Same roads, same rights, same rules, Rant alert.

Based on the cyclists in our area, I would say that this is the most hypocritical bumper sticker that I have seen in a while. There is a lot of animosity between motorists and cyclists here in North Florida. Most of it caused by the cyclists, in my opinion. There is an air of entitlement on the bikers that irritates anyone on the receiving end. They ignore rules all of the time. Stop signs mean pedal faster, pedestrian crossing are  for target practice. Riding three abreast at a slow pace is a right, even if cars pile up behind. If you mention this to a cyclist you get an angry reply (local cyclists are almost always angry) to the tune of "Do you know how hard it is to unclip, put a foot down, re-clip and start again?!?" As to the pedestrian crossing, last year I was walking in a crosswalk that had a sign up saying that all vehicles should stop for people in the crosswalk. A pelleton of Saturday riders missed me by a foot, at high speed, and one of them yelled "Look out!"

I wouldn't be as upset by this if we didn't go to France every year. In Europe there is peace between motorists and cyclists. Cyclists come to a stop at stop signs and red lights. We were driving on a very narrow, very windy road in Provence when we came upon a huge club outing, it must have been 50 bikes. We resigned ourselves to five miles of very slow going. The last rider saw us and whistled. The whole group got into single file and the leader signaled when there was no oncoming traffic and we had an easy pass. I wanted to buy each rider a bottle of wine.

I am not a blue nosed pecksniff about this. If a cyclist is approaching a three or four way intersection and can see that there is no traffic, go ahead and run the signs. It's the disregard of others that galls me. In our very local area the cyclists have taken to riding on the sidewalks, even when there are a lot of walkers, and they have an attitude of ownership. Sad. I hope this improves soon.

BTW, I do know that there are motorists with short tempers that intimidate cyclists and endanger them....they are wrong and they have a huge lethal hunk of metal around them.

OK..rant over. Ride safely.