Ineffective Cycling

jbeattie writes:

On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 10:59:34 AM UTC-7, duane wrote:
On 08/05/2019 1:52 p.m., wrote:
On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 5:19:25 AM UTC+2, jbeattie wrote:


I avoid at least one crash every day and two on Sundays -- I
avoided one yesterday morning when some car right hooked my son
and me. He hit the jets and engaged the driver, for better or
worse. She was French and said that "I szaw you" (pointing at
her eyes for accentuation). WTF? Why would you even say that?
It means she saw us and turned anyway. Hmmmm. "F*** you, au
revoir!" DEPORT HER DONALD!

-- Jay Beattie.

Same here. I was riding along yesterday and a woman in a car
wanted to drive onto the road from the right. I saw it coming and
shook my head trying to say don't do that in a nice way. She
nodded her head trying to 'yes I will' and yelling at me she is
coming from the right and have right of way. I said you coming
from a parking lot and have to give right of way to anybody on the
road. You have to deal with this kind of situations at least once
every ride.


Funny how these things seem common to some of us but apparently there's
a book you can read to solve it all.

The reactions of violating drivers is particularly interesting. I
love the waive. It's like "I'm totally f****** you, but I'll waive.
Hey, how ya doing?"

I live in the land of the traffic wave, and I can completely see the
logic in that. Originally, back in the days of the penny farthing,
people waved at someone who let them into traffic, or otherwise cut them
some slack. Nowadays this is expected, and I have heard bitter
complaints about some driver who, given his break, refused to wave.

Now, since you're expected to wave to someone after they allow you a
liberty, it stands to reason that you should wave before taking one,
doesn't it? I tell people unused to driving here that if someone waves
unexpectedly at them, it's not that he's friendly, can only mean that he
will very shortly cut them off.

Way out in the sticks, like where my brother lives in Missouri, everyone
waves at all visible traffic. Just two fingers lifted off the wheel
will do, to let them know that you observe the social niceties.
Otherwise they'll know you're not from around there (as if they couldn't
tell).


I was riding home last night through this intersection behind another
rider. https://tinyurl.com/y2b82ljz The on-coming, left turn cycle
ended; the green light activated; the other rider took off, and I gave
him a gap. And then some total ass-wipe runs the turn light and
almost t-bones the other rider in the middle of the intersection. It
was really, really close. The driver not only runs the left turn
light, but he leaped into the turn lane from two lanes over, exiting a
car wash and cutting off a bunch of drivers proceeding straight.
Graciously, he waived and drove off. I was yelling and screaming at
the guy. The almost-victim was very calm about it. I just don't have
that level of calm after all these years. I'm more of a one-man
editorial department.

I was riding behind two riders in a bike lane a few years back, and a
car traveling the same direction decided to rat-out of stopped traffic
by making a hard right turn up a side street. He hit both of the guys
in front of me. I stopped and lectured them soundly about riding
position and avoiding impacts with cars -- while they were still down
on the ground. I threw them a couple copies of my self-published book,
"Bicycle Illuminati Part Trois -- Defeating Cars!" (now available on
Amazon and at better book sellers). Luckily, nobody was seriously
injured.

I was clearly the better rider because I didn't get hit. I'm counting
that as an above the line deduction to my total number of crashes.

-- Jay Beattie.

--

On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 3:35:23 AM UTC+1, Frank Krygowski wrote:

It happens in part because bike lanes instruct cyclists

Come on, Franki-boy! Try writing English. Bicycle lanes are inanimate objects. They do not "instruct". At best they channel.

May I also say that your attitude, that you're the only intelligent bicyclist and that all other bicyclists are stupid, is insulting. You'll never in a million years convince anyone of anything with an attitude like that. People like you do bicycle advocacy irreparable harm.

Andre Jute
Pet rock bites man

On 5/8/2019 7:15 PM, Radey Shouman wrote:
jbeattie writes:

On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 10:59:34 AM UTC-7, duane wrote:
On 08/05/2019 1:52 p.m., wrote:
On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 5:19:25 AM UTC+2, jbeattie wrote:


I avoid at least one crash every day and two on Sundays -- I
avoided one yesterday morning when some car right hooked my son
and me. He hit the jets and engaged the driver, for better or
worse. She was French and said that "I szaw you" (pointing at
her eyes for accentuation). WTF? Why would you even say that?
It means she saw us and turned anyway. Hmmmm. "F*** you, au
revoir!" DEPORT HER DONALD!

