Posted on 05/11/2010 10:41:01 AM PDT by South Hawthorne
Professor Peter Furth has ridden his bicycle to work at Northeastern University each day for the past six years. The two-mile trip through the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts, is usually without incident.
Furth's journey is worlds apart from his former Boston commute, which for 13 years was a battle with drivers who wanted him on the sidewalk.
"I've had motorists that drive a couple of inches from my elbow, trying to scare me," he said.
Furth would catch up with drivers at stoplights and ask them whether they knew how close they'd come to hitting him. Invariably, they would say, "Yes, move over."
It's a cultural thing, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
And bicyclists hate recumbents
I want them on the sidewalks, too. An automobile is far deadlier to a bicycle than a bicycle is to a pedestrian.
It happens. I ride a bicycle to work when I can, and there is always some jerk on the road intent on trying to ruin my day. Unfortunately, a great many FReepers seem to hold anyone who rides a bicycle in utter disdain.
If he thinks it is wise to sneak back up on the cars who passed him and ride in the gutter to "get ahead" then he isn't sharing the road. I've just about hit a-hole bicyclists who do this and who then try to run through the light when no cross traffic is coming. EXCEPT that I have the ability to make a right on red.
Share the road means SHARE it.
Too many cyclists exhibit the “I’m special” culture of demanding the right of way per law, but then running red lights, slipping alongside lanes, progressing too slowly, failure to signal, failure to yield, improper lane usage and so on.
How many cyclists do you observe truly obeying the law as if they are in a motor vehicle?
just stirrin’ the pot ;-)
No, there are a FEW a**holes on both sides, that make everything miserable for everyone.
Most cyclists aren’t retarded. They know that they have absolutely NO safety on the road, if a car so much as touches them, they wipe out and at the very least wind up with a painful case of road rash - at most they pay with their lives. Thus, 95 out of 100 are courteous riders.
However, there are those militant few who go out of their way to show the cars ‘who the man is’. And this bad karma is magnified because a car may come across hundreds of bicyclists in the future who will feel his wrath - and potentially send that immature driver to prision with a manslaughter charge, for killing a cyclist who had never done anything to deserve that wrath.
IMHO, if there were a 3-4ft lane that the bikes were allowed to ride in, they would.
IMHO, for a benefit, you need skin in the game. I’m ALL FOR requiring licensing and insurance for bike riders. If they pay, then they get the rights to the road like the cars and trucks have. If you don’t want to buy insurance and get a license - then stay off the roads.
Well to take that to the extreme, there are a-holes in cars who will steer INTO a puddle to splash people on the sidewalk too. And I’ll bet that happens more often than a driver trying to “challenge” a bicyclist.
Bicycles do not belong on the sidewalk, period. Maybe small children still on training wheels but that’s about it.
I can understand when there is no path for them but I just don’t get it when there is a bike path built for them and they still use the road. All throughout my neighborhood there are county built bike paths which they don’t use instead they insist on biking on the 45 mph road and wonder why people in cars get pissed.
BULLSTALIN. Critical Mass is a national anarchist group that sets out to snarl roadways and run traffic lights at will. Drunken nighttime rides by agro-bicycle messengers.
They have them all over Philadelphia and it's usually the people in the colorful insect costumes who ride in the auto lanes anyway.
Bikes don’t belong on the roads. They are for motor vehicles. Bikes stay on the sidewalk.
They must be fat. ;-)
Critical massholes are just "concerned activists" whereas "teabaggers" < /Anderson Cooper > pose a threat to personal safety in this nation.
Notice the burning car in the last graphic?
If I were king, there would be a nice officer passing out $250 tickets to those 'insect' wannabes. It's amazing how effective a $250 ticket is at correcting bad behavior.
No ID? No problem.... consicate the bike until the fine is paid. Most bikes on the road cost far, far more than a mere $250. Win-win solution.
The good bikers will save some money, and not have the 'bad' one's getting drivers to automatically HATE every bike on the road. The Hwy dept gets a revenue stream, and there are a few less deaths on the road (and the traffic jam they cause).
IMHO, if you want the priviledge to use the roads, you should pay for that priviledge just like everyone else. Bikers should NOT have a free ride.
Dead is dead. Unless road conditions are very extreme, providing no right side clearance or highway speeds, bikes belong where they have been for 100 years; on the road with cars. Hazards presented by pedestrians are far more numerous; unpredictability and dogs on leashes being just a few.
Even designated bike paths, on a nice summer day, are far more hazardous than the shoulder of the adjacent road. I'll take my chances with a driver that drives all the time any day, over some lard butt that just pulled his bike out of the garage for the first time all year.
Ignorance of safety, the law, and history of metaphysical proportions.
They don't even pay for the paint used to mark a bike lane on our highways. They should pay an amount equal to the entire cost of the portion road they demand, and it should include initial surfacing cost, maintenance, special markings/signage, lighting, as well as enforcement. Based on the number of bikes on the road versus motor vehicles, this should amount to several thousand dollars per bicycle per year.
Here comes the post about how annoying stretchy shorts are. Can set your watch by it.
What’s in that guy’s red neck?
Oh yeah, here ya go: Thanks for reminding me about the glories of Lycra and Spandex.
