I WILL STOP RIDING THE BIKE!

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

If you were truly a follower of Don Quixote, you wouldn't let two random
incidents influence your desire to ride your bike. You'd realize that, every
single day, millions of people ride bikes, on their own, without incident.
Not everyone, of course... in the real world, people get hurt. But if you
let that stop you, then I hope you don't get into cars, or fly, or cross
busy streets on foot... there are things out there everywhere, waiting just
for you. Do you want fear to control your life?

Worse than that, as you can tell by his constant troll posts, he wants
fear to control everyone else's life.

--
Dane Buson - [email hidden]
No house should ever be on any hill or on anything. It should be of the hill,
belonging to it.
-- Frank Lloyd Wright

Dane Buson said:

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

If you were truly a follower of Don Quixote, you wouldn't let two
random incidents influence your desire to ride your bike. You'd
realize that, every single day, millions of people ride bikes, on
their own, without incident. Not everyone, of course... in the real
world, people get hurt. But if you let that stop you, then I hope
you don't get into cars, or fly, or cross busy streets on foot...
there are things out there everywhere, waiting just for you. Do you
want fear to control your life?

Worse than that, as you can tell by his constant troll posts, he wants
fear to control everyone else's life.

He was afraid you'd say that.

We need Jesus with guns!
Posted by: donquixote-v-windmil on May-10-07 4:56 PM (EST)
Guns or no guns, Jesus or no Jesus, there's problem out there that's
well illustrated in the following incident that happened today (if not
sufficiently clear with Cho's case)...

I'm walking by this place full of homeless near the beach (a public
place, right?), in broad daylight, when I walk past a homeless guy,
then he follows me... I go, "Why do you follow me?" He goes, "You are
following me!" I rushed my pace, and add, "Get the hell out of my
back!" And he adds, "You get the hell out of my back, MF!" And reaches
for his bag... Well, the guy gave up the chase, and I breathed in
relief.

Why on earth crazy people like that (or like Cho) should be loose and
possibly have access to guns. And what would I have done if I had the
gun, use it? I'm sure situations like that happened often to people
who are out to enjoy beaches, parks or bicycle rides, and I can even
see the need (given the jungle where we live) to pack a gun, but then
we don't have the right to use it!!!

So what the heck do I do with "the right to bear arms" without the
right to shoot? And when is the government going to take care of so
many violent people out there who are a danger to society? Cho
believed himself to be Jesus, right? I guess we need some protection
from above...

http://asdf60514.tripod.com/bowerspic/Jesus_gun.jpeg

Yep, you heard right, not drowsy but lousy. Here's a list of cities
with the most lousy driving...

"Ever watched a demolition derby? Spend a day in Columbia, South
Carolina. (And wear a helmet.) Simply put, the city is lousy with bad
drivers. And yet it's amazing that they manage to hit each other when
you consider the width of the city's 18th-century streets--between 100
and 150 feet. In other words, a Boeing 737 could land there, but the
cars can't avoid bending fenders."

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=health&category=metrogrades&conitem=e38dd5fa2e1c1110VgnVCM20000012281eac____

Quoted message said:

Larry Bud said:

Quoted message said:

But don't get me wrong, I will keep riding my bike, but only in groups
("strength lies in numbers," right?). And, of course, I would look for
another way to keep me in shape (probably walking) since I don't want
to feed the medical/pharmaceutical leeches.

Quoted message said:

Or you could keep your bicycle out of the roadway and ride on bike
paths.

Hmm. And, for the perfect parallel, motorists could keep off the
streets and stay on the freeways!

What's so hard to understand: cars on streets, bikes on bike paths??
No wonder you can't figure this out yourself.

Larry Bud said:

Quoted message said:

On May 10, 9:39 am, Larry Bud <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Or you could keep your bicycle out of the roadway and ride on bike
paths.

Quoted message said:

Hmm. And, for the perfect parallel, motorists could keep off the
streets and stay on the freeways!

What's so hard to understand: cars on streets, bikes on bike paths??
No wonder you can't figure this out yourself.

:-) Funny!

Let me spell it out for you, Larry, since you obviously DIDN'T figure
it out yourself. I'll type slowly so you can keep up.

There are facilities that are reserved only for bikes - or at least,
forbidden to cars. Those facilities are bike paths. Read the laws in
your state. You're not allowed to drive on them.

There are facilities that are reserved only for cars - or at least,
forbidden to bikes. Those facilities are freeways. Read the laws in
your state. Bikes _may_ not be allowed to ride on them. (There are
exceptions to that, BTW.)

The rest of the facilities are called ordinary roads and streets.
Both bikes and cars are allowed on them. Read the laws in your
state. Pay attention to the place where it says operators of
bicycles have all the rights of an operator of any other vehicle.

