TrixieDelite: datenschwanz: i have a tandem you can borrow if you'd like... with a child seat one the back.

Wow, and just like THAT, all of my problems are solved.
Can you help me with this ingrown toenail?

wow, an offer of kindness rebuffed with sarcasm.

APSBiker:
What if you have a car that kind of runs, and no access to a tow truck, phone, and staying on the side of the road is an unavailable option? Should you abandon your car and walk 20 miles to the nearest town, or drive your car at 15mph to the nearest safe place to leave your car? I love working with hypotheticals!

That is an emergency situation that occurred while you were on the road.

If you knowingly got on the highway with that vehicle in that condition, and the cops knew that, you would be arrested on the spot. Ask the woman in England (wasn't it?) about that.

Again, if I took a moped, which normally go around 30 mph onto the highway, it would be impounded, and I would be cited and possibly arrested.

Why is a bicycle so different?

I'm all for bike paths and lanes and everything that makes cycling safer and convenient. I just hate to see motorists and cyclists put in constant danger because of a situation which should never have been allowed to begin with.

If you can travel safely on the shoulder, fine. But the moment you occupy a lane, you should have to be able to travel at the speed of the rest of the traffic on the road.

I feel like this is déjà vu all over again.

spamdog: You're putting yourself in a very vulnerable situation when you cycle in a big city. So quit with the martyr act.

Fun fact: I was never harassed in Chicago as much as I am in Albany, and I messengered in Chicago.

And no, I have never had anyone throw anything at me while I was walking on the sidewalk, in any city I've ever been in.

I hate both views Im a mountain biker and there is no trails without yuppie bs cell phone in there a** walkers who dont care that this a MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL.and on the here in Portland OR your a driver get off the streets for the farking bikes. if your going to ride the many strong get a permit and a police escort think before you ride

clancifer: My new hero.

Yesdog: I live in Austin, the home of the @sshole bicyclist. They follow none of the rules of traffic yet they whine incessantly about mean old cars on their roads.

clown-freak: Good. I stick to parks and or backroads when I bicycle. That's just rude to hog the road in a pack. Dumbasses.

Can't we just throw these people in jail now? We do it to pedophiles, why not these assholes?

BleedPinstripes

If you can travel safely on the shoulder, fine. But the moment you occupy a lane, you should have to be able to travel at the speed of the rest of the traffic on the road.

Simple solution: don't allow cars on the right lane, only bikes.

spamdog:

People do that shiat if they can get away with it. What, people have never thrown shiat at you when you're walking on the sidewalk?

You're putting yourself in a very vulnerable situation when you cycle in a big city. So quit with the martyr act.

Have you had that crap aimed at you from about 2 feet away? It's not pleasant.

The problem is that you have two basic groups of cyclists.

You have the Cyclist. Someone who knows the rules of the road, obeys them, and expects his due use of public roadways.

Then you have a biker. Someone who owns a bike, and uses it by riding around inconsiderately over downtown sidewalks, into crowded roadways without warning, et cetera.



The driving population sees these as the same group. Cyclists are entitled to their use of the roadway. People who abuse that right really ought to be stripped of it.

Sidewalk and street parallel 'bike' paths (same thing) riding is very dangerous. Most car-bike collisions occur from 'ride-outs' That's when the bicycle rider is entering the road. Guess what you're going to do a lot when riding a bicycle? Enter roads because you have to cross them.

Then there are the blind driveways, the peds, the dogs, the children, etc.

A bicycle is a vehicle and should be on the road if moving faster than a walking pace.

I encounter bicycle riders when I am driving and I have no trouble passing any that are riding legally. Never have. I don't understand drivers who get all bent out of shape that there is a legally riding bicyclist on the road. (and I've had drivers get bent out of shape at me when I bike... sometimes in bumper to bumper traffic where if I let them pass me, they would move up the length of my bicycle to look at the bumper of the SUV in front of me.) I drive in some pretty congested areas and passing a bicyclist is just a matter of timing things out. I give a *full* traffic lane 90+% of the time too.

