As someone who uses his bicycle almost every day to travel to/from campus, I’d like to offer the following observations and recommendations to those who, as a bicyclist, I interact with while making my daily commute, regardless of whether you are a pedestrian, another bicyclist or driving a motor vehicle.

Pedestrians:

Generally speaking, it’d be best if you ignore us bicyclists, or at least pretend to ignore us.  When riding a bike, we are generally anticipating where pedestrians will be if they continue on their present course, not assuming they will stop to let us by.  Thus, stopping suddenly or taking a step “out of the way” when you see us is generally more hazardous than helpful, no matter your intentions.  If you are heading across my path, I will plan to either head you off enough so that I won’t hit you even if you continue along your present path, or I will plan to bike behind you.  If necessary, I will slow to allow you to pass.  But if you start across my path, see me, and then stop, I have to suddenly change my plans to take into account that you’re no longer going to be where I expected.

If you really want to help us out, walk along the edges of sidewalks so we can bike down the middle rather than slowing to a crawl or weaving through the foot traffic.  But generally speaking, a pedestrian should take advantage of their right-of-way on sidewalks and act no differently than they otherwise would when we are present.

Bicyclists:

When you’re on the road, observe road rules (for the most part).  Use hand signals to communicate intentions, especially if there isn’t a bikes-only lane.  Stop at stop signs if vehicles are approaching from other directions and observe normal yield procedure.  Personally, I don’t find it that important for bicyclists to stop at stop signs if there are clearly no vehicles in danger of being in your path, although police would probably disagree.  My opinion is, bicyclists usually have good enough visibility that they can reliably determine if cars are coming, and since it takes us longer to get going from a stop, we spend a lot less time in the intersection if we maintain some momentum.  But that’s my opinion…don’t quote me if you get pulled over!

About bike-only lanes: a pet peeve of mine is bicyclists who drive the wrong direction on these.  When on a bike lane, drive in the same direction as the traffic next to you!  Biking the wrong direction on bike lanes makes for an uncertain situation whenever you approach a bicyclist going the correct direction as one of you must divert course.  I don’t care if there’s a big, bad median in between the lanes.  Get across at the earliest opportunity, or if you really don’t want to go that far out of your way, bike on the right side of the sidewalk next to the street and deal with the pedestrians.  If the road is one-way with a bike lane on only your left-hand side, don’t use the road if you’re going the opposite direction of traffic; otherwise, drive with traffic in the vehicle lane rather than the wrong way on the bike lane.

When biking on sidewalks, don’t rely upon pedestrians to make room for you.  As explained above, the sidewalk is their domain, so it’s your responsibility to avoid them.  I don’t really care how fast you ride as long as you know what you’re doing, but look to your side if you change directions for any reason, just in case another cyclist is trying to pass you.

Drivers (motorcycle or car):

If a bicyclist is on the road, treat them as you would another car.  At a stop sign, they should stop (if they see you, anyway) so while it’s a good idea to slow down just in case, don’t go out of your way to stop for them.  When a car stops for me when they shouldn’t, or waits to let me coast through a stop sign when they were stopped first, that just slows both of us down because I’m going to stop anyway, and will end up waiting longer for you to do your thing than if you had just treated me like any other car in the first place.

Also, if you’re turning right through a bike lane, look right to make sure any oncoming bicyclists see you.  That’s their lane and they have the right to be in it, so treat it as any other lane.

Finally, if you’re dropping someone off or picking them up at the side of a street with a bike lane, don’t pull into the lane unless you’re sure there aren’t any bicyclists coming.  I had a bus pull over into the bike lane recently and had to jump the curb to avoid hitting him.  Also, make sure the passenger getting in/out looks before opening their door into the bike lane.

On behalf of well-behaved bicyclists everywhere, we appreciate your cooperation in this matter.