M
Mike Vandeman
Guest
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 11:40:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kevin West <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Responce to bikers.
Many years ago I did not have a working car and rode a
bike to work from the canal area for over a year,
including to Denny’s. I saw my life flash in front of
my eyes at least one a day" I had no choice, taking
the bus would have added about 2 or more hours a day
getting to and from work, working graves only gave me
about 4hours of sleep a day as it was. I did not stop
at stop signs but I did stop at lights. I got a
ticket on a bicycle one morning after getting off work
at 5am on Sunday. I and the officer were the only
ones on the SFDB. So I am aware of the problems. I am
also a security person. It is irrelevant that
stopping is an inconvenient, it is the LAW. None of
this do as I saw not as I do stuff.“ Bikers have NO
“right” to complain about drivers disobey laws when
they rarely follow the law. Driving safely is part of
having good and safe driving habits. Once I got a car
the bike went I do not own one, (I plan on getting one
for bike rides with the family thought, no on the road
of course.) It is CRAZY and suicidal to ride a bike
on the street. Yes it is the partly the car drivers,
but even good drivers can hit a biker, blinded by the
sun avoiding an obstacle, personal distractions etc.
I drove a motorcycle before getting a license for a
car. I am well aware that most people are lousy
drivers, this is what “taught” me defensive driving
out of self preservation. But bikers are not going to
change human nature. The problem is the bikers seem
to think that we should be watch out for their health!
So when they get killed it is only the cars fault,
see any flaw in this thinking? I would like bikers
to be made aware that they are not going to change the
bad drivers, it is their self preservation skills that
need changing. “One day I was riding my motorcycle
and went around a corner to cross a narrow bridge on
the bridge was a woman driving a car; she was on my
lane since she cut the corner, (the bridge had blind
corners on both sides.) I had no more that two feet
between me and death. I saw her face and will never
forget it, it was extreme fright. I did not panic,
(to my surprise) and got past. If it was not for my
defensive driving I would not have been driving as
“cautious”. Most bicycle riders, would have been
killed, (because they would have been in the middle
of the road. Of course they think the law says they
can ride in the middle of the road.) I did not have
time to get over I was already there! This was a
country road in the Sierra foothills near Grass
Valley.
I do not have the time to edit the previous document.
I work full time and have a family. I sneaked this
in at work but can not spend much time at it. (I am a
computer technician at College Of Marin.) I am no
good at editing my own writing. I have written
scripts (Star Trek is one) and am working on a couple
of books one is a technical book on “Novell networks
security”, but get someone else to edit them. I have
a vivid imagination and am very diverse, (I have been
called a renaissance man). I am good at writing but
it takes lots of work. You can use the ideas and put
them in your own words, but I will not be able to give
you a perfect copy, do not even have to time to read
all the stuff you send! It also sounds like it is
only the mountain bikers you have a problem with, try
going for a car ride in West Marin on the weekend if
you doubt any arrogance of road bike riders.
Speaking of dependence. It cost about $18,000 to put
solar panels in a home. About half would be rebated
with California State and Federal rebates. The extra
power generated would fed back into the grid,
reversing the meter. P. G. and E. would send you a
check once a year, if you put back more that you use
which most homes would. If one had an electric car it
would be powered free and clean!
BART made small communities into large cities. Marin
does not want this to happen here. I believe a light
rail if put in, (property purchased around the right
of way, run where there already develop, etc) would
not increase population but would take some cars off
the road. It is amazing how many people I have talked
to over the years that want trains back in Marin and
would use them.
20 years ago if one drove to Santa Rosa the freeway
would have had very few cars. Today the freeway is
full going to Sonoma in the evening and south in the
morning. This means that the problem is people living
in Sonoma are working outside of their area.
The reason is
• Housing is expensive in Marin. It is expensive
everywhere in the Bay Area! Marin jobs do not pay
enough to purchase a home here!
• People purchase a home in Sonoma only to find that
the wages up there will not even support a home there,
so they still have to work in Marin or SF, (I have
know many people that ended up working back in Marin
because of this.)
• People working in SF live in Marin because the
housing in SF is even more expensive, and hard to get,
besides Marin is nicer to like for some people.
