Ohio...we're Number Sixteen! We're Number Sixteen!

[CAMPYBOB]

http://bikeleague.org/content/ranking

Look what craptastic roads, terrible drivers and ****-poor legislation will get you!

We kicked Tennessee's ass! But, even the frozen wastelands of Wisconsin and Minnesota offer better cycling than Ohio...sad.

<sigh> I might as well retire to Italy and take a job as a door greeter at Campagnolo's factory.

 

[maydog]

It looks as if all states could step up the infrastructure & funding and the Evaluation & Planning pieces.

It sad and surprising to see Hawaii so low on the list. It is a beautiful place to ride - on the big island at least. South Dakota too, the black hills and the badlands are great biking destinations.

 

[jhuskey]

Tennessee # 20 because of legislation, having some of the legislation spelled out in the drivers manuals and some additional share the road signage. If my hit and run amendment had past the budget committee we would have ranked higher.

 

[mpre53]

Kind of a surprise that Oregon is only #6. Portland is one of the most bike-crazy places I've ever been.

But, Mass #4. Good stuff. If we could cut the whole Boston area out and just leave the civilized part of the Great Commonwealth, we'd probably challenge Washington. :lol:

 

[MotownBikeBoy]

Damn, you kicked our ass again in yet another thing, by 2 places.

"liquidate Ohio State, and humble Woody Hayes"

- one of these days, Ohio, to the moon!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Quote by Maydog:
"South Dakota too, the black hills and the badlands are great biking destinations."

I've ridden the area extensively on one of my Harley's. It is down right insane, how beautiful and unique the riding is up there! I rate it as one of the most spectacular areas of the nation to see on two wheels. Pro Tip: Do NOT go there anytime near the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. I may or may not have killed brain cells there. What happens in Sturgis, stays in Sturgis.


Quote by JH:
"If my hit and run amendment had past the budget committee we would have ranked higher."

I'll wager you a belt of bourbon that you gets yours passed before Ohio does. We're trying, but in addition to the above reasons we rank so well...er...can we add the stoopidest politicians this side of Hussein Odumbo? My ex-B-I-L was John Glenn's speech writer...yeah, he was another Shicago educated libtard moron. I like that John Glenn is an Ohio boy and a national hero, but Lordy! What a douchebag! Typical Ohio politician.


Quote by mpre53:
"Kind of a surprise that Oregon is only #6. Portland is one of the most bike-crazy places I've ever been."

They were all too stoned to respond to the survey...


Quote by MBB:
"- one of these days, Ohio, to the moon!"

Our State motto: "Ohio! Gateway to Indiana!"

The only reason Ohio and Michigan feud is because we're both like the retarded twin boys of an inbred West Virginian coal miner and his buck-toothed Pennsyltucky 14-year old bride. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you.

We really need to combine our football teams and go kick ass on those inbred, corn fed doofuses from the Plains states. Just to show our good faith and kind intentions, we'll swap you Cleveland AND Cinci for Detroit AND we'll throw in Toodooldeedoo! You have to keep Flint and Grand Rapids though. And all those mosques.

 

[ABNPFDR]

I am kind of surprised that mass was as high as it was. The laws that were put in place though have made an impact and overall riding has gotten better. There are lots of towns in the area with Share The Road signs.

I know Mpre dissed Boston but they have the bike program in Boston and a lot of the main roads have designated bike lanes even though you can't ride in them because either there is gridlock traffic or people using the bike lane as a second parking lane (for what it's worth, if there is no bike lane then cars will park in the right-most driving lane). At least they tried.

The colleges are packed with bikes, and there are a lot of colleges. If you head to the Waltham, Lexington, Bedford, Burlington area look down at the road near any intersection and look at the marked routes on the ground. For a challenge just start following one and see how far it goes. Careful, I know there are a couple that will lead you all the way into Vermont.

Lot of cycling. We are after all the home of Sheldon Brown.

 

[MotownBikeBoy]

Hey, we had Toledo, you took it away from us - seemed like a loss for us at the time ...

Sorry, no deal. Be it ever so ****ed up, infested with crack ho's and gang bangers as it is, Detroit is home.

