|   bike idiots | willierider
Jan 17, 2002 1:20 PM | | I'm curious if any of you ever experienced similar incidents. The other day I was driving down my local avenues and stopped at a fairly busy intersection. There was a biker, probably about twenty year old looking typical student who was on a specialized hardtail (i forgot which)... He was coming down the hill perpendicular to me and the light turned red for him and green for me. His front tire was past the white pedestrian lines so I waited for him to cross. He gawks at me and SLOWLYYYYYY makes his way across the intersection. I wouldn't be pissed if this was a stop sign, but i got more than enough cars with angry soccer moms behind me so I give him a honker to speed up. He flicks me off and SLOWLYYYYY finishes his way and speeds off when he's finally done crossing the intersection. This is in the Sunset district of San Francisco and it's no surprise to me why some people have a justified right to hate us. I'm a biker and respect the ways of traffic. Its just ironic that I get pissed at my own kind and realize why were so hated. |
| SF is the worst | Hank
Jan 17, 2002 1:54 PM | | I think it's because of critical mass (which started out cool but then got stupid). I rode and also commuted by bike for 8 years on that city with no problems (in fact, if you are in shape, riding is usally faster than the car--especially if you factor in parking), but every time I got in my car I wanted to run some of these @sshole cyclists over. I was just back visiting some friends, driving the rental car around had several encounters with bonhead cyclists riding slowly in the middle of the road like they owned it. Ride fast or move over. |
| SF is the worst | mikeb
Jan 17, 2002 6:52 PM | | i have commuted by bike here in sf for somewhere around ten years, give or take a few.
yes, there are a lot of jackasses on bikes, and i often tell them how stupid they are. needless to say, my advice to these fools has nearly escalated more than once into a physical confrontation.
i don't think that the reason for this is critical mass--the reason is that there are a lot of riders out there who just don't care, anyway about it. this is complicated by the fact that san francisco is filled stem to stern with liver lillied half-blind chuckle heads hailing from all four corners of the globe. most of these bozos drive cars, which can make san francisco a challenging place to work and drive.
my perspective on this is balanced, i think. i ride to work every day, and then i often have to drive our company's sixteen foot flatbed truck. it's a good thing i have some sort of self control, because the idiocy in the streets makes it very tempting to run over both foolish drivers and cyclists alike.
i guess the best thing i can tell any of you is to approach all of this with a sense of humor--seriously, taking this attitude has prevented me from doing god-knows-what to someone. |
| What a stupid thing to say, check out www.sfbike.org for some | dodo
Jan 17, 2002 10:04 PM | | real insight on bicycling in the city.
"Ride fast or move over?" Bike riding is not a race but an alternative and environmental way to go around. Where are all this people with their stupid cars going so fast? Why do I have to go 20 miles an hour to think that I am safe (I would be not!)
I have been riding the bike in SF for ten years and it is a terrible place to ride (on the road, off the road is great). Until few years ago there where no bicyle paths, the "paths" that have been built are just (sigh!) a piece of paint on the street, there are no dedicated paths for cyclists and so on and so on ... |
| What a stupid thing to say, check out www.sfbike.org for some | Hank
Jan 17, 2002 11:29 PM | | so you should be able to ride in the middle of the road at 10 mph and impede cars? Seriously? I actually think SF was pretty good place to ride--just a matter of knowing what routes to takes. I rode/commuted all over the city. In general, bike lanes cause more trouble then they're worth--if you're in a bike lane, you're likely to be doored, and if you stray outside the bike lane to avoid double parked cars, etc., then cars are honking at you. Bike paths are always flooded with pedestrians and roller bladers. Best way to ride in a the city is at a good pace, at a comfortable distance from parked cars, on streets that aren't main thoroughfares or bus routes. Be consistant, visable, and ride in a predictable manner. But don't take up the whole the road and don't act like a jerk to motorists. |
| This can go on for a long time and probably we have a similar | Dodo
Jan 18, 2002 9:19 AM | | position.
