F
Frank Krygowski
Guest
"Robert J. Matter" wrote:
>
> If you want to breathe exhaust fumes and hear a bunch of loud noise and honking and have lit
> cigarettes and beer bottles thrown at you and ride on cracked potholed streets with cagers and
> pass endless miles of ugly car-chitecture and driveways, that is fine.
Yet more distortion and paranoia!
I've been a dedicated cyclist since 1972 or 1973. In a typical year, I ride roughly 2500 miles. I've
ridden in roughly 46 states and four countries.
Breathe exhaust fumes? It's never been a problem. Perhaps once or twice, in all those years, I've
shifted my position while waiting in line at a traffic light.
Loud noise? Traffic can be noisy on busy streets. For that reason, I usually take the parallel side
streets. They are almost always quiet and pleasant. I recall riding to work through a residential
neighborhood, hearing two park employees talking to each other, even though they were half a block
away. Quiet, indeed!
Horns honking? I probably get honked at two or three times a year. Frankly, it's no problem. I ride
properly, and if someone is unreasonable enough to be offended by my presence, that's their problem,
not mine. They're past me soon enough. I ignore the lowbrows.
Lit cigarettes? Never, since 1973, has anyone thrown a lit cigarette at me, nor at my wife, my son
or my daughter.
Beer bottles? Ditto.
Endless miles of cracked and potholed streets? I'm glad I have endless miles of streets to ride on,
rather than being confined to a few miles of bike paths that go nowhere! True, in some ideal world,
cracks and potholes would be magically smoothed, but on most roads, they're not a significant
problem. The worst irritation I've had from a pothole is once (in 25 years of riding) I slightly
dented a rim. I fixed it at home.
Compare this with the wonderful world of bike paths. The ones I'm familiar with around here are not
plowed in the winter. The roads are sometimes rough, but they can be ridden. The last time I tried
to ride a short cut-through bike path (the kind I most approve of), it was absolutely unrideable due
to the melted-and-refrozen footprints of the pedestrians in the six inch layer of snow.
Ugly "car-chitecture"?
Sounds like you believe bike paths are a cure even for America's
architectural woes! Sorry, Robert, but that's just too far out into fantasy land for me!
Again, as this post demonstrates: To advance your impossible vision of perfect bike paths going
everywhere in America, you are using the tactic of disparaging cycling as it exists. Your dream is
_never_ going to come true, but your method of pursuing it is worsening the very problems you decry.
You are doing your best to dissuade people from cycling on the roads we have.
I'd figure you were some enemy agent, planted by the oil companies and highway builders, except the
people running those industries would never imagine anyone taking you seriously.
Please - just quiet down and go away. And for God's sake, never speak in public. You're doing much
more harm than good.
--
Frank Krygowski [email protected]
>
> If you want to breathe exhaust fumes and hear a bunch of loud noise and honking and have lit
> cigarettes and beer bottles thrown at you and ride on cracked potholed streets with cagers and
> pass endless miles of ugly car-chitecture and driveways, that is fine.
Yet more distortion and paranoia!
I've been a dedicated cyclist since 1972 or 1973. In a typical year, I ride roughly 2500 miles. I've
ridden in roughly 46 states and four countries.
Breathe exhaust fumes? It's never been a problem. Perhaps once or twice, in all those years, I've
shifted my position while waiting in line at a traffic light.
Loud noise? Traffic can be noisy on busy streets. For that reason, I usually take the parallel side
streets. They are almost always quiet and pleasant. I recall riding to work through a residential
neighborhood, hearing two park employees talking to each other, even though they were half a block
away. Quiet, indeed!
Horns honking? I probably get honked at two or three times a year. Frankly, it's no problem. I ride
properly, and if someone is unreasonable enough to be offended by my presence, that's their problem,
not mine. They're past me soon enough. I ignore the lowbrows.
Lit cigarettes? Never, since 1973, has anyone thrown a lit cigarette at me, nor at my wife, my son
or my daughter.
Beer bottles? Ditto.
Endless miles of cracked and potholed streets? I'm glad I have endless miles of streets to ride on,
rather than being confined to a few miles of bike paths that go nowhere! True, in some ideal world,
cracks and potholes would be magically smoothed, but on most roads, they're not a significant
problem. The worst irritation I've had from a pothole is once (in 25 years of riding) I slightly
dented a rim. I fixed it at home.
Compare this with the wonderful world of bike paths. The ones I'm familiar with around here are not
plowed in the winter. The roads are sometimes rough, but they can be ridden. The last time I tried
to ride a short cut-through bike path (the kind I most approve of), it was absolutely unrideable due
to the melted-and-refrozen footprints of the pedestrians in the six inch layer of snow.
Ugly "car-chitecture"?
Sounds like you believe bike paths are a cure even for America'sarchitectural woes! Sorry, Robert, but that's just too far out into fantasy land for me!
Again, as this post demonstrates: To advance your impossible vision of perfect bike paths going
everywhere in America, you are using the tactic of disparaging cycling as it exists. Your dream is
_never_ going to come true, but your method of pursuing it is worsening the very problems you decry.
You are doing your best to dissuade people from cycling on the roads we have.
I'd figure you were some enemy agent, planted by the oil companies and highway builders, except the
people running those industries would never imagine anyone taking you seriously.
Please - just quiet down and go away. And for God's sake, never speak in public. You're doing much
more harm than good.
--
Frank Krygowski [email protected]