Basically if you have a lot of trouble with legally riding bicyclists, you need to learn how to drive and vastly improve your situational awareness. All it takes is a little slowing or even speeding up to time a lane change and pass them... it's over in seconds and has never delayed me getting to where I am going by any measurable amount. Hell, some driver slow to accelerate delays me more when I can't tie two green signals together because they don't know how to flex their right foot properly. (good road going bicyclists are pretty good at getting their ass moving to time green signals together)

snuff3r: It's a 30 minute commute from work to home for me via my "couch". The last 15 minutes is 10% of the distance. It's actually a 5 minute drive but cyclists add 10 minutes to it because the clowns who run our city decided to make the single lane main road that gives access to my dead end street a major cycleway. So, yer...

Oh you poor baby. That's definitely worth running someone over. Let me get you a tissue.

/remind me to bring my gun the next time I'm biking. Seems like we need to reduce the asshat population if this thread is any indication.

The Voice of Doom
Simple solution: don't allow cars on the right lane, only bikes.

Not kidding, btw; repainting roads is cheaper than building bike paths in the city:

clovis69: I take offense that someone claims Austin is the Capital of arsehat cyclists. Portland OR is.

LOL
/asshat portland cyclist

/the way I like 'em

Can'tLetYouDoThatStarFox: God, I hate cyclists. They dress up in their jester costumes and make the life of every motorist a nightmare.

Stay on the farking side of the road. Far to the side. Don't swerve out into the road. Don't meander ambiguously in and out of the breakdown lane for no reason. Don't go in between cars. Stay to the side. If you can't handle that, go on a farking bike trail or ride on the sidewalk.

Unless I'm in your lane and not moving, WTF is your problem? If you're driving behind me, well then i have the right of way. If you wanna pass, then hit the damn gas and get on past but don't whine because a rider doesn't ride in a fricken straight line.

Man, all the bike hate is ridiculous. One more time for the morons:

IN MOST PLACES, RIDING A BICYCLE ON THE SIDEWALK IS ILLEGAL.

BleedPinstripes:I'd rather be alive to argue it rather then dead at the bottom of a massive pile up.

FWIW, I actually don't totally disagree with you. When I'm driving in rush hour traffic in a large city, I tend towards the prevailing speed (although still not the fastest out there). When I'm heading out to the deserts of the west and driving across Kansas is when I take my time.

Confabulat: Bikers always whine "But we have a legal right to be on the road! It's ours too!"

I've noticed that when a car smashes into one of these bicyclists, it fails to recognize that legal right as it crushes their skull.

Don't be so farking glib about it. Driving is a privilege, not a right. The road does not, in any sense, belong to just YOU.

Soze

I wish I was your bike seat

/really

Urban cyclist here, and while this thread has gone pretty much by the book as far as FARK cyclist threads do, I do want to add that I absolutely hate riding in bike lanes. I do still ride in them, when they're there, since that's ostensibly where the drivers are going to be expecting me, but I hate them nonetheless, for these reasons:

1) Bike lanes are never just for bikes. I mean, sure, the little spray-painted man down there on the pavement is riding a bike, but I'll be damned if somehow the motorists of my city interpret that as a message stating "Please park here!" That, of course, only concerns the bike lanes that are built into the street; the ones that are put up on the sidewalk become another place for pedestrians. On one section of my daily ride, I can't go 50 meters without having to mash on my brakes so as not to run down some clueless ped who isn't paying attention to where he's going. And those nifty little paved bike paths that go through the parks? I defy you to find one that doesn't also host joggers, dog-walkers, rollerbladers, mothers pushing prams, etc. Not to mention the fact that they very rarely actually go anywhere, making them useful for going in circles at the park and not much else.

2) They're always littered with shiat, mostly of the tire-popping variety. Metal shards, bits of glass, nails, you name it. And in the fall, those are covered over by a nice layer of dried leaves, for extra slip-slidy action. Because patching tires is so much more fun than riding.

3) Perhaps most importantly, they make you invisible. Most drivers don't really use their peripheral vision; they only see what's immediately in front of their vehicle. So the further you ride off the outer edge of the lane, the less and less likely you are to be seen. The bike lanes that are separated from the vehicle lanes by a row of parked cars, or up on the sidewalk are the worst. The fact of the matter is that, unless you're riding in traffic and in the middle of the lane, auto drivers just aren't going to see you. Maybe not even then. Riding in a bike lane makes you exponentially more likely to get hit by a car turning in front of you. When the object of good cycling practice is to avoid putting yourself into situations where you can get hit by motorists, why would I want to do something that would put me in even more danger?