A lot of the roads in our area have dedicated bike lanes on the side of the road. For some reason all the cyclists choose to ride on the white line instead of in the lane. They slow everyone down and are a danger to themselves and others.
Probably no more than 60%
Should be like China here pretty soon.
OK. Next time, instead of zipping by me on bike that I don't license or insure on your way to work, you can sit behind me in one of my cars I do license and insure. Feel better?
Cars wear roads out. Bikes don't And damn near every cyclist also owns and maintains automobiles. The rest are probably poor, or kids. You want to deprive the poor of transportation to their meager jobs to satisfy your idea of who belongs on the road?
That’s how Easy Rider ended.
Idiots. I scolded a fellow rider for just that thing on Sunday.
Goiter.
Bicycles should use the sidewalks. At least then they’d be used. The sidewalks in places I’ve lived have always been empty 99.9 percent of the time and I’ve always wondered, why waste the money and materials for sidewalks that are never used.
Within reasaon, I agree with you.
However, the surface prep for a road extends beyond the road; and in many states the shoulders are ashphalted for snow run-off. This is perfectly adequate for a bike. Bikes do not require a 6-8 inch layer of packed rock or concrete beneath the asphalt. The stress my bike puts on the road is a fraction of the stress your car puts on the road - as I weigh around 10% of what you and your car weigh.
When you lay a road, either extend it a couple feet, or lay a thin shoulder. This shoulder can be used for multiple purposes. It serves as a place for a crash to be moved off the road, it allows a person a safe place to change a flat tire, or to wait for a tow truck. Bikes do not require all that much space, cost or expense.
If a bike had a $50-75/bike per year license cost - there would be two things that would happen. First, those who seldom ride would simply pack their bikes to a park where they could ride for free - thereby reducing the bicycle traffic.
Those who will ride, will be forced to shoulder a portion of the cost to support their lifestyle. There should be no animosity to those riders; as like everyone else - they have skin in the game.
And a $250 fine (or confiscation of a bike) for those who ignore the laws - well, that’s a revenue stream that also teaches many of the ignorant an important life lesson.
Wanna ride free? Without license or insurance? Well, we have thousands of hike and bike trails in parks all through this great country.
Wanna share the road? Share the cost to maintain that road.
The utter disdain, although it may not apply to you personally, is well-earned. The bicyclists here in LA have a very bad, aggressive attitude, as if they own the roads. They ignore intersection rules, which evidently do not belong to them, and they are adversarial.
Funny, because they are just about standing in traffic, if facts were part of the equation. They impede the flow of traffic, ride in large clumps that force cars to go 12 mph, etc.
They have earned their reputation, imho.
I think thats a goiter.
As I stated earlier, cross that line and get a ticket for $250. It's amazing how a traffic ticket can correct bad behavior. No ID? No problem ... confiscate the bike until the fine is paid. If a bike ride is good exercise, then a walk home to get your wallet is even better exerise; and instructive too.
“BULLSTALIN. Critical Mass is a national anarchist group that sets out to snarl roadways and run traffic lights at will. Drunken nighttime rides by agro-bicycle messengers.”
Critical mass is the cyclist equivalent of Act-Up and probably share 50% of their membership.
I thought the poor use public buses to get to their meager jobs.
Speaking of LA. Recently paid a visit in a rented car. Can't believe the way motorcyclists ride between lanes of stalled traffic at high speed. Talk about a death wish.
“It happens. I ride a bicycle to work when I can, and there is always some jerk on the road intent on trying to ruin my day. Unfortunately, a great many FReepers seem to hold anyone who rides a bicycle in utter disdain”
Rightly so. I drive to work on a 2 lane road (speed limit 40) and its common to see some idiot biker riding in the middle of the road doing 15 mph even though there is 10 foot wide bike path that runs parallel to the roadway. Militant bikers suck.
No. You're confusing them with chronic drunks that have lost their drivers licenses.
Much agreed.
I'm sick of idiot bicyclists buzzing down the side walk swerving in and out of pedestrians.
Bikes belong on bike paths/trails. If there isn't one, then too bad. I heard there's a nice one behind Howard Dean's house.
These same folks would go screaming to momma law were a group of cars to surround them and box them in on their ride home.
You will get a ticket in most places for riding a bike on a sidewalk.
Funny, but most people that I ride with or know that ride, also own motor vehicles for which they pay tons of taxes which are ostensibly used to pay for the roads. It is not as if people don’t already contribute to the cost of building and maintaining the roads. There are very few people who only ride a bike and do not pay any sort of taxes towards roads. And as far as the contention made by some here that bicyclists are rude and aggressive, that is an extreme minority. Try not to paint with too broad a brush.
There are drunken bicyclist pub crawls. They can get ticketed but they don’t have licenses to revoke.
If there was a path I’d use it, but there are no back paths between my residence and place of employment.
We have lanes up here in NE Ohio for the Amish horse and buggies. I don’t see why there can’t be a lane for bikes.
Yes there are many people like that in cars. I had one man lean out the window and try to pull me off of my bicycle while the car was going down the road. I was able to get away from him but it also happened to another lady who wasn’t so lucky and was nearly killed by them when they did get her off of her bike and she ended up under the car.
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