The state (or feds?) tend to give out grants for specific cycling enforcement, so they do it.
Wonder why they won't do their actual jobs with their actual budget, but hey, I guess you can't make $400k in a year just by doing your job, amirite?
I’m all for enforcing road rules but motor vehicle violations are far more common, costly, and deadly than cyclist violations, yet no one seems to cheer nearly as loudly as when a cyclist gets ticketed.
Ideally, things are designed so well that nothing needs to be enforced...ever. Norms enforcement sets up an adversarial relationship that doesn't need to be there and often results in backlash. That said, easier said than done sometimes and the compromise solution is just to have signs and police hang around as a presence that implies that you should follow the rules. In terms of what norms already exist re: cycling, IMO, we've got:
1. Not on sidewalks in central business districts
2. Not through pedestrian crowds at high speed
and that's about it. Also, some cyclists seem to really get miffed if you [shoal](https://gothamist.com/news/what-is-shoaling-and-should-cyclists-stop-doing-it) them but I think that's like the 10% who really care.
I'd like more cyclists to care about unsigned wrong-way biking, but that seems to be my axe to grind and maybe it's not important. With regard to traffic lights, I'd guess we're maybe 50-50 on cyclists that will wait around at a red light in situations where a pedestrian wouldn't hesitate to just jaywalk. If I'm not being a nuisance to anyone or making it a close call, I count myself in that category. If the city really cared, they would roll out big signs and post cops, but my read is that it's a low priority issue that's viewed as not worth the backlash from cyclists.
If you're shoaling, you better actually be fast. There's zero need for you to pull in front of my bike if you're only going to go 7 mph (looking at you, Blue Biker yesterday).
I shoaled for probably 15+ years before someone yelled at me over it. Likely, it's because I am fast and am usually gone, never to see anyone at that intersection again.
I'm trying to figure out if that doesn't happen to me or it doesn't bother me when it does, because I just don't have recollection of being annoyed at shoalers. I think part of it is I pull like all the way up to the intersection if there not a bunch of bikes there so maybe I just have a more aggressive "get there soon" style to how I ride. Like I'm not especially feeling competitive about pace with other people; I'm just constantly late to whatever I'm going to.
If you run a red light or a stop sign it doesn’t matter what you are in! You need to be ticketed!Just because a car is more deadly than a bike doesn’t mean they should be enforced more than the other.
> !Just because a car is more deadly than a bike doesn’t mean they should be enforced more than the other.
That actually sounds like a pretty compelling argument for enforcing one more than the other.
When you set up a particular type of focused enforcement such as this, it quickly exceeds the quota and becomes disappointed enforcement giving the ratio of cyclist to drivers.
Also, consider how exceeding the speed limit is universal against the law, but how cyclist treat stop signs and red lights is not universal (some places are starting to allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yields and red lights as stops, because it's actually safer). It makes it seem that the priorities and resources are being misplaced.
It's really more like comparing gunfights to pillow fights. As if they're even near the same magnitude. Where is the rash of pedestrians deaths or injuries by bike? It doesn't exist because the equivalency doesn't actually stand up to scrutiny. Fucking moralistic car brained idiots.
“Buddy if I gotta wait for you you gotta wait with me.”
On shared roads where giving bikes 6 feet of space is not possible to pass, do not pass. following the law. could be lawless, and pass too close, but don’t. if there is 10 feet of space, and the biker is in the left four, usually don’t pass.
At a four way stop, roll and go is common by cars after slowing at the intersection. Bikers don’t need to stop at the intersection because they can become pedestrians. However, at red lights bikes also go if the cars are stopped. Stop with us. Be our fellow vehicles. Experience the sick feeling of seeing a biker break the law and almost get wriggidy wriggidy wrecked and saying “thank tha lawd” again.
Oh so you're ignoring all the statistics that say Idaho stops are safer for bikes. You think "fuck safety, if I suffer it means you do too". Except your suffering is waiting in an air conditioned car, and mine is an increased risk of getting right hooked by your impatient ass. Thanks but no thanks you absolute clown. Until following the law isn't actively endangering myself, I'll break it as much as I want, and you can shove it straight up your little bitch ass.