All I am saying is that in SF there not 1 (one) dedicated path for cyclists. By dedicated I mean a European style path which is delimitated by a concrete shoulder. So you are forced to stay on paths marked by paint (sigh!) and to go from one such path into open road on most routes.
I do find it funny that byciclist make silly comments like the one I was reacting to. I am a really fast cyclist and I ride to the left ojust enough to clear an anespected revolving car dorr. Still I had been fingered, insulted, passed by a rashing car of truck or bus one inch from my handle bar and so on and so on.
Byciclist are exposed on the road, it takes a second for a car to kill a bicyclist. Just because of that, even when bicyclists go slow and are in the way one should be patient. |
| This can go on for a long time and probably we have a similar | Hank
Jan 18, 2002 10:37 AM | | my problem is, as others have pointed out on this thread, the cyclists who act in a reasonable, safe manner tend to get lumped in by the driving/hiking/horseback-riding public with the @sshole cyclists out there who act like a bunch of jerks--whether it's on the road or off road, whether it's critical mass blocking traffic or someone riding out-of-control fast around hikers. I think we need to make an effort to re-educate these people, and not be patient with their idiotic behavior that ends up makes things hard on the rest of us. |
| I agree, bikers should always give the right of way to pedestria | Davide
Jan 18, 2002 11:36 AM | | on the street and especially on the trail (we lost Tam over idiots doing downhill runs around hikers ...) ... critical mass ... as usual if you bring a lot of people on the street to demonstrate it takes a lot of organization to avoiding running out of control (it just takes a few hot-heads to screw the thing up). I still think critical mass is a good idea, it needs some creative thinking to make it work ... |
| they're everywhere... | toad
Jan 17, 2002 2:18 PM | | It amazes me how frickin stupid people get when they throw their leg over a bicycle and head out onto the streets. They demand to have access to the roads and in fact do have the right to be on most roads. But as soon as they get out there they are totally oblivious to the fact that traffic rules and also apply to them. It drives me nuts because people see this and assume that anyone who rides a bicycle has no regaurd for the law. Same thing happens on the trails also. A few idiots can't seem to follow the rules, or common sense, and the next thing you know you have the sierra club types demanding that bikes be banned from all trails. |
| re: bike idiots | WarrGuru
Jan 17, 2002 3:05 PM | | Recently, I was driving my car down Hiway 9 towards Santa Cruz, CA. Hiway 9 is a curvy, twisting 2 lane road with no shoulders. I wish that bikes could be banned from it, but I digress.
I rounded a corner to see a roadie pedaling down the middle of the lane (same direction as me). He stayed in the middle of the road and wouldn't pull over to let me pass. I finally passed him and pulled over and confronted him.
I asked him why he didn't pull over and let me pass. He told me that he has just as much right to the road as me. I let him know that even cars that can't / won't do the speed limit will pull over to let others pass and he should do the same. He started riding away and flipped me off. He's lucky that I'm not a hot head. I just know that he's gonna die on that road....others already have. |
| re: bike idiots | Hank
Jan 17, 2002 4:37 PM | | cars have Highway 17. This guy might have been an idiot, but that is a good road for riding. Or it was when I was living on the Peninsula in the 80s. Traffic down there has gotten a lot worse since then. Most of the problems I found were caused by slow cars and motorcycles going too fast. |
| that guy was wrong | WriConsult
Jan 17, 2002 10:07 PM | | I don't know the CA laws, but in Oregon you have to stay near the right side of the roadway UNLESS you have a legitimate reason not to - debris, obstacles, the lane/roadway isn't wide enough to allow safe passing, or about 20 other good excuses specifically detailed in the law. If none of those were the case he should have given you room. That kind of arrogance makes us all look bad.
My wife and I did a week-long bike tour last fall, and it was interesting to hang out with 2000 other bikers. Maybe I had an idealized idea of cyclists as nice, cool people, and many of them were. But the really eye-opening thing about it was coming to the realization that we're are just like everyone else. Some of us are a55holes, some of us are really nice, some of us are smart, some of us are bozos. Just like everyone else. Including motorists.
