Stupid Commuter, pull the stick out!!!

[fetishridr]

People who roll through busy intersections at 13mph are not cool. they are endangering themselves and the other commuters, cyclists who must deal with the poor attitudes of drivers who witness such acts. To compound things, its dark out and blinkys do not a visible rider make.
if you are in such an effing hurry to get home, ditch the knobby tires and put some 1.4 inch slicks on. or GET IN SHAPE AND RIDE FASTER between stop signs, BUT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TRY TO STOP OR AT LEAST SLOW to a 2 mph roll at stops.
blowing the 12th street and ankeny stop sign is ridiculous. its a busy intersection and there is no need to blow it. i saw no pregnant women on your handlebars justifying the need to ride really really stupid. if you were in such a hurry, pedal harder. i closed that gap in 10 pedal strokes to yell at you which should tell you that there is room for riding improvement to get faster. try stopping at signs and stoplights and pedal harder between intersections. trust me, you'll get home from your LONG 60 block commute faster. you are not lance armstrong. drop the holier than thou attitude and follow the rules a little bit.
i'm pissed right now. try calling the cops and telling them that you ran a stop sign and that i yelled at you. thats the dumbest thing i've heard in a while. why dont you also tell them that i stole your rock too, dumb f---. a karmic stick in the front wheel is coming your way man, and i'll be there to peel your commuter special clothes off to sell them on ebay.
in conclusion,
you make a bad name for cyclists, who must deal with crazy drivers who maim and kill fellow cyclists daily. YOU ENDANGERED MY LIFE TONIGHT!!!!!please dont perpetuate the fight between hicks and bikies, if you are more of a hurry than everyone else ride harder, but if you blow by me again in such a manner as experienced tonight and then yell at me about how its none of my effing business. i'll run you into a parked car.

put the fun between your legs and mellow out.

[rainperimeter]

uh, i think i know what you're talking about there. a couple nights ago i was biking up lincoln, and i believe it was at 34th, some dude, heading south on 34th blows through the intersection right in front of me. i shouted, mildly, "hey, you need to slow down at these things". pretty mellow and harmless i thought. he responded back with "fuck you". he was one of these crazy homemade trailer-picking up cans dudes. in my experiences those dudes generally don't give two shits about stop signs, riding on sidewalks, riding on the wrong side of the street, lights, etc. in the last couple years the 2 nastiest wrecks i've seen involve guys like this. face in concrete, knocked out, pool of blood wrecks. both guys were drunk too.

what are ya gonna do?

[jami]

my peeve is bikers who run the signs crossing 11th and 12th near the hawthorne burgerville. i understand not wanting to lose all momentum. i don't mind a slow-roll-through-with-looking. but every now and then i see a proof-of-natural-selection-to-be go through at nearly full speed without enough time to look or stop if they missed something.

it makes drivers who generously slam on their brakes think we're all assholes.

[DJoos]

Maybe those folks have some cool-ass force field. I saw some girl tonight that seemed to have one, I should have asked where she got it... hmm... I could use a force field. Oh, wait, maybe those folks are just DUMBSHITS!!!

[donnambr]

It's not just the trailer/can guys. I've seen all kinds of cyclists do stuff like this - roadies in spandex, hipsters, middle class-looking commuters, and everyone in between. SE 21st and SE Clinton seems to be my bad luck place. Over the summer I was nearly hit on my bike 4 times by cyclists who didn't feel the stop sign applied to them at that intersection. Now, I'm of the opinion that it's not ok to ignore a stop sign ever, and I know many will disagree with me on that. I don't want to stir up that hornet's nest. How many of you, however, believe that you shouldn't have to stop when another bike or a pedestrian has the right of way and is going through the intersection? That's the philosophy that truly baffles me.

[Attornatus_Oregonensis]

I'm someone who thinks a yield rule for cyclists at stop signs could work. But a yield rule is equally clear in not allowing someone to blow through an intersection. And whether you actually get off the saddle and put your foot down or simply track stand or slow way down with your hands on the brakes until the person with right of way has cleared the intersection in this situation is obviously not material to the original issue.

I don't think we're going to find someone coming to the defense of those who endanger themselves and everyone else by flaunting the traffic laws and failing to properly yield the right of way. What's interesting to me is that we have apparently reached a critical mass (no pun intended) here in Portland with cyclists: There are enough on the road that the same bad habits that are evident with drivers begin to manifest themselves.

Yes, I've seen many cyclists blow through intersections, especially in SE. I also see many, many motorists run red lights every day. Most days, the only time I walk around PDX is Downtown during the noon hour. In 30 minutes, I usually count about a half-dozen cars or trucks still in the intersection when the light turns red. I also see pedestrians who are completely oblivious to the world around them who will enter a cross-walk against the light and simply expect people to stop. Worse, in other parts of town, people will just dart out into the street from between parked cars and expect you to stop.

My point is that this is a universal phenomenon. Everyone needs to stop it. There's got to be some cultual change here, where people feel more sanctioned for doing stupid and dangerous things like this, both from the big stick of the law and from the gentle social pressure of friends.