Darwin candidate

Saw a great Darwin candidate today.

I was on my way to my father-in-law's, but at lunch instead of my usual
6:00 AM routine today (overslept to catch up on several nights of poor
sleep). I'm eastbound on Gregory M Sears Dr, approaching Timber Trails
Blvd, a four-way stop intersection:

http://tinyurl.com/fqunj

A cyclist coming southbound on Timber Trails Blvd blows the sign and
swings EB onto Gregory M Sears Dr as I'm about 10 meters or so from the
intersection. As this is patently dangerous (especially with the MUP
that runs along the eastern side of Timber Trails Blvd), I yell out as I
roll up to the four-way stop "Obey your stop sign next time!"

After a second, he glances back over his right shoulder, as he's now
riding wrong-way against traffic, and sees me, but says nothing. I
continue EB on Gregory M Sears, and within 20 meters I'm alongside him
(but on the right side of the street, whereas he's still on the left). I
momentarily consider continuing my lecture on his riding skills, but I
don't feel like getting into a shouting match (always a possibility), so
I gear up and drop him. After a few blocks, I glance back in my mirror,
and it *appears* he's riding on the right side of the roadway now, but
it's hard to tell, so he may have been wrong-way riding to see what I
would do as I passed him. Still dumb, though.

And locals wonder why there's been a series of tit-for-tat motorist-vs.-
cyclist editorials in the Daily Herald lately.

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_
(_)/ (_)

In article ,
Kristian M Zoerhoff writes:
Saw a great Darwin candidate today.

I was on my way to my father-in-law's, but at lunch instead of my usual
6:00 AM routine today (overslept to catch up on several nights of poor
sleep). I'm eastbound on Gregory M Sears Dr, approaching Timber Trails
Blvd, a four-way stop intersection:

http://tinyurl.com/fqunj

A cyclist coming southbound on Timber Trails Blvd blows the sign and
swings EB onto Gregory M Sears Dr as I'm about 10 meters or so from the
intersection. As this is patently dangerous (especially with the MUP
that runs along the eastern side of Timber Trails Blvd), I yell out as I
roll up to the four-way stop "Obey your stop sign next time!"

After a second, he glances back over his right shoulder, as he's now
riding wrong-way against traffic, and sees me, but says nothing. I
continue EB on Gregory M Sears, and within 20 meters I'm alongside him
(but on the right side of the street, whereas he's still on the left). I
momentarily consider continuing my lecture on his riding skills, but I
don't feel like getting into a shouting match (always a possibility), so
I gear up and drop him. After a few blocks, I glance back in my mirror,
and it *appears* he's riding on the right side of the roadway now, but
it's hard to tell, so he may have been wrong-way riding to see what I
would do as I passed him. Still dumb, though.

Maybe he was contemplating doing a U-turn to go back up that MUP on
the eastern side of Timber Trails Blvd, and changed his mind at the
last second, decided he wanted to go east instead, checked for traffic
and got onto the proper side of Gregory M Sears Dr on ascertaining
that it was safe to do so. IOW, maybe he just made an awkard & ugly
dog-legged left turn.

I'm not saying that's good riding. Such maneouvers bear the earmark
of the indecisive vehicle operator. Sometimes the folks who don't
know where they want to go are more worrisome than the aggressive ones.
I have a self-imposed rule-of-thumb about that, when the vehicle
operators are drivers: I let the aggressive ones get ahead of me,
and keep the indecisive ones behind me.

And locals wonder why there's been a series of tit-for-tat motorist-vs.-
cyclist editorials in the Daily Herald lately.

That's been going on since cars and bicycles began to coexist.
Albeit not limited to your local Daily Herald :-)


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

In article , says...

Maybe he was contemplating doing a U-turn to go back up that MUP on
the eastern side of Timber Trails Blvd, and changed his mind at the
last second, decided he wanted to go east instead, checked for traffic
and got onto the proper side of Gregory M Sears Dr on ascertaining
that it was safe to do so. IOW, maybe he just made an awkard & ugly
dog-legged left turn.

Most likely not. The motion through the turn was fluid, and executed at
a pretty good speed. And this still doesn't excuse not stopping for the
stop sign, it would only absolve the wrong-way riding (IMO).

You're good to at least try to give him the benefit of the doubt,
though, given that you're relying on me to describe what happened.

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_
(_)/ (_)

In article ,
Kristian M Zoerhoff writes:

I'm eastbound on Gregory M Sears Dr, approaching Timber Trails
Blvd, a four-way stop intersection:

http://tinyurl.com/fqunj

So, why is it called "Timber Trails" when there's no trees? One of those
things where you name the development or the car for what you destroy?



--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

In article et,
says...
In article ,
Kristian M Zoerhoff writes:

I'm eastbound on Gregory M Sears Dr, approaching Timber Trails
Blvd, a four-way stop intersection:

http://tinyurl.com/fqunj

So, why is it called "Timber Trails" when there's no trees? One of those
things where you name the development or the car for what you destroy?

This was mostly farmland, and prairie before that, so there weren't many
trees out here to begin with (the big stands of oak you can see on the
satellite pics are about it for this part of Illinois -- they actually
refer to it as "oak savannah"). There are several major "forest
preserves" in the immediate vicinity, but they're mostly prairie with
scattered stands of trees.

The name comes from Big Timber Rd, which is the main county road, along
the southern edge of the neighborhood. Naturally, there's also a Timber
Glen and Timber Ridge, just to confuse out-of-towners.


--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Kristian M Zoerhoff" wrote in message
. net...
Saw a great Darwin candidate today.

I was on my way to my father-in-law's, but at lunch instead of my usual
6:00 AM routine today (overslept to catch up on several nights of poor
sleep). I'm eastbound on Gregory M Sears Dr, approaching Timber Trails
Blvd, a four-way stop intersection:

http://tinyurl.com/fqunj

A cyclist coming southbound on Timber Trails Blvd blows the sign and
swings EB onto Gregory M Sears Dr as I'm about 10 meters or so from the
intersection. As this is patently dangerous (especially with the MUP
that runs along the eastern side of Timber Trails Blvd), I yell out as I
roll up to the four-way stop "Obey your stop sign next time!"

After a second, he glances back over his right shoulder, as he's now
riding wrong-way against traffic, and sees me, but says nothing. I
continue EB on Gregory M Sears, and within 20 meters I'm alongside him
(but on the right side of the street, whereas he's still on the left). I
momentarily consider continuing my lecture on his riding skills, but I
don't feel like getting into a shouting match (always a possibility), so
I gear up and drop him. After a few blocks, I glance back in my mirror,
and it *appears* he's riding on the right side of the roadway now, but
it's hard to tell, so he may have been wrong-way riding to see what I
would do as I passed him. Still dumb, though.

And locals wonder why there's been a series of tit-for-tat motorist-vs.-
cyclist editorials in the Daily Herald lately.

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_
(_)/ (_)


Ahh, yes. Reading the People's Daily Irving is so much fun. And the Pravda
out of the south side and the Volkisher Beobachter out of Michigan Avenue.

The Colonel must be turning over in his grave.

Charles of Schaumburg.

So, why is it called "Timber Trails" when there's no trees? One of those
things where you name the development or the car for what you destroy?

"Fox Run", Back Bay", "Denali", "Land of the Free"?

--
mac the naïf