I’ve decided to take a slightly different approach in my bicycle advocacy efforts.  Below, you will find a collection of random quotes that I’ve collected around the internet – all of which advocate for a decidedly anti-bicycle mentality.  For anyone that has read more than an article or two here at Just Another Cyclist, it should be obvious that I will have objections and counter-arguments to all of these.  But for now I’ll post these below without commentary – save what is written hear in the introduction.

It is somewhat sad that many of these were found as user comments on the end of news website postings on cyclists getting injured or killed in vehicle-bicycle collisions.  In fact, the vast majority of these came from my own home-town paper, the Sacramento Bee.  However, as cycling supports and perhaps advocates, we must understand and acknowledge the opposing arguments, if for no other reason than to construct reasonable and rational counter-arguments.  Know thy enemy seems to apply.

• I don’t mind sharing the road with cyclists but they need to abide by the same rules that we drivers do, for example, stop at stop signs/stop lights, yield to pedestrians. You can’t play pedestrian and vehicle at the same time ( I see bike riders all the time on streets and as as soon as pedestrian, which is defined as person not on or in a vehicle, walk signal gives them the right of way, the cyclist also goes..) The road rules apply to you as well if you want to share the rode, than follow the same rules as car drivers do. You are not a pedestrian when you are on the road so dont think you have the right of way.
• why does agendist [sic] special interest garbage like this get passed, ignoring the obvious problem, bikes ARE NOT CARS and they never will be. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been approaching an intersection, or moving slowly and a bike has squeezed IN BETWEEN be and the car in the lane next to me, for this to be legal is clinically brain dead and creates instant libability to those already driving safely for the sake of not hurting biker’s feelings. I’m all for bicycle transportation, in bike lane’s only, it just makes sense. It kills me to see millions of dollars of tax money spent on bike lanes we can’t afford just to have them not used by bikers.
• Share the road. Make insurance mandatory along with license plates on bicycles, they can cause accidents just as cars, and be used in crimes just like cars so the laws should be made “center of the road” so it is equal for both parties using the road. Simple.
• so when do the cops start writing tickets for cyclists who ignore stop signs and refuse to move to the right as required?
• Another tragic result of bicyclers ignoring traffic laws. If I recall my bicycle education program I had when I was a kid, we were taught to walk our bikes across busy intersections, crossing as pedestrians. Sad for the youngster, hope he recovers.
• I’ll share the rode [sic] with bikers when they follow the rules of the rode like those of us in cars
• I believe he [vehicle driver] would only have to yield if there was a cross walk. Unless they were both traveling in the same direction then the bicycle would have the right of way, because a bike is treated as a vehicle and must follow the same laws as a vehicle. Most bicycle riders do not stop at red lights and stop signs…
• I have always said that when the bikes that are on the road with me are licensed AND insured, then I will respect them as an equal. That being said…. I DO allow them more than enough room because I do not want to hurt anyone, even the ignorant ones.If I hit a bike, I pay out the nose…. A bike hits me…. NADA. If you want to be considered equal on the road, then like I said above, get your bike licensed and insured!!!
• Bikers/pedestrians should share the sidewalk when theirs no bike lane.
• In Sacramento bicyclists run red lights all the time. I almost hit one on J St. near Mercy Hospital yesterday.
• In my opinion,the fact that bicyclists use pedestrian rules when they feel like it and motor vehicle laws when it suits them contributes to the number of car vs. bicycle collisions. Then there are those who follow no laws whatsoever. Drivers never know where the bikes are going to appear from. They are supposed to follow MV codes.
• You are absolutely right…..they run red lights and pretty much violate all laws on the road….
• If there is a bike lane than that is where bike riders need to be.  If someone is opening their door it is the bikers responsibility to stop and wait until the driver is safely out of their car.
• Sad that he’s dead, but can we really blame the driver for the cyclists death when the guy on the bike wasn’t even smart enough to put on a helmet?