What If Austin Texas Taught Me A Lesson About Stop Signs?

Even if you are only going 2 miles an hour, don't run stop signs, especially on a bicycle, and especially in Austin Texas.

This is where I learned my first lesson.

I was at this stop sign a couple months ago, and I rode through it without fully stopping. I shouldn't have done it, but I did.

A very kind person pulled up next to me as I was riding and advised me of my error. He was very helpful, and he wanted to make sure I heard him. The sentence had a lot of "F"s and "K""s and "G"s in it.  Goodness gracious, I thought, this guy seems really really upset. I better heed his advice.

I've been riding in Dallas for 40 years, and my habits are pretty engrained. So I didn't change them when I had my chance.

Yesterday I ran this stop sign. Not by much, I almost stopped. But not completely.

Once again I got some advice. This guy was very very very angry. I noticed that his sentence sounded almost identical to the guy from a couple months ago so maybe it is a script that they learn or something, lots of "F"s etc.

I felt genuinely bad, I really had intended to change my  riding habits. That whole thing about not putting my leg down to stop is over-rated anyway, plus I'm old now and never seem to be in a hurry when I'm riding. The guy is right, and I knew it.

Complete stops. Get off the bike, whatever it takes. I circled back immediately and stopped at the stop sign, as if to signal to the guy that I got the message. He apparently thought I was mocking him or something because this only made him more angry, he stopped his car, started to back up, then changed his mind and signaled to me the number one signal with his upstretched hand. I think that's what that hand gesture is.

I spent years being very angry in my younger days, so I respect it's power absolutely. I drive cars, too. Anger is not always intelligent but it is ALWAYS powerful, and I respect that more than intelligence any day. Multiply that respect by 100 when the angry guy is in a powerful vehicle and I'm on a flimsy-ass bicycle. Ive been hit by one of those things. Not recommended.

This kind of event when you are riding can be very upsetting, so I finished the last couple hours of my ride practicing my stop signs, riding on sidewalks, walking the crosswalks at lights, etc etc.

As if to remind me how much I am at their mercy, as I walked my bike across this intersection at the "Walk" light - a big truck waited until I was ten inches in front of him and beeped his horn. Those things are scary at close range.

OK Austin, I get the message. Lesson learned.

There's lots of those big trucks here in Austin. They are very good at generating respect.

I'm starting to look whistfully at those sidewalks. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to just ride on the sidewalks?