Cyclists
I've just finished reading an article about how cyclists shouldn't have to follow all the same laws as an automobile.
Ha!
I got a real kick out of it when the author even stated "Who's going to want to put taxpayer dollars—and most taxpayers also happen to be motorists—into frivolous bike playgrounds?" Well, no shit sherlock! I'll do you one further. Who is paying gas taxes that help pay for road maintenance? cyclists? Oh hell no! They aren't using gas! These inconsiderate pricks are only using gas, and thus paying their fair share, at the times when they are in fact driving an automobile! Who has to register (even more taxes) their mode of transportation to help pay for road maintenance every single year? cyclists? Surely you jest. Just from this one stance of feeling entitled without willing to pay the price I can tell you the political viewpoint of the cycling majority, and it sure isn't hard working middle class conservatives, that's for damn sure!
Raise your hand if you've ever found yourself behind a bike on a one lane street. Did you have to creep along behind the bike at less than 20 mph until you found a safe place (look how us motorists are the considerate ones) to pass them? After finally getting past the jerk (who was probably refusing to ride on the shoulder anyway, just because he believes himself to be an automobile), what happened at the next stop sign/traffic light? Did the bike merrily cruise up to the front of the line of cars that just spent 3 miles trying to get past him? I thought so.
What about those cyclists riding 2 or 3 (or more) abreast? They really don't want any automobiles going over 15 mph on THEIR street!
OK, the rant part is done. Certainly not ALL cyclists are this way. I've known/worked with several cyclists before, most were the inconsiderate, playing with their own lives, idiots I've described. A couple of them (OK, one...Ron) were good guy(s), cycling like he was sharing the road, trying NOT to get himself killed.
There is of course a whole other category of "cyclists". They don't even intend to be cyclists. They're just riding a bike. They don't know any rules, what they should be doing. You often see these kind wearing really dark clothes riding a major roads (without even a shoulder), at night, without so much as a reflector. As Tesla said though "But it should not be overlooked that all these are great eliminators assisting Nature, as they do, in upholding her stern but just law of the survival of the fittest."
posted by BugHunter at 2:38 PM
4 Comments:
I really enjoy your comments, I like that style :-)
a woman in our ward (who shall remain nameless but i'm sure you will know who i'm talking about)who is a biking fanatic saw me and my family out on a bike ride one day. The next day in relief society, she ran up to me and handed me a pamphlet about wearing helmets while bicycling. I smiled and handed her back the pamphlet and told her that everyone in my family wears a helmet everytime we go out. She refused to take the stupid thing back and smugly told me "I know, but I saw your daughter sitting in that chair on the back of your bike and wanted to ask you who is going to give her a ride home after you fall down?" then she turned to another young mother who i was sitting next too and started lecturing her about "sharing the road". what the what??? stupid bicyclists
It really is no wonder that cyclists die every year on the road. Hey I've got an idea, let's ride as fast as we can on the smallest amount of surface area wearing only spandex next to tons of steel (okay not so much steel anymore) that are traveling at 55 mph+. Oh and they'll watch out for us, we don't have to watch out for the tons of metal hurling towards us.
As one who rode only a bike for nearly two years (don't your dare call me a cyclist), I realize the fact that when you're the smallest vehicle on the road you yield to everyone (despite what some law might suggest). Like was said it's survival of the fittest (or biggest).
I was 25 years old before I bought my first car, and even then it was only because I needed it for my new job. Up until then I either borrowed my parents car (I still lived at home), rode the bus into town, or rode my $1,000+ bicycle.
In the 15 years I'd been riding I never got into any accidents (none that involved any other vehicles...wait, I did ride into the back of a parked car and a parked truck when I wasn't paying attention).
There were a few times that I came very, very close to having an accident with a moving vehicle, two that stand out.
The first almost-incident I rode through a round-a-bout (think a 4-way Yield-to-the-right intersection) and the car on my left (which by law should have yielded the right of way to me) either didn't see me or just miscalculated my speed, because she drove into the intersection as I rode in front of her. I veered my bike to the right away from her and there wasn't more than a few inches between my left pedal/foot and her front bumper when she came to a stop. Her fault for failing to yield to me, and my fault for assuming she would.
The second time I was sitting at a traffic light, waiting for the green, when a truck pulled up on my right. The light went green and I pumped the pedals to get up to speed as fast as I could while the truck slowly pulled ahead of me. On the other side of the intersection was a gas station, and that was the truck's destination. I grabbed at my brakes as the truck turned in front of me, cutting me off. Either totally oblivious to me, or just not caring that he'd come very close to running me off the road, the truck driver pulled into the gas station and parked next to a bowser. Shaken AND stirred but imagining the court case that would ensue if I beat the hell out of the driver I gritted my teeth and rode on to my destination. This incident was both the driver's fault for not caring about the cyclist with whom he was sharing the road, and my own fault because I'd deliberately accelerated as fast as I could, even though a little part of me knew the truck wanted to go into the gas station. (Maybe he'd turned his indicator on after pulling up beside me.)
This was in a tiny country town in Australia, not in a big city, and so while I might be willing to ride a bicycle here in L.A., it would only ever be on a designated bike path, never on the roads. I've come close enough to killing myself in a small country town. I'd die for sure if I rode a bike on the streets of L.A.
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