To explain even further, since you seem to need help:

When the freeways don't get you to your exact destination, you're
allowed to use the ordinary roads and streets. In an exactly similar
manner, if a bike path doesn't get a cyclist to his exact destination,
he's allowed to use the roads and streets. And in fact, he's usually
allowed to use the road and street anyway. It's the law.

Now if you need still MORE help, I suggest you print this post out,
take it to your friendly state highway patrolman, and ask him to
explain it to you.

Slowly, of course.

Finally, I've had motorists hassle me for being on the road. In at
least one memorable incident, the nice policeman pulled the motorist
over and explained the above in great detail. Talk about great
service! He explained it right there on the spot. And in writing.
With a fine, of course.

So it's probably better to learn about it in advance.

- Frank Krygowski

"BrianNZ" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Arif Khokar said:

Quoted message said:

Regarding the first incident: If you're low enough on courage that a
horn honking can make you give up cycling, there's little that can be
done. When drivers honk at me, I don't get rattled. In fact, I make
a point of either not reacting, or reacting as a person more mature
and in control than they are. It's not hard. You could try
developing that composed state of mind.

My first reaction when I hear a car horn behind me is to take the lane
immediately. The last time I failed to do that, I was brush-passed and
nearly hit. As Brent put it, a driver using the horn tells the cyclist
that he needs more space because the driver is incompetent.

Some drivers use the horn as a warning device when something is going
wrong. Can you tell if it's someone out of control warning you of
impending danger, or an incompetent driver wanting more room just from
the tone of the horn?....either way, moving in front of either is a bad
move.

9 out of 10 times the honker is niether warning you nor incompetant
They're just jerks [censored] that you're riding a bike. It could be that
they're [censored] because so many bicyclers ride like jerks, routinely
blowing through red lights and stop signs, but I think the truth is the
honker is just a jerk.

Robert

Arif Khokar said:

Quoted message said:

Regarding the first incident: If you're low enough on courage that a
horn honking can make you give up cycling, there's little that can be
done. When drivers honk at me, I don't get rattled. In fact, I make
a point of either not reacting, or reacting as a person more mature
and in control than they are. It's not hard. You could try
developing that composed state of mind.

My first reaction when I hear a car horn behind me is to take the lane
immediately. The last time I failed to do that, I was brush-passed and
nearly hit. As Brent put it, a driver using the horn tells the cyclist
that he needs more space because the driver is incompetent.

Interesting,, the state drivers manual still says a short
tap on the horn is a good thing from cars so bikes know your there.... I
know I've always done it, not a blast, just make a tap, and its amazing
how many time they didn't hear my little car sneak up on them. I started
foing it pretty regulary after having cyclist freak out when I passed
them (I 'm a full left lane bike passer BTW, I try not to squeeze
anybody since I ride occasionally too.

Quoted message said:

When I'm driving, I make it a point to give a cyclist as much space as
possible when I pass them. I expect the same from drivers when I'm
cycling.

I expect the same from bicyclists. My area is particularly infested with
rude cyclers, I commute on a 12 mile hair pin turn road with no shoulder
AT ALL! Its not hard to figure out why bikes would like the road its a
neat drive, but heck use some common sense! Its a road frequented by
commuters from about 4:30 to 6:00 PM. Guess my reaction when a group of
10 bikes insists on riding full width UPHILL with no way to pass safely
in the middle of the commute,,, Then they ignore the few safe turnouts
where they could give room for the going home crowd to pass, Then at teh
top of the hill where there's HUGE area to pull over they string out and
all blow the stop sign to re-create the problem for the downhill side.
At least when I'm in my jeep & have the top off I can hold a
conversation as I finally get by... IE: [censored]/you gotta share too!

DT in pdx

Robert Bolton said:

Quoted message said:

Some drivers use the horn as a warning device when something is going
wrong. Can you tell if it's someone out of control warning you of
impending danger, or an incompetent driver wanting more room just from
the tone of the horn?....either way, moving in front of either is a bad
move.

9 out of 10 times the honker is niether warning you nor incompetant
They're just jerks [censored] that you're riding a bike. It could be that
they're [censored] because so many bicyclers ride like jerks, routinely
blowing through red lights and stop signs, but I think the truth is the
honker is just a jerk.

It could be there are too many bikes, but in 9 out of 10 cases, they
blow the horn because they are a jerk AND there's so few bikes out
there that they think they own the road.

I bet you don't get many people blowing a horn at you in places like
Key West, where bikes are part of the road.

If you run the light on a bike though the motorist has every right to
blow the horn at you. (I just do it when they are not around.)