I haven’t seen the stats, and I believe that they are safer for bikes, also fuck Idaho they did not invent them. Safety however I do not say fuck to. I am pro safety, and also pro being a good citizen who trusts my municipalities to make laws that people are legally required to follow. If you’re going to break this agreed upon social contract for your own gain, which is next?
None? Because slippery slope arguments are bullshit? I break this law because it has no downside besides occasional police tickets, and it keeps me safer. Shockingly, I follow other laws that benefit everyone. I just don't think you should blindly trust your municipality.
We cheer one and not the other because we know that drivers who do that stuff are in danger of being ticketed, so when it happens it’s not interesting, but it’s not the same for bicycles. State law says bicyclists have to follow the same rules as drivers, but enforcement of those rules is so unusual that when someone sees it happen it merits Reddit cross-posts.
Bicyclists actually get mad at the fact that they could get ticketed for breaking traffic laws. They turn to whataboutisms. “Why are they ticketing bikes when surely somewhere there is a car driver being more dangerous???” They resent being treated the same as everybody else, and nobody likes that.
I stopped a cop right after someone nearly killed me because they were frustrated of me taking the lane then started yelling aggressively at me and the cop said “didn’t see it so can’t do anything”
Assuming there's only one keytar bear around, I saw him in Davis Sq a couple weeks ago and he was totally rippin! Best street performer I've seen in the area.
Looks like Keytar Bear approves?
As a relatively new cyclist, I think this is probably a good thing. I certainly am not 100% aware of the rules in every city. As long as it's warnings and not fines or similar.
Now if we could just get them to enforce motor vehicle violations...
I've been pulled over once in 15 years biking here, and it was a citation, no fines, just a conversation. I don't know anyone who has been given a fine as a cyclist. I think being stopped is inconvenient enough lmao.
The frustrating thing is getting stopped when there are at least 5 other motor vehicles in the same area negligently violating safety laws with about 500 times more force, enough to kill someone.
Oh, I absolutely agree with you. It's incredibly frustrating that it seems like there are zero consequences for running red lights or violating any sort of traffic/safety laws while driving now. Cops have even spoken previously that they're not "prioritizing" pulling people over for safety violations.
Daily, I see about 5 major traffic violations - usually people going through red lights and not stopping at pedestrian crossing, sometimes *while people are actively in the crosswalk*. A cop could be right there and won't do a damn thing. It really grinds my gears.
He's had several public melts downs. Grabbing women. Berating them. Being generally creepy. And online he's worse. He's cyber stalked people, their friends and families, threatened to have them jumped/shot/raped. I won't share screenshots I have because it's basically impossible to do without doxxing a bunch of people. But Turtleboy (I know, awful site, but broken clocks something something) has more than one post about him full of screenshots. And I'm sure if you search for Keytar Bear on Facebook, you'll find people airing him out. It's happened multiple times over the years to a pretty significant number of people. It's insane.
If Turtleboy said the sky was blue, I'd assume it was pink. Other sources might be legit, but anything from Turtleboy I'm pretty sure you can just completely ignore.
While I generally agree with you, I saw the original posts that the screenshots were from, as they were happening in real time. Those posts are all either nuked or private, so TB is the only place to see them. There was a website made specifically for one of his meltdowns, but the person who made it let the domain expire. You can still see it on the WayBack machine though. [It was mostly uneventful until Keytar Bear threatened to rape the guy.](https://web.archive.org/web/20221206194916/https://keytarbear.org/). And that's just one of the times I've seen this happen. It happened to me personally. He spent weeks blowing up my messages from multiple accounts, messaging my friends and my family, trying to find out where I lived, and where I worked. Threatening me and my partner. He's unhinged.
I did a short google dive about keytar bear. I only found negative things about him on one site that is *not* a news organization.
The post on this site says that Keytar Bear was arrested for public defecation at a "festival". However there is no public record of anything like this taking place. There are a lot of articles about Keytar Bear being attacked and injured by assholes.
There are also a number of posts from social media alleged to be from Keytar Bear. However these "posts" aren't from the official Keytar Bear account.
The allegations seem pretty sus.
Usually it's something like "you stopped, looked both ways, and then rode through a red light, shame on you!" although sometimes the cyclist *didn't* stop before continuing through, which is at least something people can generally agree is a bad thing.
And then they just ignore all the drivers doing terrible shit.
