It's girls like this that give guys like me a bad name. Look closely at the picture...what do you see? I see three women riding abreast (heh) on a narrow, single-lane road. They were travelling pretty slowly, 15mph tops in a 35 zone (I think) down Broad St. In Augusta, at about 8am, and there were a good 10 cars backed up behind them. I'm all for cyclists' rights, of course, being one myself. But sheesh, in order to get any respect, cyclists need to follow the law and be courteous to the folks they're sharing the road with.
Section 40-6-294(b) of the Uniform Georgia Code states "Persons riding bicycles upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles."
While the ladies shown are within their rights to ride two abreast, they certainly aren't allowed three. But really, in this situation, they should be riding single-file to allow for cars to pass safely. Those people stacked up being the cyclists were probably much more pissed than I was, and the situation no doubt reinforced any negative opinions they may have already had towards cyclists. We cyclists have a duty to be ambassadors of the idea of bicycles as viable transportation, now more than ever. We need to follow the laws, and this means not blowing through lights, signalling turns, running lights at night--things I see cyclists neglecting all the time. So when I see crap like that, yeah, it ticks me off.
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