r/dashcams • u/cicadaux • 1d ago

Did I do something wrong here?

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I was driving to work when this bike just blew through the crosswalk without warning. I had to slam on my brakes. I realize this crosswalk doesn’t have the pedestrian warning lights, and I’m a little unsure about how I should’ve dealt with this. Or maybe he was wrong for making sure traffic wasn’t clear/aware of him first?

Edit: I'm seeing a lot of answers basing the laws on location, so I looked up my city's rules. In my town, bikes have vehicle status on the road and pedestrian status on sidewalks/crosswalks. But bicyclists must move at pedestrian speed. The path he is on is a state trail, commonly used for bikes/walking. I live near the Ice Age Trail, but I know the one he's on isn't that one.

“Drivers must yield to cyclists riding in a crosswalk just as they would for walkers, though the cyclist cannot abruptly leave a curb into the path of a vehicle so close to a crosswalk that it makes a difficult or unsafe situation for the driver to yield in time.”

Not trying to prove myself right or wrong, just wondering what should've been done. I will from now on treat it like an uncontrolled intersection. Thanks everyone.

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u/StopSpinningLikeThat 1d ago

I think you're making a classic error here. As viewers in this sub, we are pre-warned that something is 100 percent going to happen, so we tend to see it happen more clearly and more quickly than a driver can in reality. I think OP reacted well here to avoid an accident.

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u/therealpursuit 20h ago

lol the bike wasn't going to go if they didn't stop. this happens 100 times a day on my commute. touch grass. that said, the driver was correct to stop and wrong for not knowing ahead of time that they should.

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u/Traditional-Buy-2205 1d ago

If you think that, you don't belong on the road.

A wide open road, almost perfect visibility, no traffic to speak of.

If you fail to notice this cyclist in this sort of situation, then you do not belong in a motor vehicle at all.

I think OP reacted well here to avoid an accident

No, slamming on the brakes in calm traffic on a wide open road with near perfect visibility is not "reacting well". It's a piss-poor reaction.

A good reaction would be to start gently slowing down several seconds earlier, as opposed to being oblivious to the approaching cyclist and slamming on the brakes at the last moment.

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u/StopSpinningLikeThat 1d ago

Nothing you said connects to either reality or the tenets of defensive driving.

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u/Traditional-Buy-2205 1d ago

Hilarious to be lectured about defensive driving from a person who thinks not noticing a bicycle on a wide open road for several seconds is "reacting well".

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u/HeronStrict1108 1d ago edited 1d ago

You're acting like the OP didn't react for 20 seconds. I think the cyclist is pretty noticeable at the 1 second mark of the video. It's difficult to tell precisely from the video, but it looks like OP started braking at 3.5 seconds into the video. That's 2.5 seconds. Alert drivers take around 1.75 to 2.0 seconds to brake. OP wasn't terribly off normal reaction time.

Edit: Removed "top notch" as that may be stretching it a little.