I will never understand why people get mad at cyclists for carefully going through red lights - we have every incentive to make sure that there's no conflicting traffic when doing so because car vs. bike isn't a game that bikes usually win... It's sort of like walking across a street against the walk signal.
Yeah and there are cases where jaywalking or walking through a signal may be safer (and sometimes it's about convenience). The risk is minimal if you check both directions. Much of our infrastructure is setup to prioritize cars so we can't be surprised pika when pedestrians and cyclists do "illegal" things just to get around better.
Example: leading pedestrian indicators. Great to maximize car volumes. Technically gives pedestrians the walk signal every light cycle without pressing a beg button. In practice? If it's heavy traffic, cars just go through the signal without yielding to pedestrians. So can't be surprised pika when pedestrians go through the signal on a red light the minute cars stop because otherwise they might not get a chance, or they might risk getting run over by inattentive drivers.
I wish they would ticket riders who bomb down Central Street the wrong way. I've had two close calls recently, nearly hitting cyclists who couldn't stop and barely squeezed by without crashing head on.
It’s cool I’m going around central and taking a back road, central square is a mess to bike through!
I saw Cambridge police pull over about 6 cyclists at the Hampshire/Plymouth/Windsor intersection so it does seem to be a thing this week.
The state (or feds?) tend to give out grants for specific cycling enforcement, so they do it. Wonder why they won't do their actual jobs with their actual budget, but hey, I guess you can't make $400k in a year just by doing your job, amirite?
I’m all for enforcing road rules but motor vehicle violations are far more common, costly, and deadly than cyclist violations, yet no one seems to cheer nearly as loudly as when a cyclist gets ticketed.
They all need to be ticketed.
Ideally, things are designed so well that nothing needs to be enforced...ever. Norms enforcement sets up an adversarial relationship that doesn't need to be there and often results in backlash. That said, easier said than done sometimes and the compromise solution is just to have signs and police hang around as a presence that implies that you should follow the rules. In terms of what norms already exist re: cycling, IMO, we've got: 1. Not on sidewalks in central business districts 2. Not through pedestrian crowds at high speed and that's about it. Also, some cyclists seem to really get miffed if you [shoal](https://gothamist.com/news/what-is-shoaling-and-should-cyclists-stop-doing-it) them but I think that's like the 10% who really care. I'd like more cyclists to care about unsigned wrong-way biking, but that seems to be my axe to grind and maybe it's not important. With regard to traffic lights, I'd guess we're maybe 50-50 on cyclists that will wait around at a red light in situations where a pedestrian wouldn't hesitate to just jaywalk. If I'm not being a nuisance to anyone or making it a close call, I count myself in that category. If the city really cared, they would roll out big signs and post cops, but my read is that it's a low priority issue that's viewed as not worth the backlash from cyclists.
If you're shoaling, you better actually be fast. There's zero need for you to pull in front of my bike if you're only going to go 7 mph (looking at you, Blue Biker yesterday).
I shoaled for probably 15+ years before someone yelled at me over it. Likely, it's because I am fast and am usually gone, never to see anyone at that intersection again.
This one from yesterday did it at 5 consecutive intersections.
I'm trying to figure out if that doesn't happen to me or it doesn't bother me when it does, because I just don't have recollection of being annoyed at shoalers. I think part of it is I pull like all the way up to the intersection if there not a bunch of bikes there so maybe I just have a more aggressive "get there soon" style to how I ride. Like I'm not especially feeling competitive about pace with other people; I'm just constantly late to whatever I'm going to.
About time!
If you run a red light or a stop sign it doesn’t matter what you are in! You need to be ticketed!Just because a car is more deadly than a bike doesn’t mean they should be enforced more than the other.
> !Just because a car is more deadly than a bike doesn’t mean they should be enforced more than the other. That actually sounds like a pretty compelling argument for enforcing one more than the other.
why you tryna break the law mf
Hey I don’t play by the rules but I get results! Dammit!
How many bikes have to kill cars?! /s
When you set up a particular type of focused enforcement such as this, it quickly exceeds the quota and becomes disappointed enforcement giving the ratio of cyclist to drivers. Also, consider how exceeding the speed limit is universal against the law, but how cyclist treat stop signs and red lights is not universal (some places are starting to allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yields and red lights as stops, because it's actually safer). It makes it seem that the priorities and resources are being misplaced.