While I can't speak for Australia, I will say that my experience cycling in cities in Europe was vastly superior to that of riding in cities in the US. Probably because getting a driver's license in Europe actually requires some skill behind the wheel, whereas (something to which this thread bears ample evidence) any mongoloid can get a driver's license in the States.

/drivers need to get over themselves and chill out a bit
//cyclists need to follow the rules like everyone else

Cyclists: Be über-cautious, and assume every driver is:
a) drunk
b) blind
c) on a cellphone
d) Archie Godwin
e) all of the above

Motorists: Get used to us. Things are changing.

If you think it's bad now, wait till the gas riots start. People in cars will be killing cyclists just because they'll hate anyone physically fit enough to ride a bike.

60 cyclists, following the rules of 2 abreast max, at least 1.5 meters apart.
Let's say each pair of cyclists take up 3 meters, or 10 ft..
That's 30 pairs, or 300 ft. ( 90 meters ) of highway.
3 lane highway, which means the center, or passing lane is used by traffic going in BOTH directions. ( known in the U.S. as a "dixie die-way" )

Seriously, someone needs to work on your cycling rules in Australia.
I don't approve of what the driver did, that was immature and extremely dangerous, and he should be severely punished for it.
That said, cyclists taking up 300 ft. of highway without providing appropriate passing space on a 3 lane highway also endangers motor vehicles and their drivers / passengers.
If cyclists are going to use the highway then a group should not take up any more highway space than say, a semi and trailer would. ( 60 ft., / 10 meters )
In other words, 2 abreast, no more than 12 in a group.
The next group of 12 would have to leave a passing / merging space of at least 60 ft. / 10 meters between their group and the one ahead to accommodate motor vehicle traffic.

stirfrybry: clovis69: I take offense that someone claims Austin is the Capital of arsehat cyclists. Portland OR is.

LOL
/asshat portland cyclist

Did all the Reedie Trustafarians poison that city? Someone should slit their throats!!!!

helpdeskguy: d) Archie Godwin

Did you mean Archie Bunker?

Heh

Another cyclist here who understands the finer point of staying out of harms way by following the rules

I say the driver should not only have hit the brakes but also thrown the car into reverse, for good measure

We need to weed out people who are nuisances

/$9000 bike...what a pretentious moran
//Owns a $1100 bike myself

Drammach:
3 lane highway, which means the center, or passing lane is used by traffic going in BOTH directions. ( known in the U.S. as a "dixie die-way" )


Uh, no. There is a picture above, the road is 3 lanes in each direction, with a hard median/jersey barrier center dividing the opposing directions.

goblues: Soze

I wish I was your bike seat

/really



GIS for "creepy guy"

GET OFF MY ROAD!!

non powered bikes do not belong on the road. The roads were paved FOR CARS, WITH THE MONEY PAID BY DRIVERS IN GAS TAX/REGISTRATION and the rest of the hoo-ha

if you want to ride on the road, get a lic. get plates, and get insurance, otherwise, go somewhere else

mamoru:

Good farking CHRIST! Bicycles can't go on the highway either.

I'm sure there are varying restrictions, but I was under the impression that this incident occurred on a highway, and around here I've never seen a large group of cyclists on city streets. It is always on the highway.

I'd love to be able to drive down the highway here without feeling sick to my stomach about just missing another cyclist who swerved in front of me.

Shwirv2008-05-27 12:15:15 AM
seriously though, don't block the road by driving 60 across, that's farking dumb

60 across? You really think that they were 60 across?
That's Farking dumb.

Zabriana_Maloletka: GET OFF MY ROAD!!

No.

APSBiker: Confabulat: Bikers always whine "But we have a legal right to be on the road! It's ours too!"

I've noticed that when a car smashes into one of these bicyclists, it fails to recognize that legal right as it crushes their skull.

