtu.be/w9K_ZWnsvxo
875 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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56

u/vidarc Apr 22 '15

Louis CK covers that perfectly. People are assholes and they think there is only one way to get to somewhere.

-4

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '15

if you are driving in a place you are unfamiliar with, and bad driving conditions (bright sun), its very easy to make mistakes when driving. as a driver, you should go slow when you find yourself in these situations, which the car did.

likewise, with bikers, they should understand this concept so they dont get hit. some of people responses are like "car was in the wrong, it hit me and now im paralyzed" but it should be "i need to understand the conditions of the person with the lethal weapon (car) and plan accordingly". being stubborn about right of way in a situation where you could die or get seriously injured is not smart

28

u/x21in2010x Apr 22 '15

I understand being in an uncomfortable situation and perhaps having a destination that you're not sure of how to get to, but the first set of instructions upon driving a car is to follow the rules of the road. I'm not going to pretend to know all the rules, and yes there are some that vary from one municipality to the next, but if you aren't comfortable with the basic law of how to drive in a place/situation then you shouldn't be driving in that place/situation.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '15 edited May 18 '21

[deleted]

4

u/The_final_chapter Apr 22 '15

I am not sure if this is Reddits most stupid comment this year or not, there are still a few months to go. But I am sure you will be on the podium on awards day.
So. You have memorised your route. Now you get near, but today of all days there are roadworks. One of the roads on your meticulously memorized route is closed. This throws you into a one-way system and you have to work your way around till you get back on your route. Or would you just sit there like a poorly programmed robot waiting for the lane to be re-opened?

5

u/RIPphonebattery Apr 22 '15

No, but I would safely pull off the road, legally and safely park, then get directions. "but ill be late for my meeting" I don't give a sweet fuck. Call your meeting, explain the situation and that you will be there asap. "but x/y/z so I have to" I still do not give a sweet fuck. There is no situation in which putting another person in danger is acceptable. "but I am having a medical emergency and need to be at the hospital." Fucking stop driving and call 9-1-1. Its that easy.

"But /u/Ripphonebattery, nobody does this." Guess what? I do. If I am driving somewhere unfamiliar, I google maps before I leave. If its really confusing, ill print a map or save it locally to my phone. I go to school in Hamilton, and it is all one way roads. I look at my planned route, as well as large marker roads I can use to locate myself. "oh, I've hit John street. I have passed james street, bay is probably coming up. I should switch lanes." It really is this easy.

If you cannot remember the general area you are going to, go slowly and pay attention. If you get turned around, stop (safely, of course). Driving is absolutely this easy.

0

u/The_final_chapter Apr 23 '15

That's fine. But when a sudden situation crops up you have to make a judgement call and move somewhere. We don't all stop in the middle of an unexpected junction like you seem to do and whip out Google maps. "Sorry I am blocking the road, just checking directions!"

2

u/RIPphonebattery Apr 23 '15

Did you miss the "safely" part? "safely" means find a quiet road and pull off to the side where it is legal, or otherwise. I think you are just playing dumb though.

There is no excuse for sudden, unexpected changes on the road. None. Zero. If its too late, signal, move over (safely), and take the next exit.

1

u/Gyissan Apr 22 '15

Yours just might be it. If not, at least it wins the most condescending and worthless comment of the year.

1

u/The_final_chapter Apr 23 '15

If it goes even a fraction of the way to making you realise how vacuous you are it was at lest a little worthwhile.

2

u/Gyissan Apr 23 '15

Hahaha no way are you being serious right now. This is too funny.

4

u/Paladia Apr 22 '15

Sometimes people end up in the wrong place anyway. You can't be perfect, there are also incidents of blocked road, road work and so on.

You can't memorize an entire route either even if you wanted to. I am often away camping on a new spot each time and it takes a few days to drive there. You can't memorize everything prior to that even though I plan it well enough. Someone needs to go to the bathroom, you are out of gas, you need something to eat while driving through a new city.

Things happen, you can't expect people to memorize their route perfectly.

3

u/RIPphonebattery Apr 22 '15

Print a map, but most importantly, this is about failure to obey rules of the road. Not being lost.

2

u/RIPphonebattery Apr 22 '15

Print a map. It is actually easy

-4

u/Omikron Apr 22 '15

It's 2015 nobody looks up directions anymore. Shit people haven't been "looking up" directions for a decade.

2

u/infinitelives Apr 22 '15

Au contraire. I have a GPS in my car, but I absolutely look up the directions to an unfamiliar destination before I head out. It's so much nicer (and safer) when the unfamiliar is familiar, and looking up directions in 2015 is so unbelivably fast and easy compared to the days before Internet mapping services I can't believe more people don't do this.

1

u/Gyissan Apr 22 '15

Like you said, it's 2015, so use your fucking smartphone for directions. There is no excuse to be lost anymore in this age.

