Olympia cyclist flouted our state’s traffic laws

The other day while doing 15 mph on North Street (west of Olympia High), I had to honk my horn for a slow moving bicyclist to move right and over into his unoccupied, designated bike lane.

Eventually he caught up to me as I waited for a light at the next intersection – where to my amazement, I viewed him cross over the oncoming lanes, then onto the sidewalk and proceed through the intersection against the light.

It was another reminder of why I should not have missed a particular licensing-test question 15 years ago when I moved to Washington from Oregon. In other words, if bicycle rules are not obeyed or enforced, then they should not be in the driver’s test manual.

For the record, I caught up to the cyclist and glanced over to see that the rider was not some arrogant kid who had no regard for the laws or his own safety. Instead, he was a senior citizen like me, which brings me to a full scale apology to young bicyclist’s everywhere. Now, BOLO – For old man with a tennis racket in his back pack, cycling toward the Tumwater Golf Course.

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Olympia cyclist flouted our state’s traffic laws."