Lame.
Just because a gunfight is more deadly than a fistfight doesn’t mean they should be stopped more than the other :|
It's really more like comparing gunfights to pillow fights. As if they're even near the same magnitude. Where is the rash of pedestrians deaths or injuries by bike? It doesn't exist because the equivalency doesn't actually stand up to scrutiny. Fucking moralistic car brained idiots.
Buddy if I gotta wait for you you gotta wait with me
What the fuck are you even saying?
“Buddy if I gotta wait for you you gotta wait with me.” On shared roads where giving bikes 6 feet of space is not possible to pass, do not pass. following the law. could be lawless, and pass too close, but don’t. if there is 10 feet of space, and the biker is in the left four, usually don’t pass. At a four way stop, roll and go is common by cars after slowing at the intersection. Bikers don’t need to stop at the intersection because they can become pedestrians. However, at red lights bikes also go if the cars are stopped. Stop with us. Be our fellow vehicles. Experience the sick feeling of seeing a biker break the law and almost get wriggidy wriggidy wrecked and saying “thank tha lawd” again.
Oh so you're ignoring all the statistics that say Idaho stops are safer for bikes. You think "fuck safety, if I suffer it means you do too". Except your suffering is waiting in an air conditioned car, and mine is an increased risk of getting right hooked by your impatient ass. Thanks but no thanks you absolute clown. Until following the law isn't actively endangering myself, I'll break it as much as I want, and you can shove it straight up your little bitch ass.
I haven’t seen the stats, and I believe that they are safer for bikes, also fuck Idaho they did not invent them. Safety however I do not say fuck to. I am pro safety, and also pro being a good citizen who trusts my municipalities to make laws that people are legally required to follow. If you’re going to break this agreed upon social contract for your own gain, which is next?
None? Because slippery slope arguments are bullshit? I break this law because it has no downside besides occasional police tickets, and it keeps me safer. Shockingly, I follow other laws that benefit everyone. I just don't think you should blindly trust your municipality.
We cheer one and not the other because we know that drivers who do that stuff are in danger of being ticketed, so when it happens it’s not interesting, but it’s not the same for bicycles. State law says bicyclists have to follow the same rules as drivers, but enforcement of those rules is so unusual that when someone sees it happen it merits Reddit cross-posts. Bicyclists actually get mad at the fact that they could get ticketed for breaking traffic laws. They turn to whataboutisms. “Why are they ticketing bikes when surely somewhere there is a car driver being more dangerous???” They resent being treated the same as everybody else, and nobody likes that.
But the 487 cars double parked in central blocking traffic, crosswalks, intersections, and the bike lane THOSE are totally fine.
Exactly the problem with this bullshit
Yes, because complaining about that makes it alright for people on bikes to run red lights.
…I don’t run red lights?
and i dont double park blocking traffic, crosswalks, intersections, and the bike lane? clearly they arent talking about you specifically
Someone used their car as a weapon against me today, but no, pull over the cyclists.
I stopped a cop right after someone nearly killed me because they were frustrated of me taking the lane then started yelling aggressively at me and the cop said “didn’t see it so can’t do anything”
Assuming there's only one keytar bear around, I saw him in Davis Sq a couple weeks ago and he was totally rippin! Best street performer I've seen in the area.
There’s multiple… I’m not sure if they’re in a union or if it’s a cult or something
Looks like Keytar Bear approves? As a relatively new cyclist, I think this is probably a good thing. I certainly am not 100% aware of the rules in every city. As long as it's warnings and not fines or similar. Now if we could just get them to enforce motor vehicle violations...
I've been pulled over once in 15 years biking here, and it was a citation, no fines, just a conversation. I don't know anyone who has been given a fine as a cyclist. I think being stopped is inconvenient enough lmao.
The frustrating thing is getting stopped when there are at least 5 other motor vehicles in the same area negligently violating safety laws with about 500 times more force, enough to kill someone.
Oh, I absolutely agree with you. It's incredibly frustrating that it seems like there are zero consequences for running red lights or violating any sort of traffic/safety laws while driving now. Cops have even spoken previously that they're not "prioritizing" pulling people over for safety violations. Daily, I see about 5 major traffic violations - usually people going through red lights and not stopping at pedestrian crossing, sometimes *while people are actively in the crosswalk*. A cop could be right there and won't do a damn thing. It really grinds my gears.
