<p>Ann Arbor is a great college town. Downtown and most areas near the university have many great places to checkout. After living here for several years, a major frustration for me has been Ann Arbor's bikers (Cyclists....not like Sons of Anarchy). They follow no laws, making driving in certain areas near the college dangerous and really unpleasant. There is a skit in Portlandia where the guy is weaving between cars screaming "Bike Lane". Ann Arbor is not too far off.</p>
<p>Examples of my frustrations include:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Bikers constantly running stop signs and red lights at top speeds.</p></li>
<li><p>As a pedestrian being hit and nearly being hit by bikers going at top speeds on a sidewalk.</p></li>
<li><p>The pedestrian crosswalk signal says "Don't Walk", and a biker just zooms across the crosswalk. This is deeply dangerous. Cars can go right on red, and they often don't see the biker speeding along through a crosswalk that isn't suppose to be used. If the biker wants to cross the street, cross it as a vehicle in the street.</p></li>
<li><p>I was on E Liberty near the Michigan Theater. It was fairly busy as usual. A bike quickly rode out into the middle of the street between two cars parked in parallel.</p></li>
<li><p>Bikers driving on major and busy streets at night without any lighting.</p></li>
<li><p>General rudeness of Bikers. For example, being flipped off by bikers.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>It would be helpful if police would actually ticket bikers, or even ban bikers from certain streets. It also might be helpful for Ann Arbor to have more bike lanes. Thoughts anybody....?</p>
<p>^^^^ I don’t mean to pick on Ann Arbor. The city is great. Likely Bikers are the same other places near a university…however I don’t remember being this bad as a biker ever. </p>
<p>I just wish there could be improvements in Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>Ann Arbor doesn’t have many dedicated bike lanes or bike paths, especially in the central campus/central business district area. Most of the bike lanes are at the periphery, generally funneling into the central core; once there, bikes are competing with cars in a highly congested area on narrow streets. I agree that many (but certainly not all and probably not even most) bikers flagrantly violate traffic laws, sometimes in very risky ways like running stop signs/stoplights/don’t walk signs. But I’d guess a similar percentage of motorists are just as disrespectful of bikers and of the law when it comes to bikers–failing to yield right of way to a biker at a 4-way stop, stopping or parking in a bike lane, assuming the motorist has the right to pass a slower-moving bike on a narrow city street where that same motorist wouldn’t dream of passing another car (in fact, the biker has exactly the same right of way on a shared street as another car does) and in the process forcing the biker into narrow, dangerous quarters at risk of being “doored” by a heedless driver getting out of a parked car, etc. </p>
<p>So it’s a 2-way street, and frustration on both sides probably causes some people to escalate their rash behavior. I think more bike lanes and/or dedicated bicycle streets (no automobile traffic) would help, but that would require restricting or eliminating automobile traffic in some places and eliminating street parking in other places. Motorists wouldn’t like either of those things, and local businesses would resist elimination of any street parking. IMO, making central Ann Arbor more bike-friendly might more than offset any loss of business resulting from less street parking, but most merchants seem to assume it’s the people in cars who are their customers.</p>
<p>bclinktonk, Thanks for the response. I agree pretty much with what you said. Downtown Ann Arbor is very congested. There has got to be some ideas for improving it. It is not as bad as Manhattan or Boston, but the downtown’s of other major cities like Minneapolis or St. Paul are a major improvement over downtown Ann Arbor in terms of congestion and ease of getting around…in my opinion.</p>
<p>I do think ticketing bikers is part of the solution. If I park in the wrong place (i.e. a bike lane) and leave my car there for 30 minutes, there is a ~95 percent chance I come back with a ticket. Both umich and the city of Ann Arbor hand out parking tickets with determined vigor. I’ve received both tickets and warnings for speeding and turning right on red when I’m not suppose to. I know of people (car drivers) who have been ticketed for failing to yield to pedestrians. If cars are ticketed, shouldn’t bikers also be ticketed? I think it would cut down on the insanity of downtown Ann Arbor and likely avoid a potential accident between a biker and a car.</p>