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 Linda Thomas
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Linda is the morning news anchor and features reporter for KIRO Radio. This is her local news blog, with an emphasis on social media, technology, Northwest companies, education, parenting, and anything else that grabs her attention.

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What motorists don't know about cyclists

May 17, 2012 @ 5:53 pm

Thousands of extra wheels will be on roads in the Northwest for bike-to-work day Friday, and motorists don't always know how to share the road with cyclists.

A new poll from PEMCO Insurance suggests that while drivers in Washington and Oregon generally favor cyclist-safety laws, people in Portland have a better understanding of how to share the road than those in Seattle.

Have you seen bike boxes in intersections? Portland has more of them than we do in Seattle. In both areas, motorists are legally required to stop before the green box.

The poll revealed that nearly two-thirds of Portland drivers are familiar with the green bicycle boxes. In Seattle, only about one-third were aware of them.

The boxes are at several intersections including East Pine and 12th Avenue, and Fremont and North 34th Street. They prohibit drivers from making free right turns on a red light.

Fremont

Seattle DOT photo

Even if you haven't seen them, it's pretty obvious that you should stop before you get to the green area. Right?

In Washington, the fine for violating green bike-box laws is as high as $194, and in Oregon the fine is as high as $242.

A national census data published by the League of American Bicyclists reports that Portland has the greatest bicycle-commuter rates out of the 70 largest U.S. cities. Seattle comes in as the third most popular city for bike commuting.

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (69)


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  • Howdy wrote...
    That's nice to know...
    May 17, 2012 5:45 pm
    that all of the drivers who are paying the vehicle use fees and gas taxes have extra cash to paint nifty little green boxes for the tenspeeders because they're so "special". You would think that someone riding a bicycle in traffic would have enough of a sense of self preservation that stuff like this wouldn't be required. The cyclists must not be as smart as they think they are.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    I don't have a problem with bicyclists
    May 17, 2012 6:00 pm
    As long as they obey basic traffic laws and realize that they can react to adverse conditions much faster than a 4000+ pound vehicle.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Anaco1 wrote...
    Bike Boxes - Not Very Obvious
    May 17, 2012 6:03 pm
    Who designed these confusing street graphics? This is nothing more than another impediment to traffic flow. Bicyclists should be licensed and pay road use fees.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Oly80 wrote...
    "Bicyclists should be licensed and pay road use fees."
    May 18, 2012 6:34 am
    if they ride on PUBLIC streets, IN THE STREET. AGREED!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • RonJ wrote...
    Share the road
    May 17, 2012 6:12 pm
    I'm only too happy to share the road with my fellow commuters, but there is more than a few cyclists who feel they have to make a statement by NOT sharing, like almost daring someone to run them over by taking up half a lave and refusing to yield. What kind of message is being sent when one of them becomes a hood ornament? When I was a kid in the wonderfully progressive state of Michigan, we were required to get a bicycle license when riding on either sidewalk or street. Seems like an idea we could use here.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    I agree - LICENSE bicycles.
    May 17, 2012 6:46 pm
    If absolutely nothing else, licensing would require bicyclists to actually KNOW what their rights and responsibilities are on mixed auto (or pedestrian) traffic. Too many times in urban traffic bikes snake their way up between cars, passing left or right when stopped for traffic lights, and THEN place themselves mid lane in front - usually in the middle of the crossing cross walk. .. Alternatively, bike nazis have no problem using the sidewalk, usually to the detriment of anyone daring to WALK in their way. .. And would someone PLEASE tell cyclists that stops signs DO apply and so does 'don't walk' when they choose to use a cross walk themselves (and IF they want to use a cross walk on the pedestrian light - they need to dismount and WALK their bikes). ............ It's one thing to 'share the road' with bikes. It's quite another to deal with a class of people who feel they are morally superior BOTH to auto drivers and pedestrians - and probably buses and street cars as well.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    forgot one - but really a lot more -
    May 17, 2012 6:53 pm
    Those 20MPH limits in school zones apply to bikes, too. A 5 year old can get killed by a 35MPH bicycle.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • marinerslvr wrote...
    Applause
    May 18, 2012 7:49 am
    You said it PERFECTLY! Ditto to what you said!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    What motorists don't know about cycists
    May 17, 2012 6:28 pm
    Is that about half of them think they deserve the part of the road that they are riding on. Of these, 90% don't signal their intentions and 80% don't obey basic traffic laws. No wonder it's dangerous for them. They don't have to think for themselves, they let government protect them, right or wrong.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • BikeNazi wrote...
    As my username invented by Dori, I am a cyclist
    May 17, 2012 6:30 pm
    1. If you can't understand that the thick white line at the back of the bike box means stop, what do you do at a crosswalk? Roll right through it? It's the driver's job to know the traffic laws.

    2. Bicycles do not respond well to adverse conditions. A road bike with 700mm x 23mm tires has about 5 square inches of tire contact with the road. There is not much friction there to assist stopping, turning and handling. The tread on bike tires is decorative and serves no purpose. Rain triples braking distance as the tires will skid and the caliper brakes will not be as effective. Gravel, cracks, seams and potholes in the road can easily catch a tire and throw the cyclist down.

