Love this video, almost got splattered today cycling home in the bike lane, wearing my helmet, fluorescent yellow condom, going about 40 Kmh/24Mph on straight road, car pulls up along side, passes me then swings into a tennis club, had to lock both wheels to avoid.

HAve the whole thing on video, had a HD camera running on the handlebars, so I got moving and went into the car park after them just to say you nearly hit me, would you like to see what happened, BUT as I got close I realised it was my neighbours I've known all my life! so I chickened out, its still going on youtube though

A bit of epic *eia for doing a demo like this with no helmet on. I guess he has a good pratfall style to make up for it though.

Adding video to channels (Eia) - requested by Krupo.

So the radio station said that it wasn't illegal to *not* ride in the bike lane - does anyone know if this is true?

Here is some info found online.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/biketips.shtml

According to the PDF download on the site...

§ 4-12 (p) – Bicycles

• Bicycle riders must use bike path/lane, if provided, except for access, safety, turns, etc.
• Other vehicles shall not drive on or across bike lanes except for access, safety, turns, etc.

>> ^zombieater:

So the radio station said that it wasn't illegal to not ride in the bike lane - does anyone know if this is true?

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by Hybrid.

If you're doing wrong, then citing other people who are also doing wrong that you think the cops are doing nothing to pursue is not a way to get them to be lenient on you.

Great video. And a clear case of a cop being a dick, trying to fill his citation quota.

I would have found a way to make it so that the lazy turd had to actually get out of the cruiser and into the rain. Walk away, saying I don't feel safe standing next to the road, or something. Shit, either that or just lose him. Not like there's a plate on a bike.

Atleast the police didn't shoot him for having a camera.

Find out the details of someone you hate and give that to the cops, claiming you don't have your licence on you.

the last obstacle he hit was very poetic =)

to be fair, some cyclists are fucking assholes. but not this guy

My name is blankfist and I'm a bikoholic..
>> ^Payback:

Find out the details of someone you hate and give that to the cops, claiming you don't have your licence on you.

Hahahahah I thought this was going to be just a dull video, but the middle is great.

F**k cyclists. They can't decide if they're cars or pedestrians. When there's a red light, they're a pedestrian using the crosswalk. When the light is green, they're a car slowing down traffic. Other times they take the sidewalk. My name is blankfist and I'm an assholic.

http://gothamist.com/2011/06/06/anti-bike_lane_councilman_tells_cyc.php

I was once warned by a cop not to ride without a headlight at night on my bike once. Fair 'nuf, but i was in well-lit park, not even on a proper road. He said that's why it was just a warning. Being a whiner, i still complained that i was a poor college student and rarely rode my bike (i walked and bused mostly), so dishing out cash for a light was hard. He suggested i ride holding a flashlight. Yeah... 'cause carrying a flashlight in one hand while steering a bike will really make me safer.

>> ^Payback:

Find out the details of someone you hate and give that to the cops, claiming you don't have your licence on you.


I don't know about New York cops, but NC State Troopers have a computer in their car and can pull up the photo ID from the info given to them.

>> ^critical_d:
Here is some info found online. According to the PDF download on the site... § 4-12 (p) – Bicycles • Bicycle riders must use bike path/lane, if provided, except for access, safety, turns, etc. • Other vehicles shall not drive on or across bike lanes except for access, safety, turns, etc. >> ^zombieater: So the radio station said that it wasn't illegal to not ride in the bike lane - does anyone know if this is true?


this is the full Law


—34 RCNY § 4-12(p) Bicycles.
(1) Bicycle riders to use bicycle lanes. Whenever a usable path or lane for bicycles has been provided, bicycle riders shall use such path or lane only except under any of the following situations:
(i) When preparing for a turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
(ii) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, pushcarts, animals, surface hazards) that make it unsafe to continue within such bicycle path or lane.

So the cyclist decides if its safe and if you bring this to court they will throw out the fine. It's legal to not be in the lane. I just had to post this since I am a biker in nyc and there will be a reason to cut into the road from the bike lane at about every block which I think is more dangerous so I just don't use them most of the time.

How are some of these falls not *comedy?

Physical comedy at its best!

Adding video to channels (Comedy) - requested by brycewi19.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!

Put a helmet on, you irresponsible tool.

There is a lot of debate about helmets. Some claim there is no reduction in injury where helmets are mandatory. Some even claim that helmets increase certain risks. I can't find the video/article I recently saw, but you can see the controversy on the wikipedia page.

[redacted]

>> ^MaxWilder:

There is a lot of debate about helmets. Some claim there is no reduction in injury where helmets are mandatory. Some even claim that helmets increase certain risks. I can't find the video/article I recently saw, but you can see the controversy on the wikipedia page.


I have in the past been an avid bike rider and I know, through some aggressive field testing on hard pavement and wet streets that my helmet has protected my brain from doing street art.

