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| Please for the love of god use the sidewalk!; My car is going to run you off the road! | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 24 2007, 12:13 PM (937 Views) | |
| Purely4Pleasure | Mar 26 2007, 09:00 AM Post #16 |
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I Visited Candy Mountain and All I Got Was This Lousy Incision
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In PA - a bicycle IS a vehicle, and is required by law to ride in the road, not the sidewalk. There are also some multi-use trails where cyclists are permitted, but they are often not paved, and so are suitable for a mountain bike (wide, knobby tires) but not a road bike (skinny, slick tires). BY LAW, on my bike I am to stay to the right of the lane, but I should be at least 2' from the curb/edge of the road. If the road is twisty and narrow, I should move more toward the center of the road, so as to keep cars from trying to pass, and then move back over at the earliest opportunity. I don't know if there is any law regarding groups other than "no more than 2 abreast", but my bike club insists that large groups get broken into sets of 3-5 riders with at least 3 car lengths between them. But then, my bike club is locally known as the "rules nazis" for our insistance on following the rules of the road and exercising considerate biking. As far as the spandex, it makes as much sense for me to wear bike shorts and jerseys when I'm biking as it does to wear britches and boots when riding. Yes, the brightly-colored jerseys are a little idiotic, but the point is to be easily seen by cars. None of this excuses asshat behavior by cyclists - I apologize on their behalf. |
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| DairyQueen2049 | Mar 26 2007, 09:21 AM Post #17 |
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DRAGON BREATH. DRAGGIN' BUTT
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I think too, as gas begins to push $ 3 - $ 5 per gallon we will see more and more alternative transportation methods on the road and smaller vehicles too. This may very well get us all paying better attention to the world around us and less to our own personal worlds. Those Amish carriage and horse have as much right as the bike as the walker as the jogger as the skateboarder as you in your Hummer. Roll those windows down, breath in the good spring air, listen to the peepers and relax. You only get one life. Be sure you really live it. |
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| Circuspony | Mar 26 2007, 10:51 AM Post #18 |
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Thomas H. Cruise!
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Ugh, lots of nastiness and stereotypes about cyclists here - y'all should be ashamed of yourselves. In most places, bicycles have just as much right to the road as your car, and it won't kill you to take a breath, slow down for a minute, and pass cyclists safely when you can. I swear that getting behind the wheel of a car turns otherwise-nice people into entitled, raging monsters - Lord help anyone or anything who gets in the way! I get around more by bike than I do by car, and I don't think anyone should complain about bikes on the road until you've dealt with aggro trucks, cell-talking SUV drivers, buses...on a bicycle. |
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| Circuspony | Mar 26 2007, 10:53 AM Post #19 |
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Thomas H. Cruise!
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Also, we've all met (and complained about!) people who talk about horses the way that some of you are talking about bikes: "Rich women in stupid boots riding their stinky beasts, IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD!"
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| DairyQueen2049 | Mar 26 2007, 11:02 AM Post #20 |
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DRAGON BREATH. DRAGGIN' BUTT
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"But check out the tight pants! Hubba hubba!!" Oh yeah - I hear that alllll the time.
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| gracetw22 | Mar 26 2007, 02:39 PM Post #21 |
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Off visiting Candy Cave, be right back.