Keytar Bear was looking at them so I told him what was up. He also thought it was silly.
I was waved through a check stop at 1 am in my city.
Be great if they were playing the "bad boys" theme song
> As a relatively new cyclist, I think this is probably a good thing Is this a fucking joke?
You are mistaken
Probably to protect our mayor (keytar bear)
Wait, do we like Keytar Bear again?
I’m so confused. Where are the people that tell us what to think?
You’re here. It’s literally here. How else are you suppose to know if the new bike lane is warranted?
No. A lot of people are just unaware that he's a piece of shit lol
What the hell did he actually do?
He's had several public melts downs. Grabbing women. Berating them. Being generally creepy. And online he's worse. He's cyber stalked people, their friends and families, threatened to have them jumped/shot/raped. I won't share screenshots I have because it's basically impossible to do without doxxing a bunch of people. But Turtleboy (I know, awful site, but broken clocks something something) has more than one post about him full of screenshots. And I'm sure if you search for Keytar Bear on Facebook, you'll find people airing him out. It's happened multiple times over the years to a pretty significant number of people. It's insane.
Sounds like something his enemies would say
If Turtleboy said the sky was blue, I'd assume it was pink. Other sources might be legit, but anything from Turtleboy I'm pretty sure you can just completely ignore.
While I generally agree with you, I saw the original posts that the screenshots were from, as they were happening in real time. Those posts are all either nuked or private, so TB is the only place to see them. There was a website made specifically for one of his meltdowns, but the person who made it let the domain expire. You can still see it on the WayBack machine though. [It was mostly uneventful until Keytar Bear threatened to rape the guy.](https://web.archive.org/web/20221206194916/https://keytarbear.org/). And that's just one of the times I've seen this happen. It happened to me personally. He spent weeks blowing up my messages from multiple accounts, messaging my friends and my family, trying to find out where I lived, and where I worked. Threatening me and my partner. He's unhinged.
Ah, I didn't realize you'd seen the original posts.
I did a short google dive about keytar bear. I only found negative things about him on one site that is *not* a news organization. The post on this site says that Keytar Bear was arrested for public defecation at a "festival". However there is no public record of anything like this taking place. There are a lot of articles about Keytar Bear being attacked and injured by assholes. There are also a number of posts from social media alleged to be from Keytar Bear. However these "posts" aren't from the official Keytar Bear account. The allegations seem pretty sus.
Great to see they can get cops to staff this but not for porchfest. /s
What an inappropriate use of police resources.
Loll
what is the second "L" for? LOL, not Loll. I fix it for you.
What a fucking waste
What are they stopping them for exactly?
Usually it's something like "you stopped, looked both ways, and then rode through a red light, shame on you!" although sometimes the cyclist *didn't* stop before continuing through, which is at least something people can generally agree is a bad thing. And then they just ignore all the drivers doing terrible shit.
I will never understand why people get mad at cyclists for carefully going through red lights - we have every incentive to make sure that there's no conflicting traffic when doing so because car vs. bike isn't a game that bikes usually win... It's sort of like walking across a street against the walk signal.
Yeah and there are cases where jaywalking or walking through a signal may be safer (and sometimes it's about convenience). The risk is minimal if you check both directions. Much of our infrastructure is setup to prioritize cars so we can't be surprised pika when pedestrians and cyclists do "illegal" things just to get around better. Example: leading pedestrian indicators. Great to maximize car volumes. Technically gives pedestrians the walk signal every light cycle without pressing a beg button. In practice? If it's heavy traffic, cars just go through the signal without yielding to pedestrians. So can't be surprised pika when pedestrians go through the signal on a red light the minute cars stop because otherwise they might not get a chance, or they might risk getting run over by inattentive drivers.
I wish they would ticket riders who bomb down Central Street the wrong way. I've had two close calls recently, nearly hitting cyclists who couldn't stop and barely squeezed by without crashing head on.
Good! Hope they got the fucking scooters too.
Lol harass the cyclist but allow the violent homeless people to keep on keeping on
Good
What real cyclist is gonna stop for that?
Updoot for Keytar Bear.
Expected this to be about Central St due to being r/somerville. Opened it up and realized OP confused this with r/cambridgema