Are You Respectful?

This morning on my morning commute there is a certain intersection where I have to turn left and get no love from the light. I have tried, trust me. So as usual, I make sure I can make the turn without disturbing traffic. I take no chances and I try to be courteous to cars. An oncoming car had a light that turned yellow then red as I was turning. He honked at me and waved a no no finger at me. I just waved. It leads me to think of the example I personally set as a cyclist.









Here it is: I stop at 4 way stop signs (with a foot down and wait my turn) when there is traffic. If there are no cars, I will ride through the intersection. I will always stop at lights when red. The exception is early am when I know the light will not change for me. Three way stops I will not stop if I am on the side with no intersection.
There are not many intersections on my commute that do not recognize a bike. Roseville has amazing bike lanes and has gone so far as to hand paint a bicycle symbol on the pressure plates to show where to stop to get the light to change. Really cool stuff. Also, I am very fortunate that half my 22 mile (one way) commute is on the bike path. So I am only exposed to traffic and angry people 11 miles a day each way (Yes these pics are from my ride!).
We as cyclist have to do our best to set a good example. Some drivers are just angry people and the simple fact that we are on the road makes them mad. We can’t do anything about that except just be aware and safe. What we can do is be courteous and respectful so that traffic recognizes our rights to share the road.

Get involved in your communities to help build an infrastructure that includes bike lanes. Go to city council meetings, write your councilperson, and do volunteer work. We all can do something to help raise awareness to our rights as cyclist. The biggest thing we can do is to set good examples on the road.
Be safe!!