-- Jay Beattie.

Same here. I was riding along yesterday and a woman in a car
wanted to drive onto the road from the right. I saw it coming and
shook my head trying to say don't do that in a nice way. She
nodded her head trying to 'yes I will' and yelling at me she is
coming from the right and have right of way. I said you coming
from a parking lot and have to give right of way to anybody on the
road. You have to deal with this kind of situations at least once
every ride.


Funny how these things seem common to some of us but apparently there's
a book you can read to solve it all.

The reactions of violating drivers is particularly interesting. I
love the waive. It's like "I'm totally f****** you, but I'll waive.
Hey, how ya doing?"

I live in the land of the traffic wave, and I can completely see the
logic in that. Originally, back in the days of the penny farthing,
people waved at someone who let them into traffic, or otherwise cut them
some slack. Nowadays this is expected, and I have heard bitter
complaints about some driver who, given his break, refused to wave.

Now, since you're expected to wave to someone after they allow you a
liberty, it stands to reason that you should wave before taking one,
doesn't it? I tell people unused to driving here that if someone waves
unexpectedly at them, it's not that he's friendly, can only mean that he
will very shortly cut them off.

Way out in the sticks, like where my brother lives in Missouri, everyone
waves at all visible traffic. Just two fingers lifted off the wheel
will do, to let them know that you observe the social niceties.
Otherwise they'll know you're not from around there (as if they couldn't
tell).


I was riding home last night through this intersection behind another
rider. https://tinyurl.com/y2b82ljz The on-coming, left turn cycle
ended; the green light activated; the other rider took off, and I gave
him a gap. And then some total ass-wipe runs the turn light and
almost t-bones the other rider in the middle of the intersection. It
was really, really close. The driver not only runs the left turn
light, but he leaped into the turn lane from two lanes over, exiting a
car wash and cutting off a bunch of drivers proceeding straight.
Graciously, he waived and drove off. I was yelling and screaming at
the guy. The almost-victim was very calm about it. I just don't have
that level of calm after all these years. I'm more of a one-man
editorial department.

I was riding behind two riders in a bike lane a few years back, and a
car traveling the same direction decided to rat-out of stopped traffic
by making a hard right turn up a side street. He hit both of the guys
in front of me. I stopped and lectured them soundly about riding
position and avoiding impacts with cars -- while they were still down
on the ground. I threw them a couple copies of my self-published book,
"Bicycle Illuminati Part Trois -- Defeating Cars!" (now available on
Amazon and at better book sellers). Luckily, nobody was seriously
injured.

I was clearly the better rider because I didn't get hit. I'm counting
that as an above the line deduction to my total number of crashes.

-- Jay Beattie.


Indeed I've seen the Iowa Wave:
https://tinyurl.com/yxoeq5tf

Elsewhere, civility is more 'Portland':
https://tinyurl.com/y4huezzc

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Tuesday, May 7, 2019 at 5:18:50 PM UTC+1, sms wrote:
On 5/7/2019 7:12 AM, AMuzi wrote:
Good title for a book. Lots of potential

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...uick-turn.html

Well they're both riding on the wrong side of the road. What's wrong
with people that can't keep right!🙃

Heh-heh! You're such a troll, Scharfie, you can come work on my Leprechaun Detection Project.