• What needs to be done is to get people to work and
live in the same area; (I live on SFDB and work on
SFDB. I could get a job for twice the money in SF as
a Network Administrator/Technician but will not
commuting is insane and very unhealthy, not to mention
you can not spend time with your family if it is spent
on the road!)
• Sonoma needs to attract business that will pay
decent wages. Business move up there because of the
cheap labor and lower property costs, the former is no
doubt the main reason today.
• Marin needs to attract SF businesses that will pay
better wages.
• SF Bay Area has the only waterway in the world that
is NOT being used for transportation! We could
eliminate the congested roads with a Bay Area ferry
system. It has been discussed in Sacramento but this
California budget problem has put an end to it.
Summary: Businesses in Marin, Sonoma, San Francisco,
and the East Bay do not pay “livable wages so people
can live where the work. Marin jobs pay more than
Sonoma and SF jobs pay more than Marin etc. This
creates our transportation problem. Housing is
expensive everywhere in the Bay Area; you are not
going to get around that.
Making roads wider is simply treating a symptom, not
the cause of the problem. If roads are made bigger
all it do is make the problem worse, we need
alternatives. Not everyone likes busses, not everyone
will ride in a train or BART or light rail or
trolleys. Some people have to drive or hate crowds in
public transportation. (When I was working in SF on
the grave shift, the bus was large time waster, it
took 30 minutes to drive to work but I had to wake up
an hour and a half earlier to take the bus. The last
time I rode the buss I spent the trip keeping a drunk
off my lap! I do not like riding a bus)
Marin used to have the best transportation system in
the bay area, (including electric trains), but like LA
were taken out and replaced with roads, now look where
we are!
What the people of the Bay Area need is to be educated
in the facts and alternatives, not simply given and
believing the oil and auto and power industries
propaganda, (they ARE still the reason for
California’s total dependent on cars and oil. If
half, or even a third of the homes, business,
government building and schools in the US had solar
panels installed over the last 20 years, California
would never have had a power shortage, if anything a
surplus, and would not be in Iraq! We would not need
more nuclear power plants, like the President
encouraged.
Vice President of the U.S. said that “Oil dependence
is a myth”. I wonder if one could see the lips of the
oil company president move when the Vice President
mouthed this ridiculous lie!
===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)
http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande
From: Kevin West <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Responce to bikers.
Many years ago I did not have a working car and rode a
bike to work from the canal area for over a year,
including to Denny’s. I saw my life flash in front of
my eyes at least one a day" I had no choice, taking
the bus would have added about 2 or more hours a day
getting to and from work, working graves only gave me
about 4hours of sleep a day as it was. I did not stop
at stop signs but I did stop at lights. I got a
ticket on a bicycle one morning after getting off work
at 5am on Sunday. I and the officer were the only
ones on the SFDB. So I am aware of the problems. I am
also a security person. It is irrelevant that
stopping is an inconvenient, it is the LAW. None of
this do as I saw not as I do stuff.“ Bikers have NO
“right” to complain about drivers disobey laws when
they rarely follow the law. Driving safely is part of
having good and safe driving habits. Once I got a car
the bike went I do not own one, (I plan on getting one
for bike rides with the family thought, no on the road
of course.) It is CRAZY and suicidal to ride a bike
on the street. Yes it is the partly the car drivers,
but even good drivers can hit a biker, blinded by the
sun avoiding an obstacle, personal distractions etc.
I drove a motorcycle before getting a license for a
car. I am well aware that most people are lousy
drivers, this is what “taught” me defensive driving
out of self preservation. But bikers are not going to
change human nature. The problem is the bikers seem
to think that we should be watch out for their health!
So when they get killed it is only the cars fault,
see any flaw in this thinking? I would like bikers
to be made aware that they are not going to change the
bad drivers, it is their self preservation skills that
need changing. “One day I was riding my motorcycle
and went around a corner to cross a narrow bridge on
the bridge was a woman driving a car; she was on my
lane since she cut the corner, (the bridge had blind
corners on both sides.) I had no more that two feet
between me and death. I saw her face and will never
forget it, it was extreme fright. I did not panic,
(to my surprise) and got past. If it was not for my
defensive driving I would not have been driving as
“cautious”. Most bicycle riders, would have been
killed, (because they would have been in the middle
of the road. Of course they think the law says they
can ride in the middle of the road.) I did not have
time to get over I was already there! This was a
country road in the Sierra foothills near Grass
Valley.