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I think if bike people would follow their own "share the road" motto, I would be fine. I take no issue with them going single file, or double when on a two-lane road, but when they are taking up the entire lane in an area where they make it impossible to pass (check out the 10 car line behind you with your handy rearview mirrors, please!) Most of them are fine, and I am glad they can get out and enjoy the outdoors, but I think a few create a bad reputation for many. |
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| MistyBlue | Mar 27 2007, 06:14 AM Post #22 |
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Schooling
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Circuspony...I have no issues with bikers who obey the laws of the road. None at all and there are a small handful of bikers who go by my area who are pleasant law abiding folks. However...our roads do not allow passing for miles and miles. The roads are literally barely two cars wide...many curves we have to wait for one truck to come around it before we try because there isn't a shoulder on the road, trees or drop off go right up to the edge of the road, there are no curbs and on some curves truck mirrors will hit each other if you try one going east and one going west at the same time. The main route my street is off of has one spot in an 8 mile stretch where you can pass bikes because you can see 1/4 mile for a short spot. As soon as the weather gets warm enough to bike...at least 2-3 times per week when I'm running errands I'm stuck for FIVE miles going 15-20 behind 5-15 bikers riding 2-3 bikes wide and barely peddaling so they can chat. FIVE miles. If you ask them politely to move aside so you can pass they glare at you and ignore you or start yelling, "How rude! We're talking here!!!!" My area is odd because my town is very rural...we have a single traffic light and absolutely no street lights. The roads are dangerous enough without a crapload of yuppies barely peddaling faster than a pull toy getting in the way. The homes are about 75% farms or people who've been in town for generations and 25% huge new houses set picturesquely in the woods filled with yuppy pains in the butts. They drive their midlife crisis Boxters, et al all over the roads going 50-60 in a 30 mph zone because the roads resemble a test course with all the curves, which they can't handle and are always careening onto the wrong side of the road. They blast at warp speed past our kids waiting for the bus. The careene off the roads into our fences and mailboxes and they sideswipe trucks all the time. On weekends they do the same but on bicycles. I've pulled up alongside bikes at stop signs that I followed at a snail's pace for miles and politely asked them to allow motorized traffic to pass or to pedal the speed limit and been told how much they pay in property taxes and how that gives them the right to the roads. Not once...many times. It's been such an issue in our town (out of towners actually bring their bikes here on their SUV's to enjoy our scenic roads too) that many trucks now have stickers with a bicycle picture with a line going through it, LOL! (a feed store hands them out) |
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| Giddy-up | Mar 27 2007, 07:31 AM Post #23 |
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Shunnnnn the unbeliever. Shunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
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My fav are the bikers who cry "we are equals on the road" yet don't think the rules apply to them. Stop signs--why bother? Red lights--you don't mean me? You can't have it both ways.
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| Heart River | Mar 27 2007, 07:49 AM Post #24 |
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Shunnnnn the unbeliever. Shunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
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I've been out on roads with people who believe that "there's a law that horses have the right of way" is going to protect them from the drivers who are unaware of such a law (and wouldn't observe it if they were). It's hard when you're on the horse or bicycle not to think, Why doesn't that mother-humping baby-raping Hummer driver GIVE ME THE ROAD??? I noticed, riding in New Hampshire, that it's entirely unusual for the people on horses to acknowledge the driver of the SUV/truck/car, and that a wave and "Thanks -- my horse is a baby" goes a long way toward mitigating the inconvenience you're causing. I've been out with whole fields of foxhunters who took up the road and didn't acknowledge the drivers they were impeding. Maybe they'd get out of the way -- but wave and say "thanks"? I don't think so. Maybe if bicyclists AND riders did more of this, instead of glaring at motorists for not acknowledging that they're doing something FAR more important than just driving a car, the road would be a friendlier place. Or, I think it's been said more succinctly .... "Can't we all just get along?" |
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| Circuspony | Mar 27 2007, 08:45 AM Post #25 |
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Thomas H. Cruise!
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OK, no excuses or apologies for obnoxious cyclists here. People like that are the reason that people like me have to deal with yelling and intimidation from drivers.:mallet: As for the packs of cyclists, you pretty much have to train in a group for mass-start races - there's no other way to learn how to control your pace and line in a tight group. |
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| SnackPack | Mar 27 2007, 11:23 AM Post #26 |
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You're BANNED!
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Bicycles are considered vehicles and are entitled to be on the road, not the sidewalk. Learn to share. (Just an FYI, cyclists ride closer to the lane of traffic, even when there is a bike lane, because there is more debris toward the outside which leads to flats and occassional nastiness) |
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| Baileygreyhorse | Mar 29 2007, 05:02 PM Post #27 |
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Schooling
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How many of you are cyclists or runners? If you were, you'd realize that NO ONE has the sole right to the road. It must be shared. Are you seriously that busy and important that you can't slow down? If so, please get a heliocopter and a pilot so we runners and cyclists don't get in your way.
