P
Pat
Guest
On May 29, 3:24 pm, donquijote1954 <[email protected]>
wrote:
> On May 24, 2:15 pm, Pat <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > I rather keep fit in my SUB (smart utility bike). Well, rethinking my
> > > strategy in light of the Darwinian roads where I'm forced to drive.
> > > Even smaller cars put me at the wrong end of the food chain. I guess
> > > only buses protect me from the big predators out there.
>
> > I am in a small town in the middle of nowhere. In the last two weeks,
> > we have had two bus incidents. One was a lacrosse bus (that my son
> > was on) that his a mogal in the road so hard that it ripped the kid-
> > gate off the front of the bus. A couple of kids hit the ceiling.
> > Then last week, a bus (with the lights flashing) was slowing down to
> > drop off kids and it was rear-ended by a tractor trailer. 3 kids and
> > the driver hurt. Nothing too serious. 4 kids okay. Busses are safe,
> > but maybe not as safe as I had thought.-
>
> Though nothing is absolutely safe, they are the only ones that don't
> bow to SUVs or at least the only ones where you don't feel like a
> sitting duck...
>
> You know how I feel in any other vehicle out there???
>
> http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/cga0264l.jpg
>
> Yes, I feel like that, and not even walking you are safe from the
> ARROGANT, CARELESS SUV DRIVERS. Case in point, as I was walking down
> the sidewalk last Friday (transferring buses, with a heavy box to
> boot), an SUV with a young lady at the wheel starts turning into this
> driveway to the shopping center, cutting me off in the process
> (something kind of usual in this Darwinian city where I live, #1 in
> the nation), and I respond by knocking on her window. She then shows
> the phone: She's gonna call the police! And I shout at her, "Go ahead
> and call the police!" OK, she changed her mind, but she still stopped
> some feet further to shout something at me.
>
> So, under this TERROR we must live. I guess it's normal in the jungle.
> Like the sitting duck said, "Never sit down during the hunting
> season..."
A guy I knw who rode a motorcycle always wore "gauntlet" gloves that
covered the wrist. He grometed a spike on the outside of each glove.
If someone got too close, he swung at them. It's hard to break a
windshield but I guess side windows are pretty easy ;-) And
scratching paint is easier. He said he took out a few windows in his
day.
Where I live, EVERYONE drives a SUV or a pickup. But we're pretty
rural and very snowy. Hummers and Cadilac Espensades (or whatever
they are called) are an obsession on the Rez.
Most bicycles stay on the sidewalks around here.
On my motorcycle, SUVs aren't as big of a concern as tractor
trailers. Their wind blasts can move you quite a bit. I ride a
heavy, touring bike for better visibility, use pre-emptive honking,
and keep the CD on the trucker channel to talk to them. Rocks coming
out of dump trucks is the worst. Take a #2 crushed stone to the body
at 70mph and you feel it. Even sand stings a bit.
BTW, school gets out 1/2 hour early tomorrow for the funeral of a 15-
year-old who was killed in a single-car accident on Friday. A dog
jumped from the back seat to the front seat and distracted the
driver. She swerved, over-corrected and hit a bank. The girl who was
killed was ejected from the car during the rollover. Too many people
in the car and an inexperienced driver.
wrote:
> On May 24, 2:15 pm, Pat <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > I rather keep fit in my SUB (smart utility bike). Well, rethinking my
> > > strategy in light of the Darwinian roads where I'm forced to drive.
> > > Even smaller cars put me at the wrong end of the food chain. I guess
> > > only buses protect me from the big predators out there.
>
> > I am in a small town in the middle of nowhere. In the last two weeks,
> > we have had two bus incidents. One was a lacrosse bus (that my son
> > was on) that his a mogal in the road so hard that it ripped the kid-
> > gate off the front of the bus. A couple of kids hit the ceiling.
> > Then last week, a bus (with the lights flashing) was slowing down to
> > drop off kids and it was rear-ended by a tractor trailer. 3 kids and
> > the driver hurt. Nothing too serious. 4 kids okay. Busses are safe,
> > but maybe not as safe as I had thought.-
>
> Though nothing is absolutely safe, they are the only ones that don't
> bow to SUVs or at least the only ones where you don't feel like a
> sitting duck...
>
> You know how I feel in any other vehicle out there???
>
> http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/cga0264l.jpg
>
> Yes, I feel like that, and not even walking you are safe from the
> ARROGANT, CARELESS SUV DRIVERS. Case in point, as I was walking down
> the sidewalk last Friday (transferring buses, with a heavy box to
> boot), an SUV with a young lady at the wheel starts turning into this
> driveway to the shopping center, cutting me off in the process
> (something kind of usual in this Darwinian city where I live, #1 in
> the nation), and I respond by knocking on her window. She then shows
> the phone: She's gonna call the police! And I shout at her, "Go ahead
> and call the police!" OK, she changed her mind, but she still stopped
> some feet further to shout something at me.
>
> So, under this TERROR we must live. I guess it's normal in the jungle.
> Like the sitting duck said, "Never sit down during the hunting
> season..."
A guy I knw who rode a motorcycle always wore "gauntlet" gloves that
covered the wrist. He grometed a spike on the outside of each glove.
If someone got too close, he swung at them. It's hard to break a
windshield but I guess side windows are pretty easy ;-) And
scratching paint is easier. He said he took out a few windows in his
day.
Where I live, EVERYONE drives a SUV or a pickup. But we're pretty
rural and very snowy. Hummers and Cadilac Espensades (or whatever
they are called) are an obsession on the Rez.
Most bicycles stay on the sidewalks around here.
On my motorcycle, SUVs aren't as big of a concern as tractor
trailers. Their wind blasts can move you quite a bit. I ride a
heavy, touring bike for better visibility, use pre-emptive honking,
and keep the CD on the trucker channel to talk to them. Rocks coming
out of dump trucks is the worst. Take a #2 crushed stone to the body
at 70mph and you feel it. Even sand stings a bit.
BTW, school gets out 1/2 hour early tomorrow for the funeral of a 15-
year-old who was killed in a single-car accident on Friday. A dog
jumped from the back seat to the front seat and distracted the
driver. She swerved, over-corrected and hit a bank. The girl who was
killed was ejected from the car during the rollover. Too many people
in the car and an inexperienced driver.