PORTLAND, Ore. -- Thursday morning near Ladds Circle in Southeast Portland, cyclist after cyclist blew through two stop signs.
Resident Anne Elle says she sees this happen constantly while walking her dogs.
"They don't stop at signs, they don't obey traffic rules, I know they have a right to do what they do. But I don't want to drive near them. It's scary, " said concerned neighbor Anne Elle.
Still, Elle says she would never do what someone did late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning.
Someone tied plastic wrap between two stop signs to "trip cyclists."
At 1 a.m., cyclist Lauren Hudgins rolled up to the "booby trap."
Another cyclist had already stopped and they were using a knife to cut it down. Suddenly, both of them heard a stern warning from the bushes.
"We hear someone yelling 'thanks for stopping' and that was it." said Hudgins.
The two cyclists rode off, but the more Lauren thought about it, the angrier she became.
"It really could've hurt someone. If it was malicious, it's really horrifying." she said.
The incident has added fuel to an already burning fire between cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians.
Chris Buckley lives right next door and sees cyclists run the stop signs all the time.
"The only time it bothers me is because I have two daughters and when they are crossing, it's a problem." Said Buckley.
He fears for his daughters' safety, noting that whoever put up the cellwrap is putting more than cyclists in danger.
"Trouble is, they stopped everything," said Buckley. "If you get a really tough big guy riding a bike and hitting my kids, that could do as much damage as a car."
Cyclist Lauren Hudgens completely understands his fears.
"We need to be more careful about that in this neighborhood," said Hudgins.
KGW's cameras also caught cars doing "rolling stops" at the intersection, slightly stopping but just yielding at the stop signs. It got worse during rush hour but we never saw a car ignore the stop signs altogether.
