Bill, you asked, "Don’t you agree this warrants a rant?"

Perhaps it warrants arrest, or possibly a rest. ;?p

I too was almost run down in a crosswalk by a woman, on a cellphone, while she was driving a Ford Explorer. Missed me by just a couple of feet, mine! She never even knew I was there.

The list of charges against the cyclist:

-Not well "spoken" while driving
-Driving on a sidewalk while sidetalking
-Speeding
-Failure to yield to old men
-Inattentive talking while driving a vehicle

By the way have you seen the cup holders that cyclists have now to hold their lattes?

Cyclists: Morally (as in mores), if not legally speaking, once your butt is on the saddle and your feet are off the ground and you are moving, you are a vehicle. You give up the rights you have as a pedestrian and you take on the responsibilities you have as a driver.

Would you drive on the sidewalk?
Would you wear headphones while driving?
Would you drive a car without your hands on the wheel?
Would you drive down the wrong side of the street?
Would you drive without signaling your intent to turn or change lanes?

As to the cell phone thing specifically, I still see way more inattentive drivers than cyclists where cell use is the culprit. But, there is plenty of other cyclist rudeness and inattention going on. As to the sidewalk thing, I don't get out of the way for cyclists on the sidewalk, and much better if they have to dismount to get around me. I look at it as operant conditioning.

I've been ranting to myself about the same thing lately. Had a bicyclist almost wreck himself trying to avoid riding into my car's path. (I had the right of way; he was coming out of a side street.) Fortunately, I was paying attention and stopped in time, but it was too close for comfort. And, despite the fact that he nearly fell off his bike, the phone never left his ear.

Have had some other similar close calls. I try very hard to be a good driver where cyclists are concerned -- I don't want a body on my hood or conscience -- but wish all riders were as concerned about their personal safety.

Get off the phone and ride!!

We as cyclists do need to work on our image. If we want more bike lanes and want to be recognized as a legitimate user group, it is time to start behaving like vehicles.

The other day while riding my bike down college I had a particularly irate driver tailgating me until they had the opportunity to gun their ford explorer (Minnesota plates) and pass me well out into the other lane. When she came by me she screamed out her window "Get outa the road, thats what the sidewalk is for!". Initially I was pretty pissed and wanted to tell her that sidewalks are for pedestrians.

I dont know if the "share the roads" signs are doing the trick and educating automobile pilots of their need to really "S H A R E" those roads. I would love to see more bike lanes with those little diamond shaped bike symbols in 'em. I dont know what it is but that lil diamond makes me feel warm and cozy inside.

joshgage

I agree with matguy. I think it's worse for motorists to be yabbering away than cyclists. At least on a bike if inattentiveness leads to an accident you're likely not to kill someone (well, maybe yourself). In a car you're a two ton weapon. But even so, cyclists do need to work on their image.

josh-

Yep, just imagine it:
You're a college student (or adult) from Minnesota, you haven't ridden a bike since the day you got your drivers' license. The last time you rode a bike you were a kid. Where do kids ride their bikes? On the sidewalk. Your classmates who don't have cars on campus? Your adult friends who still drag out their bike once in awhile? Well some of them haven't ridden a bike since they were kids either, so you've seen them acting like children, riding their bikes on the sidewalks.

Now you're out driving, experiencing what you've been taught by the media is your ultimate right to and expression of freedom: the single occupant car trip. And there's this guy on a bike in front of you. What's wrong with him? Why isn't he in his car like other grown-ups? There must be something wrong with him that he can't drive.

Enough time for pity, can't he see that he's in the way? Can't he see that nice sidewalk next to the road? After all, that's where bikes belong, that's where you've seen them, that's where you used to ride one. Of course it makes sense to yell at the poor cyclist, to inform him of his mistake.

Drivers seem to "get" diamonds painted on the roads better than other signage. I like 'em too.

I hate cell phones to begin with - but the biggest problem with your observation: the cyclist ON THE SIDEWALK! What part of sideWALK don't they get? Is it suddently called a sideBIKE? Get the hell off the sidewalk - get yourself a helmet - and ride in the bike lanes the city was so nice to dedicate for us. Jeez...

