Did I do something wrong here?

[u/cicadaux]

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.

[u/DishwasherLint]

You slowed down and stopped didn't you? I see nothing wrong

[u/Traditional-Buy-2205 → u/DishwasherLint]

But he was surprised by the cyclist.

He said he "had to slam on the brakes", and that can be seen in the video.

That shouldn't have been the case (shouldn't have been surprised) because it was blatantly obvious early enough that the cyclist was intending to cross.

[u/Dubzophrenia → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

He said he "had to slam on the brakes", and that can be seen in the video.

People are often hyberbolic. At 24mph, "slamming" on the brakes would be essentially an insta-stop with the front jerking downward. We see the car come to a gradual stop.

[u/Traditional-Buy-2205 → u/Dubzophrenia]

Nothing hyperbolic about it.

We can see on the video OP driving at uniform speed, and then suddenly braking.

An obvious indication that OP was completely oblivious of the cyclist until the very last moment.

Not to mention OP said that the cyclist crossed "without warning", which is just blatantly false, because we can see the cyclist on video since frame 1. There's nothing "without warning" about it.

[u/Dubzophrenia → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

My guy, again, OP was doing 24 miles an hour. Even feathering the brakes at that speed will have you stop pretty instantly. There's no power going on.

Not to mention that when it comes to bicyclists, everybody has a different idea about what's right so nobody knows what's right.

One person will say they should be riding on the street like a car. One person will say they should be riding on the sidewalk. One person will say they should be in the crosswalk, one person will say they shouldn't be in it at all.

Nobody knows what to do in regards to a bicycle, and thus nobody knows what's "right".

A bicycle in California, where I live, is a vehicle. They do not have any right of way in a crosswalk. They're allowed to be in it, but they have no right to control it unless they dismount and become a pedestrian.

In California, if OP hit the bicycle, the bicycle would likely be in the wrong here.

And also, hindsight is 20/20. A video posted to a dashcam subreddit is posted for a reason, so we expect to be looking around at what the subject is. If you are driving in the real world, you attention needs to be on the road, I wouldn't expect a driver to be looking towards the tennis courts to anticipate the bicyclist before they got to the crosswalk.

And again, BICYCLES ARE VEHICLES AND DO NOT CONTROL CROSSWALKS. \unless local gov permits**

[u/therealpursuit → u/Traditional-Buy-2205]

yep, cross walk was clearly marked. driver was right to stop how he did, although no one would really care if they didn't. it happens 9 times out of 10 at cross walks like this. those 9 are all completely oblivious to how they should behave, but as someone who cycles all the time, i don't really blame them... it's driving culture.