I love being on two wheels and with the weather as nice as it has been I’ve been trying to ride my bike everywhere I can.  You might see me booting around Canmore on my blue Stumpjumper, sometimes with a toddler on the child seat attached to the back.

As I’ve grown more comfortable riding on the road I’ve noticed a curious habit.  Often, when I’m waiting at a stop or yield sign for a break in traffic, a vehicle will stop to let me through.  This came to a head for me on Friday when, while waiting to pull out of the alley beside the Civic Centre to turn left onto 7th Street, vehicles coming in both directions stopped for me.  I become wary when this happens (is it really safe for me to go right now?) and hesitated for a few seconds before pulling out.  This was obviously too long for one of the drivers who decided to roll down his window and lip me off for wasting his time, apparently ignorant of the fact that he was the one in the wrong on the road that day.

Cyclists and motorists have a difficult relationship on the road and with the amount of times I’ve seen someone on a bike blow through a stop sign while I’ve been behind the wheel I totally understand a driver’s decision-making dilemma when they encounter a cyclist at an intersection.  For me it goes back to a conversation Tanya and I had with Canmore RCMP Sgt. Ryan Currie about this subject a few months ago where he said the key to multiple users sharing the road was predictable behaviour.  When a motorist stops for a cyclist at an intersection when they have the right-of-way it creates an unpredictable situation.  It’s similar to stopping for a jaywalker – the motorist might think they’re doing something courteous but they’re really creating a dangerous scene.  What if vehicles from the other direction don’t stop?  What if the person behind you isn’t expecting you to hit the brakes and isn’t quick enough to respond?

The next time you see a cyclist stopped at a stop sign and enter driver decision-making mode I encourage you to resist the urge to yield to them and just keep driving.  That cyclist is obeying the rules of the road and is hoping you do the same.

Filed under: Cycling