Good rant, Bill.

Not Legal in Helena. Check the city ordinance. These are currently on the books in Helena.
Adults cannot ride a bicycle on any sidewalk !

No one, not even children can ride on downtown sidewalks.
Next time take away her cell phone and her bicycle.

This sounds like a meeting of AARP. I can't tell if you are all mad at the cyclists or just jealous because no longer are you riding around town on a bike but are instead tooling around back and forth to the post office (those still exist!) on your new Rascal from The Scooter Store(an impulse buy during the price is right of course).

This fighting against the encroachment of technology on our lives is amazing and the level of "you can or can't do this or that in my town because it annoys my receding hairline" is amazing. Though it is so valiant of everyone to hate the cell phone, but love the computer. Oh what is that, you are all asking your kids how to upload a photo? Send a text message...Why doesn't everyone in this thread stop crowding the bike paths with their Rascal trips to the local "Co-Op" as you call it and just get Meals on Wheels.

Joe p, I just knew some young whipper snapper would make a smart remark. Be careful or you may find some Grey Panther poking a cane into your spokes while others throw their teeth at you as a symbolic act in return for your biting remarks.

joe p-

I have a cell as my only phone and I text. I have a couple of mp3 players. I ditched cable for netflix and use it to watch movies on demand using my laptop over the wireless network I set up at home. I dual boot into ubuntu linux. Not only do I upload photos, I edit them using the GIMP and put them up on a flickr account the feeds a refreshed image as my desktop background periodically.

None of my tech-savvy-ness diminishes my ire when I see a cyclist not taking their actions in a public space seriously, and of late the distracted riding while on the sidewalk thing has been one of the most visible ones. I just saw another one at lunch today, a girl riding down a packed sidewalk during the lunch rush, coffee in one hand, bars barely in the other, and pedestrians were having to dodge her as she went. As a cyclist, I'm mad because I'm tired of motorists and others lumping me in with that girl when they see me out riding legally on the road.

I can't believe I'm siding with matguy. But I am a cyclist, have been all of my life. I obey the rules of the road. It pisses me off when I see cyclists on the sidewalk. And just like matguy, I do not move when I see them coming, if anything, I get in their way. BUT, in some parts of Missoula riding on the sidewalk is legal. I have no idea why. What really pisses me off though, is you see these cyclists on the sidewalk, and you see a police officer, and they do NOTHING. I've even looked at the cops and pointed at the cyclists. NOTHING!

But I strongly disagree with Bill Schneider. I love his columns, and love that he writes a lot, but I don't agree with the opinion that a citizen needs to stop a cyclists and tell them to knock it off. Does that mean that when I'm driving my car and see an driver not paying attention that I have to stop, get their attention and tell them to knock it off? I ride my bike pretty much every day of the year, all year round, for the 15 years I've been in Missoula. I probably see 1 cyclists on the phone for every 500 drivers on the phone. If I have to stop all of those drivers to tell them to "knock it off" I'd never make it to work.

I'd be satisfied if the cops just got cyclists off of the sidewalk. Then we could start working on running stop signs and one-way street errors.

One more comment matguy. The questions that you asked earlier.... Would you drive without signaling your intent to turn or change lanes? I wouldn't....ever. But it seems though that almost 50 percent of the drivers around here do. Not to be stereotypical....but when that happens, there's an 85% chance that they have a "13" on their tag.

Matguy thanks for the response, I am surprised to see that in your list of technical accomplishments you didn't include the upgrade you installed into your new Rascal. How fast, 20-30 mph now. I am really wondering how you got a wifi connection off of ARPANET. Big ups man!

I am not advocating for technology, I am just saying, quite trying to put everyone in a box. There are enough rules and regs as it stands. Stop drunk drivers, don't waste a cops time.