 

[oldbobcat]

But, Mass #4. Good stuff. If we could cut the whole Boston area out and just leave the civilized part of the Great Commonwealth, we'd probably challenge Washington. :lol:

Darned right. The consistently best riding of my life has been in Massachusetts, from Quabbin to the New York and Vermont borders. Most highways that you'd want to ride on have substantial, clean (thanks to bottle and can recycling) shoulders. And byways that don't have shoulders or centerlines rarely see a passing car.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Quote by MBB:
"Hey, we had Toledo, you took it away from us..."

Yes, Ohio State won that war, too!

"- seemed like a loss for us at the time ..."

One of my first ABLA sanctioned races was the Toledo 'Glass City' series. The city was clean, safe and booming in 1972.



Quote by OBC:
"(thanks to bottle and can recycling)"

Ohio...Where you can't travel three feet without seeing a beer can on the berm!

Recycling laws would do next to nothing to stop the booze bottles and cans from flying. If the law catches you with an open, empty can or bottle in your vehicle the fine and jail time is insane...thus, they go flying. Ten cents or even our $500 littering fine vs. a DUI or vehicle search or the court costs and the social stigma?....the bottle or can goes flying.

Hell, the morons that drink those 'Energy' drinks don't even have the energy to throw the cans away in a trash can. They go flying. Cigarette butts, they go flying.

People can't afford trash service? No problem! The entire trash bag goes flying! Hell, whole pickup truck loads go flying. With our tire disposal fees we now have berms and ditches full of worn out tires that didn't sell for $2 at the yard sale ending up in the ditches.

Mufflers...shock absorbers...leaf springs...old tires...Ohio roads are a disposal site! Tarp straps, tools, wood blocking, blown semi tires, mattresses, lawn furniture, plastic bags, McTrash...Ohio has glorious amounts and the full spectrum of roadside trash to adorn our craptastic roads.

Every fast food joint on the planet is here in Ohio and every other meal they serve has packaging that ends up on our berms..

Two summers ago I found a 16' diameter TRAMPOLINE along the road side! Complete with the assembly tools and the 10' tall net that goes around it to keep the kids from flying off it and becoming...road side trash.

I wonder where Ohio ranks in road trash?

 

[CAMPYBOB]

http://www.academia.edu/8079539/The_2014_American_State_Litter_Scorecard_FINAL_USAs_Dirtiest_and_Cleanest_States_Includes_Statistics_and_Charts_The_2014_American_Society_for_Public_Administration_National_Conference

Ohio ranks 28th...only slightly below average.

Extrapolating....'Merica is a nation of slobs.

Colorado is 21st...only average and I've seen the trash there. Better than Ohio. California ranks number 1 and it's FULL of trash. South Carolina ranks as the worst state and most of it is cleaner than Ohio IMO. Indiana is near the bottom of the list and it looks exactly like...Ohio.

I've been to Italy and it was a trash dump. Other than the fact that they drove crappy little cars and spoke an unintelligible language it might as well have been Ohio.

 

[MotownBikeBoy]

Actually I've never been in Toledo proper, just minor pit stops in its 'burbs for things like gas on the way somewhere else. Columbus is actually pretty nice, I spent about 5 days there years ago for a convention/seminar thing. Never been to Cincjnnati either except through/around on the freeway. Spent a few days in Cleveland about 30 years ago with a family member who had to have specialty treatment at the Cleveland Clinic - this was before tne Renaissance of the city, like 1986 or 1987 - it was pretty bad like Detroit.

No one ever believes me when I tell them that there are parts of the City of Detroit proper which are really nice - the renewed downtown around the new stadiums and corporate buildings and a couple of the best neighborhoods where the old money and the elites live. Geographically a very small percentage, and most of it is as bad as it looks on the news.

The other thimg I find amusing is how we never get credit for the metro area's good qualities - a lot of the 'butbs are very very nice. But people only hear "Detroit" and think crime, poverty, and economic collapse. We are actually booming here now - a lot of job growth, comstruction of new commercial and renewal of older commercial areas, new businesses. Our "nerd" gov Snyder pisses of the tea party types because he is an old-school business oriented Republican and doesn't really give a rat's ass about the social issues dear to right wing hearts such as abortion or gay marriage - he has been really good for business in the state. Had I bothered to vote last year I woulda voted for him - can't even remember who the douchebag was who ran against him.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

A lot of Cleveland is a war zone. Where else can you hold THREE girls captive for over a decade and no one notices or cares?

