May I add, please use the bike routes streets instead of the crowded streets like Hawthorne and Burnside.
There are streets with biking lanes a block away, you will get to there even faster most likely. Riding on the busy crowded streets just slows everyone down and really does increase the chances of me or some driver hitting you.
Spread the word.

I don't want to hit you, as I like my car.

www.portlandonline.com/TRANSP...dex.cfm

It happens a lot. The arrogance of youth and a feeling of moral superiority don't count for much in inelastic collisions with a ton of iron at 35 mph.

Other pet bike peeves...

Riding the wrong way on streets
Making a left from the bike lane, across the right lane and across the middle lane

I would be happiest if all members of this tribe lived to a productive, happy old age.

Please everybody be safe and careful and look extra hard for potential issues.

Back when I was a wee tyke, I grumped about how I had the right of way because I had a bicycle. My stepdad nodded sagely and said "Well, you might be right, but you don't want to be DEAD right. It's just not that important, guy." he was (and still is) absolutely right.

All those extra head-turnings and all those extra check-all-lanes and all the extra caution in the world you apply won't increase your comute time more than, say, forty-five seconds.

So drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and crazy people -- please take care of yourselves, and watch out for others, too. be your own eyes and if you can help, be someone else's eyes, too (they might not SEE the stop sign they're supposed to obey).

It hurts no one to be vigilant, and we all get to stay alive, unparalyzed, and not miss the last season of BSG.

I'm right there with you. I don't bike in portland, mostly because I'm without an operable bike at the moment, but I'm predominantly a pedestrian with three exceptions (driving to my job in Tigard, driving to my garden plot in a remote part of forest park, and the odd trip to Food Front). While most cyclists in Portland are respectful, if a little reckless with their lack of helmets, enough have turned me completely against the aggressive bike punks. Three incidents really did it for me and I tend to yell at them now. The midwestern boy in my wants to be quiet and not say anything negative, but it's really gotten too much for me these day. I felt better after reading an article in the Oregonian that several recent bike punk assaults were committed against bicycyle advocates asking them to wear helmets and obey stop signs. Perhaps if more of us start to publicy shame them we'll see a change in behavior.

Okay, I'm sure we all have similar stories to bitch about...and forgive me for going off...but I just have to share my own horror stories to an understanding crowd.

1. Last month I was crossing at a crosswalk on an empty street and a cyclist blew right through my group of fellow pedestrians. As he approached I made eye contact and confirmed he saw us, yet he forced us to jump out of his way even though he had more than enough room to go around and no traffic to worry about.

2. One guy here in NW Portland likes to blow through stopsigns at a very high rate of speed and give the finger to cars having to slam on their breaks. I've seen it happen often enough that I know he's being provocational. Damn I would love to hit him one of these days...fortunately my sense of decency overpowers my baser insticts....for now.

3. Last year I witnessed a guy blow through a stopsign that forced a retired woman to slam on her breaks as she pulled across the intersection at low speed. The poor woman was absolutely horrified and apologized out her window, yet the cyclist kicked her grill and hood repeatedly while cursing her with all sorts of bad words, even though it was totally his fault. Then he rode down 21st swerving back and forth in both lanes of traffic in a game of chicken. I was THIS close to following the guy and calling the cops.

For now I drive through portland at low speeds to save gas and avoid pedestrians. But if you willfully violate traffic laws and your bike impacts my car, I'm not going to cry at your injury/death/loss of your bike.

We are all at different stages of development. No mode of transportation is superior to any other. My need to get where I am going trumps everyone elses. When I fuck up,its a mistake: When you fuck up its a major character flaw. ( asshole!)

Pardon my soapboxing. I dont have the answers. I just know that sticking the birdie up every time someone offends me solves nothing.
I notice a lot of folks coming and going daily, and am often surprised how courteous and kind they are. Perhaps the bike/car war is not of their making,but that of KPTVs and the Oregonians??

Relax, take a deep breath. Show a litle kindness and somehow it will all work out.

We need to stop assuming that bicyclists know the rules of the road and instead have them earn a license. This way they can help pay for the bike paths. I have witnessed too many people on bikes who ride with no rules and even expect to be treated like both a pedestrian and a vehicle in the road by motorists.