Unfortunately the jerks on bicycles are really visible, as are the large number who aren't arrogant, just uneducated on how to properly ride on a public way. Our image sure could use improvement.
Not a California thing, either. It's true everywhere, at least in the US.
- Dan |
| the law in california as i know it is | mikeb
Jan 18, 2002 7:45 PM | | that cyclists are permitted on the roads, but must stay as far to the right AS IS SAFE AND PRACTICAL. cyclists may stray further into the lane to pass a slower moving cyclist or to avoid hazards.
this is my interpretation of the california vehicle code as printed on flyers handed out at most critical mass rides i used to attend. |
| The worst incident I've seen ... | Philber
Jan 17, 2002 5:48 PM | | was when I was living in Portola Valley, just outside Palo Alto. Half the people in town were gathered at the bottom of a big hill for the start of the annual Portola Valley Fun Run. There must have been 800 people, dogs, families, kids, strollers, etc. I mean you would have had to be blind to not see the crowd. This cyclist comes flying down the hill at full speed. She obviously didn't want to slow down, because as soon as she gets to the bottom (where we all were) there's a big hill going back up. So instead of slowing down, she starts yelling and screaming at people. Well, there was nowhere to go. I mean, we covered the entire road some 20 or 30 people deep. So, still going full speed and now maybe 50 meters from the crowd, she realizes that she now has only two choices: ride into the woods beside the road or mow down a bunch of families. So she rides into the woods at about 30 mph to the nasty, but amusing, sound of tree limbs breaking and bike parts crunching. When she gets up, she starts swearing and cursing at everybody in the crowd. What a dork. |
| Did all of these incidents happen in California? | Nat
Jan 17, 2002 7:39 PM | | Hey...hmmmmm...never mind. |
| Lots of uptight people mixed in with those who.... | sheebo
Jan 17, 2002 8:45 PM | | are mellow and/or cool. Streets are crowded and trail access is limited. Fortunately there are places close by to escape this insanity. God Bless Mt Diablo, my personal escape. Cheers. |
| NY perspective | asswhole
Jan 18, 2002 6:02 AM | | It's bad all over, but after being constantly buzzed by cars and nearly hit a couple of times, you have to get aggressive. Remember, you are a vehicle too, and you have right of way in traffic situations, too. I always try and ride in the shoulder if I can, but even then, drivers want to use it to get around turning cars and get mad at you. They constantly make right turns right in front of you. Yeah, there are some "bike idiots" out there, but I must say that 99% of the problems on the road are caused by over-aggressive car drivers, who won't take their foot off the gas for a god-damned instant to give a bicyclist a break. |
| We've got 'em in the midwest too... | JmZ
Jan 17, 2002 9:29 PM | | We've got four types of riders here...
1) People who want to bike and normally have a clue.
2) Kids.
3) Drunks.
4) The Clueless.
Type 1 are normally the roadies all decked out in lycra, or at least a mountain guy with a helmet on. Normally smart enought to stay out of the way of hostile 2 ton + objects.
2) 3) 4) These people are the dangerous ones.
Things I've personally seen by these people. Cut a left turn through a gas station, on coming traffic at a busy intersection. Riding wrong way on road when said road is two lanes wide and 50 miles an hour.
Then there's the usual; Running stop signs, red lights, riding on sidewalks/street/parking lots/back to street.
Idocy is everywhere. It's just easier to spot when there is a greater concentration of idiots.
JmZ
The people who ride the wrong side of the road (two lane road with wide sides and 50 mph), Cut le |
| Sorry...had to make fun of your screen name (nm) | BettyWon't
Jan 17, 2002 10:34 PM | | |
| They're called CHOADS (1/2 limp dicks) & they're everywhere | The Notorious R.O.B.
Jan 18, 2002 6:17 PM | | |
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