CRITICAL MASS

[thelawgoddess]

Also, people on bikes can be assholes and can ride in ways that are totally unpredictable to cars.

thanks, chelle. i've come across one or two of those. i'm pretty conscientious but bikes move fast (and many don't stay in line in traffic) so it can be easy to miss them if they didn't happen to be where you were looking at the time.

[chelle]

When your on a bike it seems as if drivers feel like they have a protective bubble around them (with a plate #) and this gives them the reason to want to defeat all other forms of motion around them including walkers. I find it funny if you pass a car thats stuck in traffic they will hunt you down so that they can floor it when they pull up next to you just to let you know they can go faster than you. This type of revenge can take on scarier forms.....but it just seems so silly to the biker....wow.....you beat me.....imagine that....or....wow..... you hit me.....don't you feel better?? There are alot of asshole out there.....and there more apparent when your on a bike.

 

Not making any assumptions about your riding skills. My comments about bikers also being assholes sometimes was not directed at you, but a comment in general about how to ride more safely when in traffic.

 

What I did point out was a possible interpretation to your views above about why people floor the gas pedal when passing. Maybe it is in direct response to you passing them on your bike. But it could also have nothing to do with your presence on the road. Lighten up. Go ride and have fun.

 

And no I am not in a little bubble when in my car. When driving I stop for pedestrians and look for cyclists on the road. There is no reason to be in such a hurry that you make people walking stand on a corner and wait to cross the street (especially in the rain).

 

The only times I floor it past a cyclist with them in mind is when I need to pull into the oncoming lane to pass because there is little shoulder and I want to give the biker plenty of room OR when the idot is weaving all over the road and I am afraid I will hit him when he weaves right into my path.

 

Nuff said. I gotta go to work.

[Crux]

The only times I floor it past a cyclist with them in mind is when I need to pull into the oncoming lane to pass because there is little shoulder and I want to give the biker plenty of room OR when the idot is weaving all over the road and I am afraid I will hit him when he weaves right into my path.

And to the Judge the defendant explained she floored the gas pedal, as a matter of common sense, to speed past the idiot bicyclist who was weaving all over the road.

[Dave_Schuldt]

My biggest problem with other bikers is when they don't use lights. Lighting systems keep getting better and cheaper.

[Crux]

My biggest problem with other bikers is when they don't use lights. Lighting systems keep getting better and cheaper.

 

Personally, I can't recall having a direct problem with cyclists when I drive. Just lucky, I guess. But I have observed some dangerous riding, and what takes my vote for the prize is the bike rider who insists on riding on the wrong side of the road. Plain and simple.

 

Here's the case: Two weeks ago, I'm at a crosswalk on Aurora, wating for the light to change, when a guy approaches me, tells me he always rides facing the traffic, and suggests I'd do well to follow his common-sense advice.

 

I wonder. Should I explain to this guy that he's an idiot? Or should I just nominate him for a Darwin Award? Just then, he volunteers the details of not one but two head-on collisions that he's suffered over the past year -- as a result of his brilliant safety practices.

 

He says the second accident wasn't so bad, except he had to flee the scene to evade the police and avoid being cited. (Apparently, he's learned that riding the wrong way is illegal, whether it be on the shoulder or in the lane, and that he's liable for damages to the cars he runs into!) Anyway, he says the worst part of the accidents was all the bits of glass that stuck to his bleeding head right after he planted his face into an oncoming windshield in front of Dick's on Holman road...

 

 

Anwyay, yeah, the new lights are awesome... started using a 2AA 10-LED tailight (Cateye), and one driver actually pulled up and commended me on using such a blindingly bright light. The guy was laughing and saying over and over, "I can't believe how easy it was to see you, like wow!"

 

I think he'd been drinking. Which may be good testimony for the light. I think.

 

[rbw1966]

There's a guy who commutes the opposite of me and in the winter time he has a light so bright I thought it was a friggin train bearing down on me. I had to slow down because I couldn't see. Thats absurd on a trail that is only open to cyclists and pedestrians.

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

There's a guy who commutes the opposite of me and in the winter time he has a light so bright I thought it was a friggin train bearing down on me. I had to slow down because I couldn't see. Thats absurd on a trail that is only open to cyclists and pedestrians.

 

W...w...w...WAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

[Dave_Schuldt]

I always use the lower setting when I'm on the trail. As soon as that new trail on Grand Ridge opens I am going to buy a new set up for night MTBing.

[AlpineK]

So when were you out climbing last Dave????

[Dave_Schuldt]

I forget.

[AlpineK]

I forget.

 

Exactly

[chris]

I always understood that CM existed for two reasons:

1) Make drivers more aware that cyclists exist

2) Make a physical arguement for more bike lanes and bike paths

 

Then I rode with CM in B'ham last fall, and was embarassed to find us holding up traffic on a rode that had a bike lane wide enough for two cyclists. What's the point of that? Luckily enough drivers seemed to be having as much fun with it as we were, but the cops weren't happy. When they started commanding us to "pull over and dismount", my friend and I split and went to the Brewery.

 

CM is a great concept, but at least in B'ham its been co-opted by asses who just like to pick trouble with the police.

[olyclimber]

In Seattle, cyclists could use a break....but it doesn't do much good when you're pissing off the people you're trying to convince.

[archenemy]

Seems to work so well on cc.com though

[olyclimber]

Who is trying to convince who?

[Ireneo_Funes]

I think the CM crowd would impress the public a lot more if they made a point of obeying traffic laws, rather than making a point of disregarding them. I've never ridden in one, but they seem to generate a lot of bad feeling in downtown PDX. As a cyclist, and someone who doesn't own a car, I think it's a drag that the car-bike relationship has become so adversarial.

[spicoli11]

I agree.........you can't prove your point by setting a bad example.....it's like snowboarders and skiers......there will be no end