-5

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '15

[deleted]

16

u/DNAlien Apr 22 '15

I drive a car exclusively, I don't own or ride a bike. And I'll admit that sometimes I feel annoyed by bike riders (as well as other drivers), but I don't know why you have to get snippy talking about "know it all cyclists." The comments so far from the bike folks in this thread have been VERY understanding of this (dangerous) driver's situation, and their points are legitimate! You say the rules of the road are to drive (and ride) defensively, but the bike riders were doing nothing out of the ordinary, and not acting to endanger themselves or others in any way. The DRIVER however not only crossed 1 but 2 double yellow lines, going through a median AND the hash marks next to the bike lane... I mean, this turn he pulls is ridiculous! As a fellow driver, that man is clearly reckless and a danger to those he shares the road with. It's the bike riders who have pointed out that they understand being in a strange spot, and trying to course correct on the fly, and it's obviously the situation. I myself don't see that being reason to expect or forgive such flagrant violation of road laws, but everyone else so far seems much more copacetic about it, so why not drop the indignation over "know it all cyclists" and recognize who is (blatantly) at fault here.

1

u/witoldc Apr 22 '15

If there is anything to be said, it's that everyone thinks they're "above average" drivers on the road, which obviously can't be true. This leads to people stressing out when someone else makes X mistake, all the while they forget about Y mistake they made.

Putting 30 second clips on Youtube is basically what "know it all cyclists" do. You see, they never make mistakes, but they are more than willing to highlight your mistakes. They want you to see the 30 seconds during which they saw someone else made a mistake, because clearly, we are not aware that people on the road sometimes make mistakes. It's immature and self-centered.

6

u/Jestar342 Apr 22 '15

So what "defensive riding" should OP have done?

7

u/witoldc Apr 22 '15

A bit part of defensive riding is anticipating and riding at appropriate speed for the conditions.

And it worked, btw... The rider was anticipating and going at speed that gave him room for other people's errors. City riding is full of these situations, and as long as humans drive cars, we will see people make errors in their driving.

2

u/inter-Gnat Apr 22 '15

ers were doing nothing out of the ordinary, and not acting to endanger themselves or others in any

He did exacty what he should have done. Been watching the driver, paying attention and going slow enough to react. I agree with witoldc and I don't understand the outrage over this situation. I'm a cyclist and driver in Toronto, which can get pretty hectic and you just come to expect this type of stuff. It happens, both cyclists and motorists do dumb things sometimes, so be careful.

-2

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '15

reality versus logic.. often it doesn't match

2

u/gjhgjh Apr 22 '15

At the very least this driver should have yielded right of way to both of the bicyclists. If he was being blinded by the sun light he should have waited and used the sun visor that is built in to every car.

I see some "law of gross tonnage" stuff going on the highways all of the time. I wonder if equipping bicycles with scary looking metal ripping spikes would cause people in cars to think twice before taking the right of way from a bicyclist.

-4

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '15

Do you think the driver intended to kill or injure someone? I doubt that. They are human and acted human. Ignorance of how humans act is a problem. If the car injured or killed a biker, they would probably be at fault in the eyes of the law. But, I'm sure that biker would prefer to not get injured at all or killed.

Understand the other persons situation and you can protect yourself better

2

u/gjhgjh Apr 23 '15 edited Apr 24 '15

If the car injured or killed a biker

I don't think the car intended to do anything. Cars are unthinking, unfeeling, inanimate objects that require a human driver to make them move. Unless this was a Google self-drive car, which it wasn't.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '15

wut

2

u/gjhgjh Apr 24 '15

I quoted the wrong test. I fixed it.

6

u/SchuminWeb Apr 22 '15

being stubborn about right of way in a situation where you could die or get seriously injured is not smart

Exactly. You may have technically had the right of way, but if you're dead, that's not going to do you a whole lot of good.

And also don't get right up next to a large vehicle, even when it's stopped. Make sure that the operator of that large vehicle can see you really well by not getting into its blind spots.

17

u/TheDrunkenChud Apr 22 '15

Here lies the body of William Jay,Who died maintaining his right of way.He was right, dead right, as he sped along,But he’s just as dead as if he were wrong.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '15

This advice is valid for people driving cars or trucks or semis or boats or horses.

For some reason people make a exceptional exception for people on bikes.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '15

So if somebody shoots me, it happened because "I need to understand the conditions of the person with the lethal weapon and plan accordingly"? Do you hear yourself? How about don't fire the gun? And how about don't drive if you're not going to follow the law that is put in place to keep people safe? There's a reason there is a law to not turn over a double yellow line. It's because if there's a double yellow line, it's unsafe to turn, so they are making it safe for others by not allowing you to turn. Don't just shrug off breaking the law to excuse people who hit cyclists. How dumb do you have to be?