Ah, blah blah blah blah blah, Bill. When the total number of horrible anecdotes about people on bicycles approaches 0.01% of those about people in automobiles, it'll be ripe for a rant. Until then, get a life. And let natural selection work its magic.

As for getting a helmet, you would certainly be safer walking down the street if you wore one all the time. I hate seeing pedestrians without helmets. What are they thinking, anyway?

This is so funny! I am not sure a cyclist wielding a cell phone is enough for rant...maybe a little one like you stated though.

Cell phone use while riding your bike is the least of our worries! At least if they are in their little world talking on the cell phone, cruising along downtown....and then BAM!!! Well, the person in the car is not going to get hurt...or at least if you are walking and you get hit by the bike it's only a minor accident.
The real cause for panic/worry/wearing your helmet (in your car) are teenage drivers texting while driving, women talking on their cell phones while driving, and men driving any type of caravan!
Eagle Road is already a mess without the added distraction of a cell phone! It's the same ol' song and dance with these people...."I am in my car, so I can do anything I want."

Ok, there's my little rant.

You're right joe, I'd better "quite" it, but first I think I'll put you in one more box- the "Troll box."

Anyway, I agree with Tom V. A.- at least on the numbers. (.01% and all that).

It made me think a little bit- why does bad cyclist behavior garner so much attention? I think it might be because when we are in our cars, we've enclosed ourselves in these big impersonal boxes. "Hey, that car just cut me off!" But a cyclist is still a person, and when a person wobbles their selfish way toward me on the sidewalk, latte, cell or whatever in hand other than the bars, I can't help but deal with the fact that that is a real actual person in front of me who has that little care for those around them. It's the same way I feel when I see somebody let their dog dump on the bikepath without cleaning it up, or when I saw the kids at the new skatepark here twisting branches off of the newly-planted trees, or the guy and his girlfriend throwing rocks at the swallows under the bridge along the Clark Fork River. It's called respect and if it takes a $75 ticket to teach some of these people that. I'm just fine with it.

Why is this posted under Salt Lake City?

I agree with THR that the ratio of people riding bikes while talking on cell phones is a small fraction of the people driving cars and trucks in traffic with the phone pressed to their ears. Go to any busy intersection around quitting time and I bet you'll notice nearly 50% of all car/truck drivers talking on the cell phone. Bill, that seems like a much bigger issue than the occasional bicyclist. And what about all the cops driving around in their big police cruisers talking on their cellphones? Have a look around, because that's an all too common practice I see in my hometown. As taxpayers, we pay cops to be cops, not drive around in their cruiser talking to the wife, kids, buddies and/or mistress.

MT, when cars/trucks travel down sidewalks with the operator on the phone, perhaps the two situations would be equivalent.

--The sidewalks are meant for bipedals, not pedallers or operators of any vehicle. The elderly, very young, sight or hearing impared are particularly vulnerable.

--The operation of any vehicle by a distracted operator, such as one on a cellphone, is dangerous as per Bill's experience.

Matguy, congratulations, spellcheck huh! Anyway, name calling is something that never is appropriate. Troll huh, try just a young kid that bikes a lot and doesn't want people like you trying to regulate every factor of our lives. $75 dollar tickets, give me a break, you need to "quit" spending your days staring creepily at people and what they are doing with their personal time and focus all this energy on something more important like making sure that the Federal Gov. doesn't open up millions of trees to logging in the pacific northwest. Then the branches on the trees seem pretty minor. But this is the problem with close-minded people like you, rather than put the effort, research and time into fighting the big problems, you go after the helpless people that cops, and teachers, principals and other pseudo-authority figures love to pimp.

Rather than $75 dollar tickets, why not fine huge corporations and construction companies millions for wrecking the streets and putting huge pot holes in the roads and loggins trees and polluting and the fine them for building more homes so that there are more people in the city. Why not, because these are all just aspects of life. Life happens, people bike on sidewalks, people talk on phones and people do these things together as well. "I saw the kids at the new skatepark here twisting branches off of the newly-planted trees" quit trying to be a citizen cop, you sound like Mr. Jenkins from Scooby-Doo. Go back to running your amusement park.