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| Hazelnut | Mar 31 2007, 04:28 AM Post #28 |
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I Visited Candy Mountain and All I Got Was This Lousy Incision
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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Laughed out loud, so rare when reading on the internet! I am careful around cyclists, runners, dogs, children, and horses when I drive. I have all of them as family and friends and figure if there's a physical run in while I'm driving my vehicle...well, sadly, I'll win - which I do not care to deal with. I sit behind cyclists on windy roads, too. Cause if there ain't no shoulder and I'm over the double yellow either I chance a head on or knocking the cyclist off the road...I drive defensively and listen to some music! |
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| Sing Mia Song | Apr 3 2007, 06:07 PM Post #29 |
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I'm from the Government and I'm here to help.
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Your must be on the Sugarloaf Mountain loop. Partnership Road, perhaps? I used to have fantasies about blowing through the packs of cyclists on that loop. The absolute rudest bunch of people who ever mounted two wheels.I have no problem sharing the road. But when you're holding up traffic, get in single file. Don't be so stupid to ride across the whole lane, sitting up and squirting Power Cool Fuel Gel O' The Moment into your mouth while on a heavily shaded road (up, that would make you difficult to see) and be surprised when you nearly get creamed. When I run on the road, I am careful to pay attention to traffic. When I ride on the road, I get off the road when possible to allow traffic to pass. When I'm driving down the highway and someone else is driving faster, I move over. Common fooking courtesy. Besides, in a collision between the cyclist and the car, who do you really think is going to win? Hint: it's the sheet metal, stupid. |
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| yellowbritches | Apr 3 2007, 08:06 PM Post #30 |
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I Visited Candy Mountain and All I Got Was This Lousy Incision
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As a cyclist, I apologize for those of my kind who annoy all of you (they annoy me, too, but I still respect them!). In VA, cyclists have just as much right to the road as the cars. Most people don't know this, but you are supposed to give them an entire lane to pass, just as you would a car, truck, or motorcycle (I know that's easier said than done, but it is SCARY as hell when you're riding on a quiet road with plenty of room to pass and someone just passes you with inches to spare
). Cyclists often prefer the road to the bike path because the road has better hills or the bike path doesn't allow for training at speed (here in NOVA there are signs everywhere on the W&OD about not training or riding at speed), or training in big groups (as someone has said already, group riding is an art form that must be practiced...watch the Tour de France in July...those boys don't just ride willy nilly!). Cyclists tend to ride further in the lanes as shoulders are often gravelly, which is slick as snot and very hazordous with skinny, slick roadbike tires. They also may ride further in for visibility (why motorcyclists hug the center line and not the white line). Just as in horseback riding, the kit we wear on our bikes serves a purpose. The tight stuff keeps us from chafing, bright colors are great for visibility (and they look super cool!), and everything is made to wick, wick, wick or block wind, or both.Cycling is just like us with our horses and their people...there are lots of good and lots of bad. Please don't go around running us all of the road, pushing us over as you pass, or declaring your bigger so you'll win (actually, you're likely to lose big time if you are at fault in a car vs bike accident...just like pedestrian accidents) just because a few of our kinds are asses. <_< |
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I used to have fantasies about blowing through the packs of cyclists on that loop. The absolute rudest bunch of people who ever mounted two wheels.
). Cyclists often prefer the road to the bike path because the road has better hills or the bike path doesn't allow for training at speed (here in NOVA there are signs everywhere on the W&OD about not training or riding at speed), or training in big groups (as someone has said already, group riding is an art form that must be practiced...watch the Tour de France in July...those boys don't just ride willy nilly!). Cyclists tend to ride further in the lanes as shoulders are often gravelly, which is slick as snot and very hazordous with skinny, slick roadbike tires. They also may ride further in for visibility (why motorcyclists hug the center line and not the white line). Just as in horseback riding, the kit we wear on our bikes serves a purpose. The tight stuff keeps us from chafing, bright colors are great for visibility (and they look super cool!), and everything is made to wick, wick, wick or block wind, or both.
12:32 PM Jul 11