[outerspace]

I recently moved from the Bay Area to Seattle. I was looking forward to the move because I love cycling and Seattle was rated #1 in bike infrastructure last year [1]. While the infrastructure is indeed somewhat better than the BA, I was shocked by the widespread hate for cyclists everywhere in Seattle and surrounding areas. Getting honked at is a regular occurrence here, and people will actually stick their head out of their cars to make sure you hear the insults they are shouting at you, while simultaneously giving you the finger. It gets worse: a couple weeks ago somebody hiding behind some trees threw a rock at me while riding on the Burke Gilman trail. Fortunately they missed me. The rock (fist-sized) shattered a few feet in front of me on the trail pavement. The hate is incessant and I definitely understand why people don’t feel comfortable riding.

[1] https://www.bicycling.com/culture/a23676188/best-bike-cities...

[dang]

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20793527.

[EB66]

FWIW I've lived in Seattle for the past 13 years and I typically commute by bicycle a few times per week in the spring/summer from North Seattle into downtown. I've never had anything like that happen to me.

I have however dealt with a lot of oblivious drivers nearly running me off the road.

The new dedicated bike lanes with the reflective pylons are helping (especially the two-way barrier-protected bike lane on 2nd Ave of downtown), but there's still a lot more to improve.

[eagsalazar2]

Regarding the cases where people in cars are yelling at you, are you riding slower than traffic in the car lane when this happens? Doing so defensively away from curb to avoid being door'ed but at the same time blocking cars from passing you?

Not agreeing with drivers, just guessing as this does attract a lot of driver rage.

[liability]

I think there are two schools of thought here: cyclists who say "we have every right to this road, the same as any car." And the upset drivers, who say "If you were in a car going this slow, I'd still be pissed off."

Me? I have a bike and a car in Seattle, but almost always walk or take public transit. It's low stress that way, which I like. At intersections, cars and cyclists both hassle pedestrians in their own way. The cars, because they are too accommodating and make you feel almost obliged to run across the street when they stop for you even though they could have easily kept going without coming close to you. And the cyclists, because a horrible minority of them are totally blind to pedestrians in a way that drivers in Seattle aren't. Most cyclists are fine, but you've got to stay on your toes for the few that aren't.

[eagsalazar2]

Also fwiw, I rode daily all over Seattle for several years and had this happen to me exactly zero times. I've never met someone who, unprovoked, would yell at or menace a cyclist and have a hard time imagining someone who would except a rare crazy or 16yr old idiot trying to impress his friends. I have however talked to many people who are driven nuts by cyclists who obstruct traffic (in their opinion)

[InitialLastName]

FWI(still)W, from talking to cyclists in my area (NYC and surroundings) whether somebody gets yelled at depends on a lot more than how they're riding. As an example, the women I know who ride bicycles (just as competently) get menaced a lot more than the men.

[outerspace]

Usually this happens on weekends when I go on long rides. Smaller roads without a bike lane are worse than bigger multi-lane ones. Places outside Seattle proper are the major offenders: Bellevue, Issaquah, Renton, Enumclaw, to name a few. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m wearing a cycling kit that ticks people off.

My commute to work is usually uneventful, about 10 miles mostly on dedicated bike paths along with many other commuters. It’s a few miles longer than it should but it’s definitely the safest route to work.

[eagsalazar2]

No shoulder?

[Arainach]

Shoulders are full of glass and other debris that makes them an intense hazard to ride in. That's why they're the shoulder, not a lane.

In plenty of the areas mentioned (Issaquah, Renton, etc.) there isn't much of a shoulder to speak of. When I take a longer loop around Lake Washington+Sammamish, here's one of the roads I go down:

https://goo.gl/maps/t9bsNVpJGvFP2sa27

[eagsalazar2]

Looks like enough room to scootch over into if you have cars behind you (just like drivers do for each other). Not saying you don't do that but going back to ggp post, I think it is obstructing traffic that causes the rage. Being flexible can go a long way. If you do make such an effort on your rides, what is your experience with getting yelled at?

[Arainach]

Huh? There's perhaps a foot of pavement there. I'm wider than that. My bike is wider than that. There's no room for safely passing in the lane - drivers can go into the oncoming lane to pass just like they would for any other vehicle.

[resonantjacket5]

You're supposed to ride in the car lane if there's no bike lane.

And take the car lane fully not half way.

It's technically illegal to ride on the sidewalk

[gedy]

I see people do that riding slowly uphill in two lane 35mph+ streets, and it's just very obnoxious when there's a line of cars behind them and no attempt is made to let them pass. People get very enraged..

[eagsalazar2]

Parent and gp posts are the problem in a nutshell.

[liability]

I don't commute by bike but I ride on the Burke Gilman trail fairly regularly and have never experienced any animosity whatsoever. It sounds like you had a freak encounter with a run of the mill wackjob. The city is full of them and the police are essentially worthless... My guess is that encounter probably had more to do with his mental problems than the fact that you were on a bike.

[zwkrt]

Seconding sibling comment that aggressive pedestrians or drivers has never been an issue for me biking in Seattle. The biggest reasons for me biking less than I could are weather (traction is an issue on hills) and not wanting to leave my bike around outside.

[EB66]

Yeah theft is definitely an issue -- particularly at the light rail stations. I had my bike stolen in broad daylight underneath a security camera even while secured with a sizable cable lock. The responding SPD officer told me you need a beefy U-lock or it's going to get stolen eventually.

[quotemstr]

I don't experience this hate at all. I'd consider myself more multi-modal than anything, and I do have a car. I do, however, use Lime bikes pretty often, and when I'm on one, I don't get any hate at all. I've never heard of anyone I know being jeered at, much less being pelted with rocks. I don't think the experience you describe is typical.

[enjo]

I’ve noticed that in Denver that the more the bike infrastructure improves, the more people hate cyclists. Partly because cyclists often refuse to actually use the infrastructure instead riding on busy car laden streets one block over.

Also because the bike infrastructure came at the cost of parking or lanes of traffic.

I bike around the city every day and it’s definitely becoming more contentious.

[mertd]

That's interesting. There must be a reason cyclists prefer the busy street over the said one. People are not that irrational.

I have seen cases of "improved" cycling infrastructure, for instance, like adding an impractical bike lane someplace, where the real intent is to mop the cyclists out of the way of the motorists.

I have bike commuted all over the US and almost all municipalities get this wrong. When building cycling infrastructure, optimize for the convenience of cyclists and not of motorists and people will use it.

[resonantjacket5]

That means the bike Lanes were built on the wrong roads and the road they're using provide a direct route