How do you feel about sharing the road with bicyclists? How cyclist-friendly is your area?

[slackmaster]

14. I'm fine with the concept, but a lot of cyclists act like total jerks who think they own the road.

They want to be given the same status as a car with respect to lane position, etc. but behave in unexpected (and illegal) ways such as blowing through stop signs. They ride at night with inadequate lighting, and often lack the minimum required safety gear (e.g. a helmet.) We have a bunch of people who ride fixed-gear track bikes on the street. That's illegal and dangerous, and results in them behaving in unpredictable and unsafe ways.

You can't have it both ways. Either you follow the SAME rules of the road as cars, or there is a different set of rules by which bicyclists must abide. If I am at a 4-way stop and got there first, I expect bicyclists traveling perpendicular to my path to consistently either obey the stop sign and respect my right of way, or consistently blow through stop signs so I know not to expect them to stop. I expect them to signal their intentions.

ETA many of our roads are NOT bicycle-friendly. I understand the difficulty cyclists face dealing with merging vehicle traffic, potholes, etc.