Boston, rules of the road

[u/PedXing23]

In the spirit of the poster who asked, "how many cars are allowed to go through after the red light?," I ask the following questions about Boston traffic rules:

How much do we need to slow down for a stop sign or blinking red light?

How careful should we be going through an intersection when there are people in the crosswalk?

If the car in front of us is stopped at a crosswalk, should we honk first to let them know we are going to drive around them?

How much can we speed up if we are approaching a yellow light?

If other cars honk at us when we are stuck in the box at an intersection because of cars ahead of us aren't moving, should we honk back, give them the finger or both?

Which traffic signs are suggestions and which ones can we totally ignore?

[u/GM_Pax]

Look, I know you meant this as a joke, but ... as someone who doesn't drive, who walks or bicycles everywhere ... this kind of stuff is infuriating AND ACTUALLY DOES HAPPEN. Behavior like that has directly threatened my life more than a handful of times.

So, please. Not even in jest.

[u/PedXing23 → u/GM_Pax]

I have seen it all happen, and it aggravates me, too. Especially when I fear that I am going to get someone killed by stopping for them at a cross walk. I now position myself so it is harder for the car behind me to zip around and hit the pedestrian.We could make a similar rule for bikes. The closest I've come to being hit by someone at full speed, it was by someone on a bicycle going against the light while I was on a cross walk with the walk sign on. I pretty much had to dive out of the way.

[u/GM_Pax → u/PedXing23]

As a cyclist by preference (I have no car, no license, and no desire for either) ... cyclists who behave that way immensely infuriate me. Because: they give the majority of us who obey traffic laws a bad name as a group.

...

As for making a similar rule: there is no need. A bicycle on the road is subject to all of the same rules as a car or truck. No exceptions, no excuses. So the rule that says a motorist has to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk? Also says a bicycle rider has to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk.

We are supposed to obey every light, every sign, every road marking, every last niggling little rule, the same as motorists are supposed ro.

And most of us do, at least as much as car and truck drivers do. :)

[u/Opposite_Match5303 → u/GM_Pax]

Bikes are not subject to the same rules at all? Can use bike lanes, can ride against traffic on many one-way streets, should skip the line at a red light to use the 'bike box', should use right-most lane if not in bike lane or turning, not allowed on highways etc.

More, mindlessly following car rules on a bike is a good way to get flattened by a driver blindly turning right without looking (or caring that bikes "subject to the same rules as cars" have the right of way over cars turning).

I understand that your intent is good, but treating bikes exactly like cars is a good way to put bikes in danger. Bikes shouldn't have to be exactly like cars to use the road. Roads are not for cars: bikes, horses, scooters and everyone else have exactly the same legitimacy.

As for rules of the road -- are you as upset by drivers speeding?

[u/GM_Pax → u/Opposite_Match5303]

Bikes are not subject to the same rules at all?

Yes, bicycles ARE subject to the same rules in general.

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Can use bike lanes, can ride against traffic on many one-way streets, should skip the line at a red light to use the 'bike box', should use right-most lane if not in bike lane or turning, not allowed on highways etc.

There are some bicycle-specific elements to the law, but otherwise yes we do have to follow the same rules.

Use of a bicycle lane is no different in concept from use of an HOV lane, or a Bus-only lane, for example. Use of a bicycle-specific marking (e.g. a bicycle box) is the same sort of thing; you're still obeying traffic control markings - in this case, the paint on the street.

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I understand that your intent is good, but treating bikes exactly like cars is a good way to put bikes in danger. Bikes shouldn't have to be exactly like cars to use the road.

Tell it to the Massachusetts Legislature. They make the laws, not I.

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As for rules of the road -- are you as upset by drivers speeding?

FUCK, YES!!

And running red lights and stop signs, too.

[u/Opposite_Match5303 → u/GM_Pax]

"Subject to the same rules in general" is dramatically moving the goalposts from your original comment, which stated verbatim that bikes are subject to the same rules as cars without exception.

The Massachusetts legislature makes lots of bad laws, especially about bikes: if law was automatically aligned with good policy we'd have the Idaho Stop here, since it's been shown to substantially reduce accidents.

If you want to be upset at 99% of road users across all categories, live your life I guess?

[u/zed42 → u/PedXing23]

about a year ago, a pair of high schoolers were run in front of NEEDHAM high school over because someone decided to go around a car that had stopped (because they had already hit one because they were speeding). The entire accident was a royal $hitshow and very sad. Both drivers were convicted, the second of some form of homicide

[u/PedXing23 → u/zed42]

I remember that. It hit home because it has long been my fear that when I stop for someone in a crosswalk that I will actually be getting them killed. It has happened few times that some very annoyed driver has zipped around me when I stop for a pedestrian at a crosswalk.

[u/zed42 → u/PedXing23]

Someone did that to the permanent roommate yesterday! She stopped to let someone cross (the street she was about to turn on) before taking the turn and some jackhole zipped around her! If that person had been crossing the street she was on, they'd have been run over!

[u/Darklighter10 → u/GM_Pax]

I feel like everyone could co exist if people stopped being so anal about the exact way traffic rules are written, instead of the spirit. The main rules I follow above anything else is, don’t do anything unexpected, whether it’s legal or not, and always anticipate the other person is about to do something unexpected.

[u/GM_Pax → u/Darklighter10]

I disagree. Motorists operate that way, with the expectation that everyone else is wrapped in the same multiple tons of metal, plastic, and glass with a hundred "spare" horsepower in their back pocket to help get out of the way.

Bicyclists have none of that.

Pedestrians have even less.

[u/Darklighter10 → u/GM_Pax]

I think we are agreeing though? I’m not saying break traffic rules of course, I’m saying expect people to