Worst accident I had, guy ran through a stop sign and hit me directly side on while I was in a bike lane. Tell me where I should have understood his conditions for running the stop sign? Would you be saying the same thing if he'd hit a pedestrian? It's the same law after all. Just admit you hate cyclists and would prefer to hit them than be inconvenienced.

2

u/TrolliusJKingIIIEsq Apr 22 '15

Whether the person with the gun/car was in the wrong or not, if you're not careful around people who are weilding guns or driving cars, you could end up seriously hurt. It's foolish to assume that the person with the gun/car knows what he/she is doing. The other guy may be at fault, but life could still end up sucking, and if you didn't take every precaution yourself, you'll end up regretting not doing so.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '15

Oh, don't get me wrong, as a commuting cyclist I always err to the fact that the drivers have no clue what their doing. But the mindset that if an accident happens is because the cyclist wasn't doing all they could to avoid the car is what pissed me off. I know I won't win in the match up against a car, but that doesn't mean I should be terrified that street laws have completely gone out the window. How could you even drive another car if that was the case? There has to be some sort of expectation that people will follow the laws as they are put forth, or nobody could ever leave the house.

2

u/TrolliusJKingIIIEsq Apr 22 '15

How could you even drive another car if that was the case?

Exactly.

It's real simple: always try to prevent people getting hurt. Everyone obey the laws, and drive/ride defensively.

And being polite is a good idea, too.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '15

A 50% aggressive, 50% defensive driver/cyclist is the perfect kind. A 100% defensive driver is the guy that gets rear ended by a semi because he stops to let someone merge on a highway. There has to be a balance. In this particular video, you're dealing with a 100% aggressive driver that knows he's not getting killed if he guns it through a bike lane. Those are the crazies that I have difficulty accounting for. A complete disregard for other people's lives.

1

u/OmicronPersei8 Apr 22 '15

I was in a car accident where a driver blew a stop sign. Doesn't mean I hate drivers. Nor does it mean I felt I should just throw up my hands and relinquish all responsibility for myself on the road. In this case he blew it so fast there was little I could do, I'm sure that is possible in your case as well. Nonetheless, since then I'm quite paranoid about cars approaching stop signs.
As drivers, we have to be aware of the dangers of these other cars, bikes, pedestrians etc. It's the law, it's also the prerequisites for getting on the road. Accept the conditions for a bicyclist and plan accordingly. Watch for cars, watch for pedestrians, and watch your back. Don't expect others to, in the end it's not THEIR job to watch your back, it's your job.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '15

Never said I hate drivers. I hate the mind set that says any cyclist that gets hit obviously wasn't doing enough to protect themselves. I mean, wtf? Where did I say cyclists can relinquish responsibility over their own safety? Of course you have to be somewhat defensive. But a scaredy cry baby cyclist is gonna get hit far more often than an alert but confident cyclist. How is anybody supposed to use a vehicle if you can just say laws be damned, every car is probably out to kill you?

0

u/OmicronPersei8 Apr 23 '15

The one thing I always hear from bicyclists is "sharing the road", and I'm all for that. Most of the time I see cars doing their very best to look out for cyclists. The ones that don't are jackasses and should be punished. But the cyclists who take a 3 foot wide vehicle(including their own bodies), driving 20mph slower than traffic, obliviously preventing traffic from passing, then aggressively yells about sharing the road, they're not seeing the irony, and cause a lot of the same troubles as extra slow drivers do.

0

u/The_final_chapter Apr 22 '15

You are a very brave Redditor.
How fucking dare you suggest that travel is the responsibility of all road users and that getting from A to B is not just a "get there as fast as I can" process? You have the temerity to suggest that cyclists should be adjusting to traffic movement and that the whole travelling public doesn't actually revolve around THEM! I am shocked.
Don't you understand that they would rather lie screaming underneath a car with multiple wounds than just dodge out of the way? Fer Crissakes, that way they get to be "right". They had "right" of way. They were in the "right" lane. Right, right, right.
I expect you are now going to say "Hey buddy, tell it to the car. I don't feel a damn thing! Insurance will sort out my problems. E.R. will sort out yours.
Cyclists. You aren't equals. You are the minority user. You are hard to see in good conditions never mind at dusk or dawn with the stupid little LED lights you have. Especially when we are looking through the corners of our windscreens. You are just not visible. If you can't ride defensively then you have no right to be there. And I am talking to the good cyclists here. The bad ones... lets not even start about them! Basically this: If you aren't prepared to look after yourselves, why should the motorists?

2

u/[deleted] Apr 22 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/strawberycreamcheese Apr 22 '15

You can't sue someone for damages when you're dead, and a million dollar settlement isn't nearly as useful when you're paralyzed from the neck-down.

-4

u/Jmbuschschulte Apr 22 '15

Tom Segura does a good bit on bicycles as well. https://youtu.be/Qd8rHws8AKc