>> ^nadabu:

I was once warned by a cop not to ride without a headlight at night on my bike once. Fair 'nuf, but i was in well-lit park, not even on a proper road. He said that's why it was just a warning. Being a whiner, i still complained that i was a poor college student and rarely rode my bike (i walked and bused mostly), so dishing out cash for a light was hard. He suggested i ride holding a flashlight. Yeah... 'cause carrying a flashlight in one hand while steering a bike will really make me safer.


Yeah, you're lucky he didn't just give you a citation for not keeping your mouth shut. Dude, they're cheap. Like one big imported beer cheap. You don't need a mega-strong $200 off-road racing lamp.

http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442588127&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302692895

>> ^Krupo:


Yeah, you're lucky he didn't just give you a citation for not keeping your mouth shut. Dude, they're cheap. Like one big imported beer cheap. You don't need a mega-strong $200 off-road racing lamp.
http://www.mec.ca/
Products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442588127&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302692895


Like i said, i was a whiner. And frankly, considering how poor i was and how rarely i rode my bike and wasn't even in traffic, i'd much rather have saved the dough for one big imported beer. Gotta have priorities.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Thank goodness he wasn't dancing in the bike lanes.

Now here is an interesting idea. This device is mounted to the handlebars of a bike and projects a bright green image onto the roadway in front of the bike. It's designed to warn autos of the oncoming bike.

http://www.gizmag.com/blaze-bicycle-laser-safety-device/18886/

It looks like he took some surprisingly hard hits... way to commit, man! And huge balls for videoing a cop... that's some pretty risky shit these days in the U.S. it seems.

You know what's sad? It's not the fact that the police officers mess up. That's excepted as they are only human; however, the police departments protect these guys no matter what they do. These crooks are worse than the mafia.

Not wanting to throw too much weight into anecdotal evidence, but I know somebody that would almost certainly be dead had it not been for a helmet.

Also, this "lot of debate" about helmets seems a lot like the debate about Seatbelts. Like you always get a few people whining about how the belt broke some ribs or a collar bone in a big smash up, but see, the guys that flew through the windscreen and connected with a tree aint complaining much, cos they are like, all dead and shit on account of being wrapped around a tree.

>> ^Mcboinkens:

>> ^MaxWilder:
There is a lot of debate about helmets. Some claim there is no reduction in injury where helmets are mandatory. Some even claim that helmets increase certain risks. I can't find the video/article I recently saw, but you can see the controversy on the wikipedia page.


Yeah, that's why athletes don't wear helmets, right?

The argument in that article is absolutely stupid. Of course a helmet may not save you if a car crashed into you. That wasn't what it was meant for. It was meant to provide protection for your skull, in any sort of calamity. Yeah, a child may die from being strangled by the helmet, but if you would rather them risk getting a head-smash into concrete that's your own parenting decision.
There isn't "a lot" of debate, and "some" people just spout crap to get more funding.
Millions of dollars go into research on helmets every year, you really think we'd be using them if they weren't useful?

Also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12333783

"The most obvious reason to wear a helmet is that doing so protects you in the event of an accident. But by how much?
Back in 2001, Australian experts set out to determine just this by trawling medical literature published in the past decade.
Their analysis found that wearing a helmet cut the risk of head injury and brain injury by half, and facial injury by nearly a third."
source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001457500000488



http://videosift.com/video/TEDxCopenhagen-Why-We-Shouldn-t-Bike-with-a-Helmet

As a cyclist, I think we should get More tickets. Really.
Of course not for riding safely, and within the bounds of the law (which, it seems that the guy in the video was), but for breaking the laws.

As is often the case, blankfist's comment was an excellent example of what is wrong with the world. Cyclists routinely don't know, or ignore, the traffic laws. Motorists are even more ignorant, and don't know how to treat cyclists. We end up with a huge cluterf@*K, where it is unnecessarily dangerous to ride a bike.

My hope is that, were cyclists subject to more tickets (or at least friendly police reminders), they would be more aware of and more likely to follow the laws, and the perception of cyclists as legitimate users of the road increase. Police would, of course, need to lean these laws themselves.
An even more effective tactic might be to put questions about bike laws on driving license tests, or make pamphlets on cycling laws readily available at every department of motor vehicles and every bike shop.

I suspect other cyclists here may react fiercely to any suggestion that we might be part of the problem, but please think it over for a second. I stop at all stop signs, and signal, etc.. and I'm sure you do too, but every single day I see other cyclist who don't. I've seen a young man thrown 4 m after being hit by a car while darting across a crosswalk on a bike. I've seen a woman slam into a police car as she reached an intersection while riding on the wrong side of the road. On the other hand, I'm sick of cars waving me through when they have the right-of-way; it's dangerous and a waste of time. I'm sick of feeling like I'm risking my life every time I make a left turn in traffic because the cars around me don't know understand what that involves. Something has to change.

[redacted]