Cyclist at war!

In article ,
Tim McNamara writes:
In article ,
bugbear wrote:

ComandanteBanana wrote:
There's only one side you can be on, if you know what I mean.

The concept of "you're either with us or against us" does not have a
noble history.

Nice summation.

I've heard that some (not all) bicycling advocacy groups
can have that ideological attitude (yer either furrous
or a Guinness) if one doesn't share their ideas of bike
lanes being slap-dashed everywhere as a "safety" panacea.

Sg't Simian here ostensibly wants bike lanes
slap-dashed everywhere as a safety panacea.
That's his purported "revolution," although
I remain convinced he just wants to frighten
bicyclists off the road. My conjecture is
supported by his prepondency to crosspost to
certain newsgroups which are guaranteed to
evoke anti-bicyclist responses from socially
inept, *-trash peckerwoo .. erm ... ~people~,
who talk about "jousting" with 2x4s from
dirty ol' pickup trucks from which a bunch
of Wendy's wrappers and fall out onto the
road off the floorboard every time a door
is opened.

Of course, there's always the other side of the coin --
those who ideologically don't want bike lanes installed
anywhere at all.

Personally I prefer a middle-of-the-road approach.
I believe bike lanes can be useful treatments in
certain localized situations. Same as left turn
bays/advanced left-turn-only lights at problem
intersections. But installing those things /everywhere/
would kill us with frustration, at needless expense.

I guess we don't need a revolution. Just some
improvement, and intelligent application, and
traffic engineers who possess some insight and
an ear & mind open to the occaisional needs of
/everybody/ who constitutes traffic, including
bicyclists. Fortunately, such creatures do exist.
All we've gotta do is identify them, and communicate
with them.

Revolutions are for when The System doesn't work.
But it's been my experience that The System
/does/ work when we approach it with arguments
that transcend "special interest," and connote
the "general good." Politicians love to take
credit for stuff that makes more people happy
than unhappy. They also like to get critics
off their backs.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

In article ,
Tim McNamara writes:
Then why do I keep meeting smarter people riding bicycles than riding
motorcycles?

Because we bicyclists have to read the minds of the
motor vehicle operators around us. We often
have to do their thinking for them. We know what
they're gonna do before they know what they're
gonna do. Because what they're gonna do is gonna
be the most detrimental thing to us if we aren't
heads-up about their brainless movements.

And besides, bicycles are often a more intelligent
choice of vehicle.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

On Oct 17, 9:15*pm, (Tom Keats) wrote:

Revolutions are for when The System doesn't work.
But it's been my experience that The System
/does/ work when we approach it with arguments
that transcend "special interest," and connote
the "general good." *Politicians love to take
credit for stuff that makes more people happy
than unhappy. *They also like to get critics
off their backs.

cheers,
* * * * Tom

I don't know. I feel like taking desperate steps...

Can I claim political refugee in Holland if I fear for my life while
riding a bike in America? I know they welcome refugees from all over
the world, even those who don't respect Dutch open ways toward
democracy.

I could actually prove that I promote the Dutch model for America and
other uncivilized places where cyclists are routinely harassed,
prosecuted and spit upon.

What do you think?

On Oct 17, 9:28*pm, Twibil wrote:

Don't say we didn't warn you. *:-D

Feel free. Any time 200 pounds of bicyclist+bike decide to argue with
700+ pounds of motorcyclist, or, better yet, 3,000+ pounds of
automobile, they're going to lose.

Isn't that the Law of the Jungle?

I've been hesitating to go into the jungle lately.

In article ,
ComandanteBanana writes:
On Oct 17, 9:15*pm, (Tom Keats) wrote:
Revolutions are for when The System doesn't work.
But it's been my experience that The System
/does/ work when we approach it with arguments
that transcend "special interest," and connote
the "general good." *Politicians love to take
credit for stuff that makes more people happy
than unhappy. *They also like to get critics
off their backs.

cheers,
* * * * Tom
I don't know. I feel like taking desperate steps...

We know already.

You yack, yack, yack, but you don't /do/.

You say you want a revolution but all you do
is plant seeds of FUD. You stir-up contention,
pit people against people, and attempt to destroy
any positive inroads that have been made to integrate
bicycling as a regular & accepted feature of traffic.

In short: you are truly anti-socially and
anti-humanly evil. I see you for what you are.

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

In article ,
Twibil writes:
On Oct 17, 8:55*am, KingOfTheApes wrote:
The bottom line is MAKE BIKE LANES, OR TAME TRAFFIC OR GO TO
HOLLAND.
The bottom line is:
(A) Why should the huge majority of taxpaying motorists have to give
up any of their lanes for you, much less pay their taxes to build new
ones just for you to use?

At least the outside lane is for /all/ vehicles, regardless of
speed. If you wanna pass slower vehicles, go to the inside
lane. It's pretty easy. A li'l turn of the steering wheel
(that's what it's for.)
You want new lanes, pay for 'em yourselves.

Everybody, driver or not, pays for drivers' lanes.
I'm a non-driver. I pay for your lanes. I also
pay for many of your parking spots. So gimme a
break already.

(B) "Tame traffic" is just code for "make everyone else slow down to
match *MY* speed"; and the answer is "NO".

Apparently you want that horror to continue.

Actually traffic calming is about mitigating hurting/killing
people. Taming-traffic/traffic-calming is all about assuaging
high-volume commuter traffic on adjacent residential streets
that drivers infiltrate to turn into arterial feeder streets.

