Posted on 06/14/2015 9:02:41 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
My favorite response was from a woman with a funny name -- one of those names where the alphabet got tossed up in the air -- who told me that she bicycles to and from work, to any event, social or otherwise, to the store, what have you.
Really? You ride your bike to social events? Don't you get sweaty? I'm wondering what would constitute a social event that you could ride your bike to. Let's say you're going to an art museum charity fundraiser. Do you wear a dress? Valet park?
I'm not buying that, any more than I am buying the mother who says her entire family bicycles to everything. No you don't. You think you do, but when you look back over the year, you are in your car when it rains, when it is cold, when it is snowing.
At best, we have a seven-month bicycle season, April through October. Yes, the truly dedicated souls are out there 12 months a year, but the vast majority of people who claim that the bicycle is their chief form of transportation are demonstrating a lively imagination.
You put away your colorful jerseys and tight shorts just like everybody else.
I'd like to see you get a kid and his hockey gear to the rink on a bicycle. And when the baby has an earache, I am highly doubtful you are pedaling to the doctor.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Oh, boy! The bicycle haters will be along with all kinds of vitriol for people they don’t know just because they ride a bike.
I work with a gal who bikes to the Park 'n' Ride and then takes the light rail to the office. To be charitable, she should make better use of the shower ...
I also have a daughter who is working at a bike shop and who has really taken up cycling as an exercise/sport. She loves it and it has kept her from some other bad habits. So there are benefits and drawbacks.
But in Minnesota, bicycling is just not a viable means of transportation much of the year. Dog sleds are more useful half the time ...
Oh, boy! The bicycle haters will be along with all kinds of vitriol
It is not that I hate bicyclists is I hate their view that they own the road but do not pay taxes for it. They like to ride side by side and block traffic like it is some special right they have earned. This view is rude at best and dangerous and deadly on the narrow mountain roads around here.
Then there are the guys wearing skin tight spandex pedaling along the highways hoping to be noticed by other guys.
I remember one time biking to a meeting for some reason or another. Hours later I was walking out of the building with a friend when we were accosted by some guy trying to hit us up for money for gas (he said). I told him no, pointed out my bike, and told him he could do likewise or keep moving along. It worked, he looked suitably horrified and went scuttling!
There always have to be fanatics. We have a fuel efficient car, it’s a Miata sports car... great mileage. My old one even used standard gas. And we have a 15 year old minivan. Still pretty good mileage. It’s a Honda and should last to 300K. All in all we’ve owned maybe 8-9, 10 max cars during our combined adult hood. I’m 67 and Mr. M is ___. Opps. I just remembered I copied this thread to him. Can’t reveal his age but he’s older than I am. He bicycles a lot but frankly, its not efficient to bicycle to the grocery store.
I used to do that. The key is to show up to work REALLY early and make use of local shower facilities so that you are neat as a pin, have your workout done, and already well under way on your work when your co-workers come staggering in demanding coffee :)
I was slowly backing out of a diagonal parking space when I caught a quick glimpse of something behind me. It was a guy on a recumbent bike streaking behind me.
I stopped an got out and confronted him. He was mad as a snake because he thought I should of seen him sooner.
He should have seen my back up lights and stopped. I chewed him up and spit him out then he realized that he was well below my field of vision
The other day, I saw a guy on a bike actually stop and wait patiently for the light to change at an intersection.
That’s so rare to see.
The DUI charge was eventually dropped, but he did have to pay the ticket for running the red light.
We’ve elevated both fitness and saving energy as so virtuous that an activity that combines them can give practitioners a smug self righteousness. That attitude of superiority is what annoys the rest of us.
Recently a local woman here in Kansas died biking when hit by a car. I know nothing of the details of the actual scene. But the driver was arrested for illegally passing. I can only assume this means there was a double yellow line....and further assume that you are technically not allowed to pass a bike on a double yellow. To me this is very dangerous. Car traffic and bike traffic travel at very different speeds on rural roads...I’d be worried about cars getting hit from behind as they got bottled up behind a biker. I’ve enjoyed biking all my life, so I din’t dislike bikers - but I’m often amazed at where some ride. My other pet peave is the diy traffic control they do for large rides. No signs, no lights - just a guy in a Pinto hanging his arm out the window....and illegally passing to get to the next intersection.
Yeah, that isn’t cool. Bikers are small and squishable, most I’ve met (while biking) go well out of their way to avoid becoming road pizza. Most motorists are really wonderful, my biggest problem was that I would stop for them, they’d stop for me, I’d be on a hill and they would stay stopped for me while I huffed and puffed trying to get out of the way while wishing they had just gone on. It’s kind of like the old cartoon about the chipmunks “after you, no after you”
My favorite response was from a woman with a funny name — one of those names where the alphabet got tossed up in the air -
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I stopped reading right there. The writer is a jerk for saying this.
And I pity anyone who agrees with him on this point.
Where I used to work there was a guy who was totally incapable of driving, and the state would no longer license him for that, so his only transportation was his bike.
He wasn’t a drunk, he was just so far out of it mentally, he was a danger to society.
Once I saw him riding diagonally through a major intersection of two 4-lane roads at lunch hour.
It was like a scene out of one of those old Keystone Kops movies. He was totally oblivious to the traffic, and somehow he managed to get through unscathed.
Now it's rare to see anybody but old people on fat tire bikes riding upright looking like they're out for a casual stroll. Maybe I just got old.
Laws vary from state to state, but in some states, the double yellow is actually only advisory. But, regardless of lines or signs, passing is never legal if it is unsafe to do so.
Pennsylvania has a law requiring you to give a cyclist at least 4 feet of space when passing. I prefer to give them more than that when possible. That can mean crossing the double yellow in some cases.
I got a ticket in Santa Monica once for running a red light on a bike. I deserved it. I paid it. Don’t remember how much it was.
Then they should show it by boycotting the motor vehicle routes, and ride their mountain bikes only on the trails or in the ditches.
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