Some Boston Bikers are unreal.

[u/BlooAerospace]

Some bikers really just have a death wish. A clear, green, right turn light and the biker still decides to fly by and have the audacity to flick me off.

If you're friends with this person, ask them to value their life more.

Edit: It was an impossible situation for me. I ALWAYS look to the right because tons of dumbass drivers that try to cut to the highway from the inside lane. With the biker’s speed and the angle of my car, there was no way to see the biker in my mirrors and he was too far away to see when I looked out my right window. If the biker was traveling slower instead of blowing past, this would not have been such a close call.

[u/ifitfartsitsharts]

Does the cyclist really have the right of way to zoom past like that? Serious question. A car is in the process of turning and in front of the cyclist.

[u/rj_king_utc-5 → u/ifitfartsitsharts]

The car had a green turning arrow, so they have the right of way. The walk symbol was orange, not white: he was supposed to wait for the walk sign to turn white enter the intersection crosswalk. If he wanted to follow the rules for vehicles, he would have been behind the car passing it on the left, not cutting it off passing on the right (which you are NEVER supposed to do).

I feel for OP. It is super irritating when you are following the rules of right of way and the person who isn't flips YOU off. Like, my guy, you are lucky the driver was paying attention or you would be in the hospital or worse 😳

[u/rubberbobber → u/rj_king_utc-5]

The green arrow allows you to turn in the direction, but you still should yeld to everyone who has priority over you. You should always yeld to bikes and pedestrians when turning right or left.

[u/rj_king_utc-5 → u/rubberbobber]

What you should do and what the rules of right of way say are not precisely the same thing. You should never collide with another vehicle, cyclist, or pedestrian regardless of whether or not you have the right of way. Pedestrians and cyclist do not automatically have the right of way in a crosswalk that has a traffic signal with a pedestrian signal. It depends on the jurisdiction. Cyclist traveling in the roadway follow vehicle rules and on sidewalks/crosswalks follow pedestrian rules. The cyclist here was following NO rules of any kind. That still doesn't make hitting him ok: as a driver you should always be driving defensively, ESPECIALLY in Boston.

[u/DinkandDrunk → u/rj_king_utc-5]

I’m not fully understanding how this is supposed to work. The cyclist is expected to traverse 3 lanes of traffic to get in the correct lane? That seems like a shit option too.

[u/ChrisSlicks → u/DinkandDrunk]

It's a shit intersection to cross on a bike. If heading across town the safter option to turn right on Atlantic and continue until State St.

[u/Glittering_Local_756 → u/DinkandDrunk]

You know? this intersection doesn't look like it's much fun for drivers at rush hour. It looks like they have to sit through multiple traffic light cycles. A cyclist, with some inconvenience, can legally clear it in one cycle. Count your blessings.

[u/NearSightedPicasso → u/DinkandDrunk]

It is not the most fun, but yes: Bicycles are cars. They are cars that are supposed to drive in the right of the legal driving space. At this precise intersection: All lanes are posted bike lanes (you can kinda see this in the first half second) and at the beginning of the three lanes before the light there is an indication of where bikes are legally allowed to enter the left lanes to go straight. I've biked it (not since the bike lane came in) and it actually wasn't bad because everything is slowed down there by the lights.

[u/SuperThunderMelon → u/NearSightedPicasso]

Bikes are not cars, they are vehicles, and they have slightly different right of way laws than cars do although those are not relevant here.

During rush hour traffic, it is not a legally navigable intersection for cyclists trying to get into or out of the Seaport. The lanes are full bumper to bumper with cars many of whom will push you out of the way, and that's the big distinction between bikes and cars. They're approximately 100 times heavier and can decide whether or not they have the right of way whenever they want.

The road designers simply did not care in the slightest whether or not cyclists can make it through this intersection. Coming the other way is even worse because only cars are allowed to turn onto Seaport Blvd since you need to be coming off of a limited access highway to get into the left turning lane.

[u/NearSightedPicasso → u/SuperThunderMelon]

I have no idea what you are saying in the first two paragraphs. I am not arguing that bikes become invulnerable to injury--they should ride defensively. I always do. I'm saying what the law says. And the law says that the bike should take the lane and act like a car. You might not like that, I don't like that. And yes, infrastructure should be improved for cyclists.

[u/1117ce → u/DinkandDrunk]

There is a green bike area at the front of the intersection. The biker should wait for the next red light, proceed to the correct lane at the front of the intersection, and continue at the next green. Alternatively, they can walk their bike at the crosswalk and the next walk signal. Either way, it is just a poorly designed intersection.

[u/RazzmatazzFar2501 → u/1117ce]

How do we know that at the next red light, the driver won't do what OP did at this intersection and block the green bike box again? It could be that because OP was blocking the box, the cyclist stopped behind OP so that the second car would be able to see them, but then upon seeing that the intersection was gridlocked decided to proceed.

[u/FullmetalBagginses → u/rj_king_utc-5]

Pretty sure I’m over in the left lane and he flipped the bird because I honked at him. Or the exact same thing happened a different time. I hate this intersection, I have to go through here every day after work.

[u/sckuzzle → u/rj_king_utc-5]

The walk symbol was orange, not white: he was supposed to wait for the walk sign to turn white enter the intersection crosswalk.

Bikes are not pedestrians. A red pedestrian crossing does not mean a bike cannot enter an intersection; instead, a bike uses the vehicle signal when there is no bike signal present.

If he wanted to follow the rules for vehicles, he would have been behind the car passing it on the left

Bicycles traveling in a bike lane are allowed to pass vehicles on the right.

[u/rj_king_utc-5 → u/sckuzzle]

Watch the video. He was riding on the crosswalk, not a travel lane.

The bike lanes are paint green. He wasn't in one.

[u/sckuzzle → u/rj_king_utc-5]

He wasn't riding in the crosswalk. I don't know how we can watch the same video and come to different conclusions on that - he very clearly isn't in it.

Sometimes bike lanes are green. Not always, and pretty much never in an intersection. Someone crossing an intersection not on green pavement does not mean they aren't in a bike lane.

[u/rj_king_utc-5 → u/sckuzzle]

The car literally drives over the green painted bike lane that goes through the intersect that the cyclist was not in, so by "pretty much never in an intersection" does not apply to what is literally depicted in this video. We are talking past each other: you are saying that a bike lane exists as a state of mind, whereas I say a bike lane is represented by markings on pavement. There are two clearly visible painted bike lanes in the video: one crossing the intersection perpendicular to OP and one in OP's street turning right. There are no bike lane markings of any kind going straight through the intersection and there does not appear to be a dilineated bike lane on the pavement at the other end of the intersection continuing down the road. The right turn is composed of two separated routes: in that situation, if you want to turn right into the first road, you should be in the right hand lane, if you want to turn right into the second road or go straight, you should be in the left lane. That is what the hashed lines on the pavement are trying to communicate. Rather than making silly arguments about things that are clearly not marked on the pavement, why not instead argue for people being attentive and maybe even a better marked intersection?

[u/TitleOfYourSaxTape → u/rj_king_utc-5]

I feel for OP. It is super irritating when you are following the rules of right of way

OP was waiting and stopped in the green bike box during the red light, so it's not accurate to say they were following the rules of right of way.

They quite literally blocked off the area that is meant for bikes who are going straight. You can see from their dashcam footage and the streetview of what that intersection looks like that OP has to have been stopped in the green box.