Joe p, people that travel on sidewalks while talking on phones are not 'helpless' as you suggest, rather they are self-absorbed.

By the way, community block watch programs are all about ordinary citizens getting involved in the way you describe as 'citizen cops.' I guess it's a personal pholosophy whether an individual or group looks to whether they can make a difference by being involved, or whether they sit back and whine and depend about government stepping in to do for them what they could otherwise do for themselves. If only the majority of people were like Bill.

Craig, you obviously must not have read into my post. The idea is not that government do it for you. That is not it at all. Self-absorbtion is riding in the car when you could bike, not helping out a friend in need, but their are enough cops as it is. I certainly don't want more of those. I am saying let's focus the community efforts towards the bigger problems. Obviously I am underestimating the level at which, babies, mothers, daughters, children and grown men get run over everyday by people on a beach cruiser. I think we should actually organize the community watch group and confiscate all the bike in the neighbor hood, then everyone can just run over everyone else with their Lexus'. Give me a break, Craig, you didn't even address my point of other peoples impact in the situation. There are bigger issues to be fighting, or if you want to be the peeping-Tom of your neighborhood, then I guess that is a personal choice, just don't peep in my window, or I will organize my community watch against other community watch organizations and then we can have a white collar gang war over the sidewalks. The next person that comments about my advocation of less intrusion of governance by the neighbors will be fined $75.

If only more people were less like you.

Joe p, we don't need to solve world hunger to be able to deal with self-absorbed, dangerous cyclists on city sidewalks. Get a grip and a little perspective.

Actually it is sort of legal to ride bikes on sidewalks. I spoke with an officer in the Missoula police dept., and due to changes in Montana state code, the local ordinances are pre-empted by state code now that requires signage about bicycles not being able to ride on sidewalks. The officer went on to give a specific example of this as being the orange street underpass, where they *will* ticket you and the officer remarked they had done so in the past. However, elsewhere you can indeed ride on sidewalks. So, we do have a city ordinance, but it's essentially unenforceable in most of Missoula due to state code. And I for one have seen Missoula bike cops riding on the sidewalk. Why? Because bikes aren't fucking cars, and don't do well in traffic. If your doing 10-15 on your bike, you shouldn't be interfering with traffic doing 45. In fact, if you were in a motor vehicle, you'd probably get arrested for doing that. It's negligent and rude, and that's why drivers hate bicyclists, for the same reason they do a slow-ass farm tractor. And no, it's not really the bicyclists fault per se, because if they can't go with traffic and can't ride on the sidewalk, where are they going to? Fortunately, right now you legally have the choice of either. Choose safety and think of others as well is my point.

And yeah, some bikers are dumb, rude, and seem to be trying very hard to win a darwin award. But even an obnoxious biker on a cell phone isn't going to kill anyone short of disrupting vehicle traffic. An obnoxious driver in a car on a cell phone can. Almost every day I drive I see a biker being rude, selfish, and illegal. And I also see people in motor vehicles doing that. Guess which is a bigger threat?

I'll take rude bicyclists on cell phones any day. Because no matter what, it's still just a bicycle. I've been hit by a bicycle. It didn't even leave a bruise. I haven't been hit a car, but I can't really say the same.

And finally, dare I say, a 20something with awesome reflexes and good multi-tasking is a better driver even with a cell phone than some 85 year old without one. Is a cell phone truly that distracting if you're not completely incompetent? No. And how is it different than talking to a passenger in your car anyway? Or using a radio like a CB, police radio, etc?

Why should a cell phone inherently make you angry? I think it was the Buddha that said the cause of anger is a lack of compassion.

Orange Street Underpass? Which side of the river? I thought both paths under the bridge were bike paths.

Anyway, wow, this thread sure blew up. You know I'm not some creepy guy who spends all his time looking for bicycle or other traffic violations. Getting into it about bikes rates just above the level of effort I put into jingling the change in my pocket and just under about everything else in my life that I put effort into.

