Do you know how to ride a bike?

[mikebw]

I think the mentality of a bicyclist is usually one of freedom. I mean you don't need a license to ride a bike. (if the police decide to stop you, can they tow your bike away?) You can ride a bike pretty much anywhere you can walk, assuming there isn't a sign saying otherwise. Bikes don't get parking tickets either, although you can get a speeding ticket.

You also are not using gas to transport yourself, so I imagine some people on bikes feel a sense of superiority or entitlement because of that.

[MacMagus]

I think the biggest problem with bikes is that automobile drivers don't know to look for them.

'Seems like 3-4 times a year I *almost* get killed 'cause some idiot tears out of a parking lot or driveway or blows through an intersection or rides up to park on the sidewalk or to pass on the sidewalk without looking to see if a bicyclist or pedestrian is coming.


> I imagine some people on bikes feel a sense of superiority...

What makes me feel superior when I'm on a bike comes from the perspective outside of the regular flow of automobile traffic which offers more opportunities to observe how awful most drivers are.

...Which is the main reason why motorcycles are so friggin' dangerous. Driving AMONG the cars without the protection of a cage of steel around you as the drivers blow through stop signs and stoplights and make illegal turns and ride up on the curb and swerve back and forth between the lanes as they gab on their cell phones or do their makeup or brush their hair or shave or read the newspaper or make-out with their S/O or argue or gesture wildly with both hands or eat a meal or dance to their music or slap the kids around or play video games or watch DVD's or clean the garbage off the floor or clean their glasses or put in eye-drops or take a nap is simply suicide.

[mikebw]

I agree, it is a different skill for a driver to be aware of bikes than compared to peds. Bikes can really come up fast, unlike people on foot, and they're not as big as a car or truck so they can be hard to see.

One time my dad was pulling out of our driveway onto the street (it's a one way street), and even though he looked both ways before pulling out, a bike came up pretty quick down the sidewalk and was right in front of him when he started to let off the brake. I said 'stop!' and he did, luckily. No harm done, sure scared the beans out of that bicyclist though.

Perhaps if she hadn't been riding on the sidewalk... Maybe that's why bikes aren't supposed to be there. Drivers are not expecting anything faster than a jogger on a sidewalk, so they don't look that much farther ahead to compensate for bikers.

[Sam3]

Sidewalk riding depends on locality. In my town it's legal to do so.

Car drivers aren't blameless either. SOme go out of their way to hassle bicylists. I was riding my bike down a fairly wide 2-lane road when a bunch of yahoos scared the beejeebers out of me by coming up to me yelling profanities and more while passing ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF ME IN THE GRASS.

I don't think I'll ever forget that.

But as a cyclist I've noticed that the "professionals"; the triathletes, the racing cyclists are some of the worst offenders of road laws. It seems as if they are so full of themselves and their elitism that they want ot flaunt it.

[mikebw]

oh yeah, the best is when the driver of the car waits until they are exactly on your ass, and THEN honks the freakin' horn.

Gotta love that, as you try not to swerve into traffic or fall off the bike. I mean those horns are LOUD when you're not inside another car blocking the sound. Not cool.

[mick e]

mick e blows traffic lights left and right. You know what else he does?

He breaks the SPEED LIMIT biatches! HAHAHAHA!

You can't denigrate what you can't catch SUCKAS!!!!!!!!!!

[incognegro]

from what i observe, seems like 10-15% of motor vehicle drivers don't follow the laws, either. (signals, stopping, speed, yield, turn on red, tailgating, seatbelts, headlights, wipers, yada yada yada)

honestly, drivers' license re-testing should take place every 10 years, every 5 after you turn 70.

[Lux Interior]

Assholes are everywhere. You learn to deal with it or die earlier from the stress.

[Jimmypoo]

[quote BigGuynRusty]I have "accidentally" elbowed several sidewalk riders in town. Oopsie!

BGnR


I'll be waiting to hear the results of the personal injury suit that cascades into people on the sidewalk as a result of witnesses to an intentional pedestrian sideswipe.

Be sure to post it when it happens! Especially the part about any possible brain damage that might occur as a result of so manly a decision, as opposed to blocking the path to explain your position - if your intention is just to make your point known.

There are other alternatives - it just depends on the size of the person you "accidentally" elbow.

[ka jowct]

I see drivers, pedestrians and cyclists break traffic rules here all the time.

Some of the worst offenders I've encountered were roller-bladers. I used to ride in Central Park, and once the roller bladers arrived, it stopped being fun and became a lot more hazardous. Even a single skater takes up a lot of room as he or she flails about from side to side. They tended to favor the middle of the road. When they were skating two or three abreast, it was often difficult to get around them safely.

Once a friend and I were rounding a corner at the north end of the park where cyclists are generally going fairly fast, and discovered that three jackasses on rollerblades had stopped just out of sight around the corner, and were spread out abreast of each other in the road, having a conversation. I yelled at them as I slammed on my brakes, and they started shouting abuse along the lines of F--k you, f--king bitches, etc. We tried to point out that what they were doing was dangerous, and they just got nastier.

A lot of the skaters were like that: clueless about park etiquette and hostile to those they endangered or inconvenienced.