    3. Share the road means exactly that: Share the road. I ride the loop around Lake Sammammish at least once a week and East Lake Sammammish Parkway from the McDonald's to the roundabout at the boat ramp is a share the road situation and I will and do ride dead center of the lane. It is my legal right and the safest path for me.

    4. I have a car and pay the same amount for tabs as you do. The fact that I can double my use of the road with my bike is a side effect of being a cyclist and I will not stop until I am dead.

    Deal with it, bike haters. It's only a matter of time until a driver decides to take on the wrong cyclist.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    Sig Heil, Idiot.
    May 17, 2012 7:16 pm
    1. I don't stop in the crosswalk. But YOU jerks do it all the time. ... 2. Aside from your elitist use of MMs instead of inches, if 'the tread on bike tires is decorative and serves no purpose.', here's a clue for YOU. DO NOT cycle 50MPH in the rain. Or better yet, stay off the roads when it's raining, if you can. .. 3. Sharing the road works both ways. The right thing to do if you are impeding traffic is to move over when you safely can - not move so far over that no one can possibly pass, while flipping off drivers. .. And on East Lake Sammammish Pkwy, when YOU want to pass ME, you seem to have no problem at all using the shoulder. .. 4. Good you pay your car tabs. But by your logic my second car or motorcycle should be free ??? ................. You are probably right that you won't stop until dead. And with your Nazi attitude, that will likely be sooner than later. .. Few drivers actually 'hate' bikes. But jerks like you.........
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tlmbrt wrote...
    @BikeNazi
    May 17, 2012 8:26 pm
    ROADS ARE FOR CARS. If I take on the "wrong cyclist" (you perhaps), THEY WILL LOSE.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    I don't hate cyclists
    May 17, 2012 9:08 pm
    As a matter of fact, I rode around West Seattle as a kid without ANY encounters involving cars for several years. Only because I was taught the "rules of the road" and knew that the responsibility of breaking those rules would be at my peril, and on my head.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    Grow up
    May 17, 2012 9:11 pm
    Whatever you do has consequences. If you are in the right, it doesn't make you any less dead.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Bike Nazi logic: "I have a car and pay the same amount for tabs as you do. "
    May 18, 2012 7:31 am
    Nazi may have hit on something here. I have two cars. Why should I pay for tabs on *both* of them? I can't drive them both at the same time, can I? In fact, if I had 3,4,5,6 or even more cars I should only have to license one of them. When stopped by a cop who asks about my lack of tabs, I'll simply say there's another car, at home, with current tabs so he should shut up and leave me alone.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • kato1967 wrote...
    Deal with it, cyclists
    May 18, 2012 7:43 am
    I don't care if it's Chuck Norris on a bicycle, he's still no match for an F-150.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Bikenazi
    May 17, 2012 8:57 pm
    It is you and the handful of other immature fools who weave in and out of traffic causing accidents that give the biking community the reputation that it has. Bicycle vs car whoever is at fault the bike will always lose.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Hayduke wrote...
    You guys demanding bicyclists be liscenced are morons
    May 17, 2012 9:06 pm
    What, so my kid's gonna have to carry a licence when she rides over to her friends house? Why don't one of you geniuses explain to me how this is supposed to work.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    Hey, Duke -
    May 17, 2012 9:18 pm
    a license ON THE BIKE. And a 'my favorite pony' bike is probably exempted. .. But I'm sure you already make your daughter ware a bike helmet, so obeying traffic rules - or keeping off the street entirely and walking her bike across intersections - shouldn't be a big problem.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    Licensed? Or certfied?
    May 17, 2012 9:42 pm
    One doesn't need to be licensed to safely operate a boat in Washington, but if one is not certfied (meaning going through the Coast Guard safety classes), and you are involved in an accident, you are at fault.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    And a guy who can't even spell license must be a....
    May 18, 2012 7:33 am
    genius.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Informed wrote...
    Hmmm Bikes
    May 17, 2012 9:08 pm
    "motorists don't always know how to share the road with cyclists" Funny the way I see it Bike riders don't seem to care about following the laws. A stop sign means STOP.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tuleman003 wrote...
    Hey, Informed
    May 17, 2012 9:27 pm
    You might want to tell motorists that. I start my car every morning KNOWING that some dummy is going to run a stop light, Knowing that some dummy is going to crowd his/her way into my "safe following distance" on the road. I actually watch for these dummies and guess what...I have full coverage on my insurance to cover myself if I happen to one sneaks bye.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hoglander wrote...
    Road Rage
    May 17, 2012 11:10 pm
    Share the road. Don't be bullies just because you command what amounts to a tank compared to a bike. Get your life in order so you don't stress/rage. Get a hobby and treat your loved ones better. Learn to relax. Ride bikes with your family, garden or whatever. Prove you are better than the childish rage posts. Do it for yourself.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Derrol_o wrote...
    hoglander
    May 18, 2012 1:50 am
    So in other words you're telling motorists that bicyclists are gonna be jerks and to just learn to deal with it?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Oly80 wrote...
    yep...
    May 18, 2012 6:44 am
    that's kinda what i got outta that.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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