But if you want to run-over, or feel the right or need to run-over
little girls playing hopscotch in traffic-calmed residential
streets in your rush to get home after work, I guess nobody
can stop ya.

(C) I think I prefer to stay here and occasionally put the fear of God
into lane-blocking bicyclists. It's *good* for 'em!

You're ****ed up with hatred.
It surely must suck to be you.


--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:58:52 -0700 (PDT), ComandanteBanana
wrote:

On Oct 17, 4:34*pm, "Road Glidin' Don" wrote:

You do realize you're trying to out-argue a mental midget who lives in
his Mom's basement, right?

Yeah sure, then why are afraid to debate the issues, and always try to
dodge the bullet so to speak.

Bicyclists are in the vanguard of the revolution because the rest of
you out there burn oil from Venezuela and the Middle East and would be
happy to have a Chavez or... what's the name of Iran's president?

So we preach by example, not fly a little flag made in China.

So now where do you stand?

By the way, Chavez says we are sinking ship, but then...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bilbo Baggins
President Chavez sees america as sinking ship
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/53087.html

***

If American ship goes down, Chinese ship goes down, and Venezuelan
ship goes does down.

That's why is better to plan the revolution around bananas, not oil!

Your own people can always eat the banana.

First motorcyclists are good because you imagine they might be allies
on your pet project.

Then you discover you're shunned by them, so now they're the enemy.
Problem is, you've already cross-posted to us in hopes of support (no
rec.auto is there?).

You've just demonstrated that you adopt whichever position you want in
order to make yourself feel like a significant somebody. After all,
that's the whole point with impotent losers like yourself, isn't it?
No girlfriend and living in your mom's basement, you don't have much
else in life to feel good about. You think it doesn't show, banana
boy?

And, speaking of bananas, that style of seat you sit on? It's gonna
result in scar tissue on that little noodle between your legs. Not
that you're ever going to use it to procreate anyways...

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:34:21 -0500, Tim McNamara
wrote:

In article
,
"Road Glidin' Don" wrote:

On Oct 17, 1:47*pm, Tim McNamara wrote:
In article om,

*"Vito" wrote:
"Tim McNamara" wrote
Then why do I keep meeting smarter people riding bicycles than
riding motorcycles? *I think you'd need to find some way to
back up your claim.

It only seems that way to you because they think like you. People
commonly believe those more intellegent than they are stupid
simply because their higher logic is beyond them. *Your demand
that I "back up" what should be obvious to even the most casual
observer is an excellent example of that.

LOL! *Thanks for the irony.

Hey dumb****. Remember:

"I only see posts form this idiot when someone responds to him (like
you). Put him in your killfile, life is much too short to waste
telling trolls to shut up."

You feeding the same troll's thread... now THAT'S irony.

I'm not responding to the troll, knucklehead. I'm responding, in this
case, to the idiot. Mainly because it's fun watching you.

Yeah, but I only see posts form that idiot when someone responds to
him (like you). Put him in your killfile, life is much too short to
waste telling trolls to shut up.

Tom Keats wrote:

Then why do I keep meeting smarter people riding bicycles than
riding motorcycles?

Because we bicyclists have to read the minds of the motor vehicle
operators around us. We often have to do their thinking for them.
We know what they're gonna do before they know what they're gonna
do. Because what they're gonna do is gonna be the most detrimental
thing to us if we aren't heads-up about their brainless movements.

And besides, bicycles are often a more intelligent choice of
vehicle.

I think these two postings are examples of what causes trouble on many
roads. It is an elitist attitude of bicyclists who let car drivers
know how much smarter they are and how much more environmentally their
bicycle (recreation) is than driving a car. As I have often mentioned
here, I ride on many narrow, heavily traveled roads in the Santa Cruz
mountains and rarely have differences with car traffic, except when
with a rider who has the elitist bicyclist mentality.

What may not be apparent to many self righteous bicyclists is that
their body language reveals their disdain for motorized traffic,
eliciting rude and often dangerous behavior in response. As for mind
reading, it doesn't take a seer to understand what the bicyclist out
in the traffic lane is trying to say about his motorized fellow human.

Nothing is safe from me.

Don't ride near me.

Jobst Brandt

In article ,
writes:

I think these two postings are examples of what causes trouble on many
roads.

You are totally wrong.

It is an elitist attitude of bicyclists who let car drivers
know how much smarter they are and how much more environmentally their
bicycle (recreation) is than driving a car.

No it isn't.

As I have often mentioned
here, I ride on many narrow, heavily traveled roads in the Santa Cruz
mountains and rarely have differences with car traffic, except when
with a rider who has the elitist bicyclist mentality.

Good for you. Bully for you!

What may not be apparent to many self righteous bicyclists is that
their body language reveals their disdain for motorized traffic,
eliciting rude and often dangerous behavior in response. As for mind
reading, it doesn't take a seer to understand what the bicyclist out
in the traffic lane is trying to say about his motorized fellow I.

human could try to explain it, but ... sigh

Nothing is safe from me.

Don't ride near me.

Don't worry. I know where I'm not wanted.
Which is pretty much everywhere.

So, we can pretty much avoid each other,
and not get anywhere, nor achieve anything.

Thank you for your kind input.

May the Almighty bless you. But I steer
clear of everybody, which is just what
you want, so be happy.

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca