wrong-way sidewalk rider gets comeuppance

Tom Keats wrote:

But they don't. If they make anybody look bad,
it's only themselves. Same goes for idiots in
cars doing stupid things. If all drivers were
rated by their actions, nobody would be allowed
to drive.

The difference, I think, is that motorists see themselves seperate from
bicyclists. Bicyclists are also a minority, and minorities are often
judged collectively based upon the actions of only a few members.

For example, a friend of mine rides a motorcycle and was out riding one
day with a group of his friends. They all ride sport bikes (Suzukis,
Ninjas, etc.). One of them lost control of his bike and crashed. As he
was getting up and inspecting his bike, a woman in a car pulled up along
side and said "Serves you right! These streets aren't a playground!"

Now, this woman hadn't seen the accident, but was merely assuming that
because this particular group was riding sport bikes, that they were
doing something illegal (like riding too fast, or doing stunts, etc.)

I don't know how the majority of motorists feel about bicyclists, since
I belong to both groups. But I bet to non-bicycling motorists, those
who do ride a bike are often grouped with our worst representatives,
simply because they tend to draw more negative attention to themselves.

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 21:24:56 -0700, ,
Ben Pfaff wrote:

I understand how it could seem that way. But I get tired of
seeing idiots on bikes doing stupid things that make the rest of
us look bad.

Bicyclists have been the butt of disparaging remarks since 1817.
Get over it.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
- Mahatma Gandhi
--
zk

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 23:46:22 -0700, ,
Bill Henry wrote:

I don't know how the majority of motorists feel about bicyclists, since
I belong to both groups. But I bet to non-bicycling motorists, those
who do ride a bike are often grouped with our worst representatives,
simply because they tend to draw more negative attention to themselves.

Sew watt?
You aren't going to change cager's minds.
--
zk

Ben Pfaff wrote:
the other guy swerved across the traffic
lane and hopped onto the narrow sidewalk going the wrong way

Don't assume riding on the sidewalk is illegal. In fact, It very well
may be the law NOT TO RIDE ON THE STREET where you live. Think I'm
kidding. Scroll down and see areas in red, click here
http://crankmail.com/fredoswald/sidewalk-laws.html

John

"John" writes:

Ben Pfaff wrote:
the other guy swerved across the traffic
lane and hopped onto the narrow sidewalk going the wrong way

Don't assume riding on the sidewalk is illegal. In fact, It very well
may be the law NOT TO RIDE ON THE STREET where you live.

This is not the case in California.
--
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
--D. E. Knuth, "Structured Programming with go to Statements"

On 4 Oct 2005 21:20:22 -0700, "Fritz M" wrote:

Rich wrote:

All most all your posts are critical. You're kind of a jerk.

Which is kind of weird, since in his book Robert preaches that we
should all just relax, take it easy, live and let live and not get
uptight about the jerks around us.

But yeah, it's slightly lame to get happy about a dude running into a
pole, IMHO.

RFM

What book?

In article ,
Ben Pfaff writes:
(Tom Keats) writes:

In article ,
Ben Pfaff writes:

But I get tired of
seeing idiots on bikes doing stupid things that make the rest of
us look bad.

But they don't. If they make anybody look bad,
it's only themselves.

But they do. Non-cyclists generalize from the actions of a few,
whether it's correct to do so or not.

Not in my experience. Here in Vancouver BC cyclists are
generally quite well tolerated by drivers, despite many
of the more blatant scofflaw types such as the BMX guys
who stitch their ways along either street or sidewalk,
depending on which suits them. Their sins are not visited
upon us more lawful riders. There might be the rare
kook driver who has it in for all cyclists. But I put
that down to their being kooks, rather than the behaviours
of other riders. We've got a fairly large (and growing)
cycling population here; maybe non-cycling drivers are
just used to us.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

John wrote:

Don't assume riding on the sidewalk is illegal. In fact, It very well
may be the law NOT TO RIDE ON THE STREET where you live.

Um, Ben posted from Stanford University in California.

RFM

Just desserts is right. I would have had a good giggle as well. Bound
to teach a better lesson than some other cyclist yelling at him.

It's like the cyclist I almost ran over turning into my alley in the
VW, who screamed at me "you almost ran me over and scared the **** out
of me." Me: "Good, maybe you'll learn to ride on the proper side of the
street."

Stupidity has its price.

"Tom Keats" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Ben Pfaff writes:
(Tom Keats) writes:

In article ,
Ben Pfaff writes:

But I get tired of
seeing idiots on bikes doing stupid things that make the rest of
us look bad.

But they don't. If they make anybody look bad,
it's only themselves.

But they do. Non-cyclists generalize from the actions of a few,
whether it's correct to do so or not.

Not in my experience. Here in Vancouver BC cyclists are
generally quite well tolerated by drivers,
...
We've got a fairly large (and growing)
cycling population here; maybe non-cycling drivers are
just used to us.

I think that might be the difference. It has been my experience here in the
SF Bay Area that non-bicyclists have a tendency to base their opinion of us
on the visible antics of the few loonies that also ride bikes. They don't
notice the larger section of the bicycling populace because we don't do
anything that ****es them off.