So, by that logic, we should ban cars, since trucks obviously crush a car the same way, even though a car has as much right to the road as a big truck?

Oh hell no. We need to ban everything because trains are the shiat, and EVERYBODY loses when you get nailed by one of them. Silly motorists, you will never win against a train. You can't even possibly farking try. Us silly cyclists knew that a long time ago.

/snark

Kill 'em all

Holden C:
If bike lanes were pristine, and wide, and not full of tire-popping crap (if they're there at all) then maybe a car would never have to wait for a bicyclist. I've been screamed at for slowing down a car on a narrow two-lane because the woman had to wait 3 minutes for cross-traffic to pass before she could pass me.

You continued riding like a self-absorbed douchebag for 3 minutes, blocking faster traffic? I wouldn't have screamed at you, but I'd probably rant about it on FARK.


Yeah, so bicyclists have an attitude. If they want to be idiots about the rules of the road, then Darwin will probably get them sooner than later. The majority of cyclists, however, are obeying traffic laws and trying to be as safe as possible.

The majority of bicyclists are also drivers. It seems to be the few who are not that cause most of the problems, at least in my experience. Cycling while Smug and all of that.



All I can figure is that the cyclist haters either:
1) Are so self-absorbed that they take it personally if anything delays their all-important plans

And you are the judge of how imporant their plans are? Given them the benefit of the doubt... they may actually be going somewhere important. So it ruins your rhythm to find a turnout and let them by.

2) Resentful of people who actually have fitness or athletic ability

Maybe some... but bicycling is pretty low impact... Even a smoker with bad knees should be able to ride at a steady pace without too much trouble, so long as there are no hills.

3) Cannot make the mental leap that if one cyclist acts like an a**hole, not all cyclists will behave that way.

I agree with Saborlas, lock that idiot up for attempted homicide.

/would be interested to know if any posters actually have ever cycled more than 20 miles on a public road
//am guessing most haven't

And there's the smug.

This is the part that really gets me:

FTA: about 6.30am when a driver, agitated with being held up, accelerated in front of the pack and then slammed on his brakes, giving the riders no time to stop.

So... at 6:30 AM. Rush hour traffic, I'm assuming? These douchebags are out clogging traffic, riding in a hoard of 60, in 6:30 AM traffic?

They were in farkING AUSTRALIA! There's not exactly a shortage of wide open, sparsely traveled space. Yet they pick a freeway, at 6:30 AM, in Sydney, right next to Sydney Intl. Airport, and stand around with righteous indignation, unable to understand how infuriating their behavior is to the rest of the community? Fark 'em all.

It would really make my day if the spokesman for the spandex spazes can't make his precious Olympic team.

Robo Beat: Urban cyclist here,
While I can't speak for Australia, I will say that my experience cycling in cities in Europe was vastly superior to that of riding in cities in the US. Probably because getting a driver's license in Europe actually requires some skill behind the wheel, whereas (something to which this thread bears ample evidence) any mongoloid can get a driver's license in the States.

/drivers need to get over themselves and chill out a bit
//cyclists need to follow the rules like everyone else

See my previous post about 400 up. If getting a drivers license was a fraction as difficult as getting a Pilots Certificate, we would have a shiat load of better qualified drivers and a lot more people riding bikes because getting your first car, or any one, is going to be THAT hard.

DeRosso: Heh

Another cyclist here who understands the finer point of staying out of harms way by following the rules

I say the driver should not only have hit the brakes but also thrown the car into reverse, for good measure

We need to weed out people who are nuisances

/$9000 bike...what a pretentious moran
//Owns a $1100 bike myself

C'mon guy, we already discussed this. RTFA or at least 50 posts of it. My MTB frame is $1100. I didn't by it to be cool, I just wanted it to last forever. This is an Oly training group ride that are riding one off prototypes of frames and equipme that they probably couldn't afford by themselves. Have you ever seen a $1600 rear derailleur? I have. It seems unfathomable to joe blow society, but when you're in competition, the equipment is not cheap. Not even slightly. For ANY sport. But I'll reiterate, this guy that went "bike rage" on them hit the worst possible group. His bank account will pay for this forever. And he'll still be pissed.