There are two sections on my commute where I take the road over the bike path. The first section is because the bike lane is so bumpy that I’d have to be on a mountain bike. It’s actually insane and saves a ton of time and comfort to take the road. There’s actually another benefit to taking the road at this spot though; there is almost no visibility for cars of the crosswalks over the bike lane due to a lot of trees so I’m way less likely to be ran over in the road than the bike lane crosswalks at this section.
The second section is on a quiet street with 3 lights in a row that are almost always green. And the cross walk sign is always red (button has to be pressed to get a walk sign). So three times in a row you have to wait a full light cycle while barely traveling any distance. It saves sooooo much time to just take the road (which has a painted bike lane) here.
Sometimes bikes also just need to turn left. Or the bike path is just on one side of the road and a persons destination isn’t on that side
But no I’m sure the bikes around you just do it to annoy cars, or because they don’t even want the bike infrastructure to begin with, or to feel less safe. Get out of here lol.
Ah yes, I’m sure no bikes have to take a left around you. I’m sure you even spoke with the cyclists and found out first hand that they do in fact not want bike paths and prefer to share the road with cars… Like how am I supposed to believe this? Of course there’s a reason they chose to ride in the road. Maybe it is to piss off cars, but you would probably be surprised to learn that cyclists don’t hate cars the way drivers hate bikes. Most of us cyclists actually own and use a car. We just prefer not to when possible.
I like how the connotation of this is that you have some sort of valid excuse to endanger their lives. Anyway, I believe bikes should have to obey all laws. I’m positive that most of the bikes around you do obey laws and that your opinion is the result of observational bias. I’m sure you also see cars break laws all the time (I sure do), but i don’t pretend all drivers are anarchist-suicidal-menaces lol.
I like how I gave real reasons that I personally occasionally don’t use a bike lane and pointed out that you don’t know why a cyclist might chose to be in the road instead but you’re just like, “not ah, strawman!” Like I for real don’t know what part of my response you think was a strawman, except maybe my sarcastic final paragraph, but you seem to agree with the sentiment, so then I don’t see how I could be misrepresenting you… But here, I’ll give you another chance; what nefarious reason might bikes chose the road over the bike path?
Where I live a cyclist may take the lane for any reason. They don’t have to prove a need or anything like that. So how is this bad behavior? Just because you don’t like it? The bike infrastructure simply doesn’t always meet the needs of a commuter on a bike.
Yes imagine if busy roads caused cars to choose routes through neighborhoods instead of larger throughput roads; or if cars went into the other lane to avoid potholes; or went around speed bumps; or even went off road to avoid large bumps (common where I live on dirt roads). Like all those things really happen and I’m not criticizing it. But you pretend to be criticizing it to say a bike shouldn’t be allowed in the road to avoid a bumpy bike lane. Sorry, but bikes simply are allowed in the road. No matter how unjust you feel it is, it’s allowed. Meanwhile plenty of those car examples probably would result in a citation.
Some of what I’ve said comes off as hot headed, I don’t mean to be insulting. At least not overly insulting. But I think you lack perspective. I think if you got on a bike for a while you’d realize how much bike infrastructure is missing. How often you have to get in the road to get to your destination. And how scary it is to share the road with cars. Ain’t no one sharing the road for no reason.