Oh, look! The tired old argument about the speed difference between bikes and cars made it to the party! Hey, long time, no see!

This is a serious waste of time, Bill. Thoughtless, self-absorbed people are everywhere doing far more damage to the world than this young woman (who clearly will never be as enlightened as the rest of us - wearing our helmets, no doubt). I think it only fair for you to do a better job monitoring your blood sugar levels before you sit down to rant. In case they're low.

Also, Bill, even the best intentioned suffer from "unfounded frontier culture". Don't you think?

Oh, and matguy - those around you must get tired of that constant jingling...

Jingling??? if it ain't the two bits in your pocket then its something else a little lower.


I got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle
As I go ridin' merrily along
And they sing, "Oh, ain't you glad you're single"
And that song ain't so very far from wrong

Oh, Lillie Belle
Oh, Lillie Belle
Though I may have done some foolin'
This is why I never fell

I got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle
As I go ridin' merrily along
And they sing, "Oh, ain't you glad you're single"
And that song ain't so very far from wrong

Oh, Mary Ann
Oh, Mary Ann
Though we done some moonlight walkin'
This is why I up and ran

I got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle
As I go ridin' merrily along
And they sing, "Oh, ain't you glad you're single"
And that song ain't so very far from wrong

So I'll jingle on along

-----Frank Loesser

For you cyclists this is about riding a horse.

Yes, Jamo, you may be riight, but it's clear people have a lot of deep feelings about both subjects, cell phones and cyclists.

Also, on a couple of points made earlier in the comments. I sure didn't mean to imply, and don't think I did, that cyclists on cell phones is as serious as motorists on cell phones, which I'm sure is much more dangerous. And I don't think cyclists should ride on sidewalks, legal or illegal, which is a debatable point and varies with the community.

Hey Bill -- on the subject of what you meant to or did or didn't imply... it's not a parsing problem, it's an attention issue.

Humans do foolish things with some regularity, whether it's with bicycles, blogs, or ballistic missiles. Everyone needs a good rant from time to time, but in most cases, better done privately, and ephemerally.

I ride on sidewalks where it makes sense, and take my place on the road when I can without undue risk to my life and limb. I roll through stop signs and stoplights when visibility is good and it's safe and I sometimes genuflect or stop just for show. I avoid motorists when I'm bicycling, I avoid bicyclists when I'm motoring, and I avoid pedestrians in both circumstances.

Be nice to one another, slow to anger, and quick to forgive. It makes the world a better place.

re: cell phones and inattention - even hands-free cell phone use distracts the mind from the business at hand, so NEITHER drivers nor bikers should be on the phone while driving.
The reason a car passenger and driver can chat safely while in motion is that the passenger (unlike the person on the other end of the cell call) can SEE what the driver is dealing with, can see that traffic has gotten bad, can see the truck - or the biker on a cell phone - run a red light... and adjust the conversation accordingly.
Regarding young multi-tasking drivers vs. senior citizens - their accident rates are about equal. The safest drivers, statistically, are in the middle, age-wise.

I agree with those who hate bikes on sidewalks. My pet peeve. And you CAN be seriously injured or even killed in a pedestrian-bike collision. A blow to the chest can stop a person's heart. A fall onto hard pavement or a curb can crack your skull.

Cars and bikes should learn to play nicely together on the streets and leave the sidewalks to pedestrians. Even if state law doesn't allow Missoula to enforce its own laws prohibiting all bikes on downtown sidewalks and everyone except children everywhere else in the city.

Bill,
If anything deserves a rant, please discuss Cabela's Trophy Properties in Montana. Simply click on the ad above your column. To me, this is more deserving of your insight.

Bill, I agree with you on your "rant", and someone mentioned cup holders---what's next DVD players? But what also hit me was the comment from Joe P who equates us AARP members with riding our town bikes to the Post Offcie. I challenge Joe to try and keep up with you on your road bike. I have nothing against town bikes, but I know you can Kick Butt on your road bike, I've seen you "school" roadies 30 years your junior!!! ch

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