I do not have the time to edit the previous document.
I work full time and have a family. I sneaked this
in at work but can not spend much time at it. (I am a
computer technician at College Of Marin.) I am no
good at editing my own writing. I have written
scripts (Star Trek is one) and am working on a couple
of books one is a technical book on “Novell networks
security”, but get someone else to edit them. I have
a vivid imagination and am very diverse, (I have been
called a renaissance man). I am good at writing but
it takes lots of work. You can use the ideas and put
them in your own words, but I will not be able to give
you a perfect copy, do not even have to time to read
all the stuff you send! It also sounds like it is
only the mountain bikers you have a problem with, try
going for a car ride in West Marin on the weekend if
you doubt any arrogance of road bike riders.
Speaking of dependence. It cost about $18,000 to put
solar panels in a home. About half would be rebated
with California State and Federal rebates. The extra
power generated would fed back into the grid,
reversing the meter. P. G. and E. would send you a
check once a year, if you put back more that you use
which most homes would. If one had an electric car it
would be powered free and clean!
BART made small communities into large cities. Marin
does not want this to happen here. I believe a light
rail if put in, (property purchased around the right
of way, run where there already develop, etc) would
not increase population but would take some cars off
the road. It is amazing how many people I have talked
to over the years that want trains back in Marin and
would use them.
20 years ago if one drove to Santa Rosa the freeway
would have had very few cars. Today the freeway is
full going to Sonoma in the evening and south in the
morning. This means that the problem is people living
in Sonoma are working outside of their area.
The reason is
• Housing is expensive in Marin. It is expensive
everywhere in the Bay Area! Marin jobs do not pay
enough to purchase a home here!
• People purchase a home in Sonoma only to find that
the wages up there will not even support a home there,
so they still have to work in Marin or SF, (I have
know many people that ended up working back in Marin
because of this.)
• People working in SF live in Marin because the
housing in SF is even more expensive, and hard to get,
besides Marin is nicer to like for some people.
• What needs to be done is to get people to work and
live in the same area; (I live on SFDB and work on
SFDB. I could get a job for twice the money in SF as
a Network Administrator/Technician but will not
commuting is insane and very unhealthy, not to mention
you can not spend time with your family if it is spent
on the road!)
• Sonoma needs to attract business that will pay
decent wages. Business move up there because of the
cheap labor and lower property costs, the former is no
doubt the main reason today.
• Marin needs to attract SF businesses that will pay
better wages.
• SF Bay Area has the only waterway in the world that
is NOT being used for transportation! We could
eliminate the congested roads with a Bay Area ferry
system. It has been discussed in Sacramento but this
California budget problem has put an end to it.
Summary: Businesses in Marin, Sonoma, San Francisco,
and the East Bay do not pay “livable wages so people
can live where the work. Marin jobs pay more than
Sonoma and SF jobs pay more than Marin etc. This
creates our transportation problem. Housing is
expensive everywhere in the Bay Area; you are not
going to get around that.
Making roads wider is simply treating a symptom, not
the cause of the problem. If roads are made bigger
all it do is make the problem worse, we need
alternatives. Not everyone likes busses, not everyone
will ride in a train or BART or light rail or
trolleys. Some people have to drive or hate crowds in
public transportation. (When I was working in SF on
the grave shift, the bus was large time waster, it
took 30 minutes to drive to work but I had to wake up
an hour and a half earlier to take the bus. The last
time I rode the buss I spent the trip keeping a drunk
off my lap! I do not like riding a bus)
Marin used to have the best transportation system in
the bay area, (including electric trains), but like LA
were taken out and replaced with roads, now look where
we are!
What the people of the Bay Area need is to be educated
in the facts and alternatives, not simply given and
believing the oil and auto and power industries
propaganda, (they ARE still the reason for
California’s total dependent on cars and oil. If
half, or even a third of the homes, business,
government building and schools in the US had solar
panels installed over the last 20 years, California
would never have had a power shortage, if anything a
surplus, and would not be in Iraq! We would not need
more nuclear power plants, like the President
encouraged.
Vice President of the U.S. said that “Oil dependence
is a myth”. I wonder if one could see the lips of the
oil company president move when the Vice President
mouthed this ridiculous lie!
===
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)
http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande