Poor Etiquette

Over the past few days I observed poor etiquette on the part of both drivers and cyclists. The motorists first.

In two separate incidents, a motorist pulled into the left lane as we were stopped to turn left at an intersection with a main road. The first time it happened, we weren't sure if the driver was turning right or left. There was no signal. I hope they realized their mistake when a car approaching from the left tried to turn onto the street and found this motorist sitting in their lane. At least it blocked traffic from that direction so it was easier to get across.

The second time, I heard the car coming around in the left lane and signaled our left turn. It didn't matter. They were still thinking they could pass us. When the traffic cleared, we made our left and the motorist just stayed in the left lane until they were around us.

I would guess the second motorist thought they had time to get around us and mis-judged our speed. In the first case however, we had been waiting for several seconds at the stop sign for traffic to clear. Not sure what was going on inside this head (or maybe it's being generous to assume something was going on inside their heads).

Yesterday on my way home, three cyclists came up behind me at the light. They were chatting amongst themselves and seemed to be OK cyclists except for one guy who pulled up to my right on the sidewalk. I watched him as the light changed to see if he intended to come around me on the right or just use the crosswalk to remain on the sidewalk. There was a bike lane at this point, so I didn't see the point of using the sidewalk.

Two blocks down the street, the bike lane has ended and a line of cars are waiting at a 4-way stop. Two or three of them are signaling a right turn, so I pull up behind the last car in line to take my turn. The three cyclists are still behind me until the sidewalk guy makes his move to pass the line of cars on the right. I told him the car was about to make a right as if he missed their turn signal. He replies "It doesn't matter", and proceeds to pass the motorist just as he was about to make his right turn. The motorist slams on his brakes and is clearly perturbed.

Perhaps this cyclist had his brain switched off, but I failed to see the point of this. Were they simply trying to get in front of me or is this how they always ride? I didn't find out because we turned different directions at the next intersection.

I guess the right approach to handling this is to try to set a good example. People need situations like this to learn what is accepted behavior and as long as no one gets hurt, I guess we're OK.