I'm a respectful bicyclist, but since the Oregonian's hate articles on bikes the amount of harassment I've received while riding has dramatically increased. People barking at me, throwing things at me, driving recklessly close to me while I'm on the right side of the lane. As I was pulling into my driveway last week one car drove by and yelled, "Get a car, bitch!" Then there are the numerous people honking at me. Why? Once I was making a left turn at 8th and Alberta. Several blocks away I moved from the right side of the lane to the center so I could make the turn. As I turned a car that had pulled up behind me yelled, "Your ass is as big as a car!" Almost all the near accidents I've had have been because some car driver was trying to make a right turn through a bike lane without looking, or because they're pulling out into the street without looking. Many of my friends complain about these same problems. The only person I know who has been hit by a car was hit by a drunk driver, a drunk driver who also happened to smash his car into several others cars on his July 4th rampage.

As a bicyclist I've rarely seen other cyclists run stop signs or red lights. I know of one bicyclist who does do this regularly, and I've told him how crazy I think he is. Ironically, he is a huge helmet advocate (I'm not). Can you imagine what he'd be like in a car?

Oh man, I feel this one. People rip and gnash over bicycle rights and damn cars and their gas hog ways, etc., but I work downtown, and let me tell you.... Bicyclists there are dumbfucks! And rude!

The PSU crowd half the time seems to be on some hookah high because they travel in slow moving groups and never look left, right, back, or forward. They look down or away or at each other. Move!!!!

My most common bete noir is the jaunty bicycle speeder. You know, the ladies and gentlemen who ride up and down hills and busy as hell roads far faster than traffic, showing their fitness and joie de vivre. You may be sitting at a slow intersection for a while, waiting for the light to turn green, and suddenly Trong the emo or Bart the junior financial analyst on the way to meet his organized ride from the bike shop are suddenly on you and almost driving into you as you make that left or right turn. The fact that they sped up right along side your blind side with no warning and ripped by when you were obviously turning is just a reminder that you should have paid attention. Gawd.

I'm all for bikes. But bikes are getting as bad as the damned pedestrians around downtown Portland. And that's saying something....

Y'know as I was going thru this thread, I felt the bile rise up in the back of my throat and I was all fired up and ready to start bitching about asshole bicyclists, cocksucking car drivers, and nincompoop pedestrians.

And then it dawned on me: everyone is an asshole, depending on their context.

True, there are guys out there who are cutting huge swaths of traffic anarchy out there is if their Schwinns are pedal powered chainsaws.

There are motorists out there who wouldn't know a turn signal from a cup holder, and feel that the only way of staying alert whilst driving is to have a blaring radio, a cellphone affixed to their ear, and a passel of screaming children in the back watching Spongebob on a DVD player.

And then there's the street-rat who after a day's "spanging" feels that his day isn't complete unless he's bruised a few shoulders while edging his way past everyone on the sidewalk.

But sure there are thoughtless and careless things you've done whilst in transit that may not have occurred to you until well after the fact.

It could be as simple as "Sorry, I was looking forward to 'Charles In Charge' coming out on DVD and I completely spaced out that stop sign" to as heavy as "Maybe I should've called a cab after having 14 NyQuil margueritas."

I'm just as guilty of the same, as anyone who I've excoriated after walking home from work could probably attest to.

in a car, or on a bike....be alert.

just because someone on a bike wants to tempt fate, to save a few minutes and run a stoplight....don't drag someone else into it by possibly catching them off guard, then having them kill you. now you're dead, and that driver has to live with the sadness for a long time.

our freedoms end at arm's length.

off my soapbox now.

this is very simple, not right, but simple...
i'm walking thru the jungle where i know tigers roam. if i don't want be ripped apart and eaten by a tiger, i best keep eyes open and be cautious.

car vs biker rider? bike rider will often lose in a crash, get hurt or killed.

when i ride my bike, i don't trust car drivers. i pretend they're all on cell phones, they're all eating mcdonald's fries ( supersized), that they're are all rushing to walmart (to save a couple bucks on some piece of crap made in china), and that they sure as shit don't care about me.

sorry to be so cynical, but i've never been hit by a car while riding a bike. shitty way to live, but so far it has worked for me.

my dad was a master keeper at the san diego zoo for 15 yrs taking care of the chimps, lowland & mountain gorillas, and the orangutans. he always told me, "mike, don't tease the animals!"

words to live by.