On 6/25/2020 1:21 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 8:53:04 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/25/2020 12:08 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 6:30:30 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/24/2020 7:19 PM, jbeattie wrote:


BTW, my mandatory commute is only five miles. Longer distances on the way home are elective. I work with a guy who is overweight by any measure, and he commutes 12 miles each way every day. He's in his 50s. A lot of his commute is on a rail-trail. BTW, he switched to a disk bike because he was grinding up rims every few years.

Russell's comment on that brought up a good point, rail trails shouldn't
require much braking at all. Is the rest of the guy's commute super steep?

Some rollers but mostly flat, but the guy has to be 250-300lbs. He told me he was going through rims every two years or so. He doesn't have any reason to make it up or prove any point. He's not doing guerrilla marketing for disc brakes.

Speaking of law enforcement, it works both ways: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azFUWiI2yA0

I'm curious: That was 8 years ago. What's happened since with
enforcement, and with bicyclist behavior?

The law changed, for one thing. https://bikeportland.org/2019/06/25/...-yields-301829 I've been blowing stop signs since the beginning of the year.

Cool! I'll be interested in safety data, once it's available.

It's my understanding that Idaho's law (bikes need only yield at stop
signs) actually adds safety. It's a bit tricky to lobby for that law,
though. Many politicians see it as a pathway to anarchy.

We do anarchy. We can also pass on the right and blow stop lights if they don't change, which was new last year, IIRC. I don't think I've stopped for anything in almost a year.

We got an exemption for non-changing red lights a couple of years ago. I
was one of the crew behind that change.

BTW, I sort of agree with Joy, that motorists do "Idaho stops" all the
time. I can watch a stop sign outside my windoe, and I've counted that
50% of motorists don't do full stops. I've done my not-quite-full stop
in front of a cop car at a congested four way stop intersection plus
other intersections and had no reaction.

If it weren't for occasional unreasonable hassles and crackdowns, I'd
say the law is fine as it is. So changing it here might be nice, but
it's low priority.

BTW, I'm just kidding about not stopping -- and all the law changes make no difference at functioning lights and busy intersections. Right of way still applies -- and near downtown, it becomes a f***** negotiation with people who think they're being nice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aIfarMPmPQ

They can be in their cars flagging me through, and I can't see them because of the blacked out windows. I wish cars would just act like cars. And its binary -- they're too nice or ass*****. Its the minority of cars that just act like cars.

Yeah, we had two of those today.

We also had a traffic light that refused to change, despite three bikes
being accurately placed on the detector loop. The pickup driver behind
us just wanted to do a right turn on red, but couldn't because of us. I
finally gave a big hands-out "Oh well!" and we rode through when the
four lane was clear.


--
- Frank Krygowski