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Community Corner

Belligerent Bikers

There are too many turf wars for space on the road.

You've seen them. Jocks in florescent, skin-tight spandex clothes bent aerodynamically over racing bicycles whizzing down the street. Those nondescript, nameless blurs of color—I call fancy bikers. Sometimes they're in packs and sometimes it's just a lone die-hard cyclist.

Last Wednesday, my husband Tom picked our three children up midday from Syosset High's summer school. As Tom approached the corner of Piquets Lane and Woodbury Road, coming to a dead stop, he waited to turn right at Meyer's Farm when a fancy biker on a titanium bike knocked on the side of our Volvo sedan and yelled through the open windows.

"Hey, you didn't leave me enough room here."

You have to understand, my husband is a rule-follower to a T.  As a coach for many of our children's sports teams, he's all about fairness, manuals or rule books and takes things to the letter of the law. Calmly (as our children explained later), Daddy calmly said through the open passenger window, "You have a red light, too, buddy."

And with that the guy stood up on the pedals of his fancy bike, and in fit of fury went from zero to 60 in a millisecond screaming at my husband, "F*** you, you a**hole." 

Here's the thing of it, as my husband relayed to me later on: "When I'm driving, I don't think, 'What does a biker need from me right now?' Especially when I stop for a red light, I don't consciously think, 'Oh, um, let's see, I should leave enough room just in case a biker just happens to want to ride through this exact spot at precisely the split second I need to be here, too. '"

I am so annoyed with these fancy biker dudes and have swerved around them too many times than I care to count. It's not our responsibility as vehicle drivers to protect bikers on the road. And they take way too many risks in my book to the point of taunting a driver to get out of their way. When there's a pack of 30, we are forced to patiently wait to cross intersections or change lanes, and no one can drive on the road.

Tom just drove off that day, but saw in the rearview mirror the angry cyclist shaking his fist in the air and while chasing after our car.

A driver's responsibility is to be alert, aware and cautious, driving under (or at) the speed limit and obeying the rules of the road. These cyclists are grown men, not children that we need to protect and teach the rules to. And I say men because 90 percent of these bikers are men biking on the road at their own risk.

They are fighting an uphill battle for respect and truly no one cares about their cool biking hobby. We care about safety. I give bikers space because I don't want to hit anyone, which would result in my being hit with a serious lawsuit. And that's the game of it. There's an element of thrill-seeking danger playing in the psyche of these guys that I don't want to be forced to participate in.

Why do they insist on exercising in the middle of a public road? When I exercise, I go to the gym or my husband plays tennis on a court, not in the middle of a street expecting everyone to give room and steer clear. It is affected narcissism.  

Next time I want an aerobic workout, I'm gonna take my step platform and place it on the edge of the sidewalk as people try to shop at King Kullen. I'll work up a sweat and hoot and holler, "Go around me, ma'am," when elderly ladies pushing shopping carts get annoyed at my hogging the sidewalk for my sheer self-centered indulgence.

Bicyclists often act like drivers of vehicles who just don't know the rules of the road.  Well, in case you don't know: 

Bicyclists MUST *:
* Wear a helmet at age 1 to 13 and in TOBAY adults must wear helmets.
* Ride in a bicycle lane or on a usable right shoulder of the road to avoid undue interference with other traffic.
* Come to a full stop before entering a roadway from a driveway, alley or over a curb.
* Use hand signals: right turn by extending the right arm straight out to the right or the left arm, elbow bent hand up. Slow to a stop extending the left hand downward.
Never carry a child under 1-year-old, and from 1 to 4, children must be in a secure seat manufactured for children.
* On public highways and roads bicycles must be equipped with adequate brakes and a horn or bell that can be heard at least 100 feet away. At night riders must have headlights and tail lights, and reflectors on spokes and even on clothes.
* Never travel more than two abreast in a single lane.
 
You're kidding me! Really? When have you seen any of those rules enforced? 
Here's what I'd do if I were a fancy biker. Plunk the bike in the back of the car, truck SUV or whatever and drive it somewhere else. Get out of the vehicle and ride the bike where there is plenty of room–say, like, designated bike trails made for bikers where no motor vehicles are allowed, and not ride on major roads where there isn't any room to ride.
 
I'll go one further, even: I think TOBAY should prohibit bicyclists on major roads—those that have double yellow lines—and start issuing tickets to belligerent bicyclists who don't abide by the rules of the road and make some money off them for being such a nuisance.

Folks, this really is a serious problem. A friend of ours who was a respectful bicyclist was hit by a car and seriously hurt. It took him two years to fully recover from numerous injuries: broken bones and cracked ribs.

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Please obey the rules of the road and let's all get along, shall we? And certainly don't scream at someone driving a vehicle that is obeying the rules of the road, especially when they have young, impressionable children in the car.  

* From Sharing the Road Safely (C-77), available at any motor vehicle office and by request from a DMV Call Center.

Read what one Port Washington resident has to say about bicycle safety after the death of his friend. 

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