Don't answer that!

Sure, there's some really nice areas and the Cleveland Clinic is still a world class facility and leader in many areas of medicine, but...to live in Clevetown? No thank you. Some of the burbs are still really nice, but ever since the thugs started driving out, not even the rural areas around the metro area are truly safe.

 

[oldbobcat]

When Massachusetts' can and bottle deposits became law, roadsides were visibly cleaner within a month. If people were still throwing bottles and cans from their cars, other people were picking them up and bringing them in for cash.

When I arrived in Colorado in 1985, one of my first observations was of the amount of glass from broken bottles on roadsides. Actually, if Colorado had mandatory bottle deposits, many of the homeless folks now begging on street corners could be earning their walking money picking bottles and cans from roadsides and trash bins.

The current honor system for recycling works fine on sober goo-goo types who want to help the environment, but for the rest of us, nothing works like the promise of cash in the pocket.

 

[Volnix]

<sigh> I might as well retire to Italy and take a job as a door greeter at Campagnolo's factory.

Come... to the Republic of Volnix-land! I'll show you cycling routes so epic you will forget Ohio for eva! (The booze and the drugs in the food are gonna help too. )

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Quote by OBC:
"When I arrived in Colorado in 1985, one of my first observations was of the amount of glass from broken bottles on roadsides."

I remember seeing multiple cars at the bottom of Colorado mountains...the state did not seem to invest in either guard rails or winch trucks to haul the hulks out of the ravines. Presumably, the bodies were retrieved...

In Ohio many communities require the trash to be separated by type (plastic, glass, etc.) into color coded containers placed by the curb...for the garbage men to dump all together again in the back to the compactor trucks.


Sorry, Volnix. Greek is too complicated for me to learn (despite the fact I lived in a town named for a Greek Goddess!). I can fake my way through Italian with a bunch of rude gestures and my breath stinking of wine.

 

[Volnix]

Sorry, Volnix. Greek is too complicated for me to learn (despite the fact I lived in a town named for a Greek Goddess!). I can fake my way through Italian with a bunch of rude gestures and my breath stinking of wine.

I had a guy from Couchsurfing once that was from Athens Illinois... Maybe you know the guy. He was a... drumroll... Reverend! He came in the UK to go to a football (soccer?) game.

Btw, I meant Europe in general. But Greece is kinda nicer then Italy if you ask me... At the moment it's also full of battleships, F-16's and CIA agents! You'll be right at home! (and the the ppl do speak English... Try speaking English in Italy, just try... )

 

[MotownBikeBoy]

Volnix, very pretty scenery there. We would just ruin vistas like that with McMansions to the water line and the water full of jet skiers and pleasure boaters.

Co-worker's family is from Macedonia - looked it up one day because I didn't really know much about it except origin of Alex TG and part of Tito's Yugoslavia until the breakup. I was surprised that the population was so low - like 650,000 in an area about a fifth the size of the state of Michigan - my county has like 1.3 million, the Detroit metro region is home to about 7 million of Michigan's almost 10 million people. I always find it amusing to know there are something like 12 American states with a lower population than my county.

 

[Volnix]

Volnix, very pretty scenery there. We would just ruin vistas like that with McMansions to the water line and the water full of jet skiers and pleasure boaters.

Yep... It was an organized 3 day mountain bike ride. Quite nice actually and we stayed in a surfing-camping site. Which means lots of freaky girls and booze.

Macdonald's don't do so well around here compared to the UK. There were a few restaurants at some point but I think that most of them are closed now...

As for jet skiers... After some "accidents" you need a boating licence for them now... I was thinking of getting a big ass one at some point so I could maybe visit some small islands which are close to the coast line, but there are lots of free inflatables from the illegal immigrants for grabs.

I even contacted the coast guard that fishes them out and they gave me a number to ask if I can go and buy one.

They are usually not very sea-worthy, but if you patch them well (they pierce them to sink as soon as the coast guard arrives so they will "have" to rescue them instead of driving them back), they might be Ok for a bit of fishing and beer in the summer.

I might name mine "The Smuggler" or something. Lolololol

 

[jhuskey]

Illegal immigrants? You mean undocumented migrants. I was thinking about seeing an undocumented sex therapist and paying her with some drugs I got from an undocumented pharmacist.