In Melbourne one evening I was tootling along a feeder road into the city in a bright yellow Bertone Spyder of which there were only seven in the entire world. Suddenly the midengined car was flattened in front of me, and my ankles too. A fat woman had come out of a small lane to my right (in Australia one drives on the left, as in Britain), in an old Holden, bulled her way across traffic out of the city, and flattened my beautiful car by driving at right angles across its low nose. It turned out my insurance company couldn't recover the money they paid me -- about the price of several big luxury Fords) from her insurance company under their knock-for-knock agreement, and they took it out viciously in the premiums for insuring my next car. Worse, she had been legally in the right, and I was lucky not to end up in court charged with a traffic offence that caused an accident which sent someone (me) to hospital, plus, what the police and courts always take seriously, expensive property damage (my car; hers was worth nothing). In the State of Victoria, the local traffic rule was (and may still be) "give way to the right" and it apparently applied even to huge (what I supposed to be) freeways into the city. It didn't matter where she came out of, or that there was traffic to my right going the other way so that I couldn't see her, the second she made it across the opposing traffic who didn't have to give way to her, she had right of way over me. After that, whenever I arrived in a new country or even the next state, I would read the traffic rules very carefully and ask at the car rental about local conventions as well.

Andre Jute
Law-abiding cosmopolitan

On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 6:31:36 PM UTC-4, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 8 May 2019 14:17:07 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 5/8/2019 1:59 PM, Duane wrote:
On 08/05/2019 1:52 p.m., wrote:


Same here. I was riding along yesterday and a woman in a car wanted to
drive onto the road from the right. I saw it coming and shook my head
trying to say don't do that in a nice way. She nodded her head trying
to 'yes I will' and yelling at me she is coming from the right and
have right of way. I said you coming from a parking lot and have to
give right of way to anybody on the road. You have to deal with this
kind of situations at least once every ride.


Funny how these things seem common to some of us but apparently there's
a book you can read to solve it all.

That statement is very similar to "Ya don't need to know algebra. All ya
need is add and subtract."

Funny, you know. My wife doesn't know algebra and is now in her 70's
and hasn't yet seemed to need it. Would you care to elaborate why an
elderly woman like her needs to know advanced math?

Wow. Sometimes it's necessary to spell out the analogies in painstaking detail!

I'm talking about math skills as a parallel to cycling skills. So does your wife
need algebra? Does she need multiplication and division? Not if she's never
going to do anything beyond shopping, balancing a check book, following a recipe
book.

But if she wants to get really, really sophisticated she'll need more.
"Sophisticated" as in figure out how much paint or wallpaper to buy. Or what's
the car's gas mileage. Or modifying a recipe to feed a big crowd.

Are you going to do all your riding on bike paths? Or on highways with two-meter
shoulders that you're never going to leave? Are you always going to ride just
for fun, in nice predictable conditions? Then maybe all you need to know is how
to balance, pedal and brake.

But do you want to ride your bike (as I did today) to go shopping, where there
are intersections, narrow lanes, motorists who may not be paying attention, etc?
Do you want to ride to explore new territory, or travel long distances by bike?
Then you need to know more.

It's up to you. But if you stop with the easy stuff, don't pretend you don't have
serious limitations, or that nobody knows more than you do.

- Frank Krygowski

On Wed, 8 May 2019 19:03:17 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 6:31:36 PM UTC-4, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 8 May 2019 14:17:07 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 5/8/2019 1:59 PM, Duane wrote:
On 08/05/2019 1:52 p.m., wrote:


Same here. I was riding along yesterday and a woman in a car wanted to
drive onto the road from the right. I saw it coming and shook my head
trying to say don't do that in a nice way. She nodded her head trying
to 'yes I will' and yelling at me she is coming from the right and
have right of way. I said you coming from a parking lot and have to
give right of way to anybody on the road. You have to deal with this
kind of situations at least once every ride.


Funny how these things seem common to some of us but apparently there's
a book you can read to solve it all.

That statement is very similar to "Ya don't need to know algebra. All ya
need is add and subtract."

Funny, you know. My wife doesn't know algebra and is now in her 70's
and hasn't yet seemed to need it. Would you care to elaborate why an
elderly woman like her needs to know advanced math?

Wow. Sometimes it's necessary to spell out the analogies in painstaking detail!

I'm talking about math skills as a parallel to cycling skills. So does your wife
need algebra? Does she need multiplication and division? Not if she's never
going to do anything beyond shopping, balancing a check book, following a recipe
book.

How in the world are math skills a parallel to bicycle skills? Does
knowing the square root of -1 equate to riding a bicycle? Is it
somehow associated with balancing a bicycle? Or maybe pedaling a
bicycle?

It is a strange world you live in where one associates advanced
mathematics with riding a bicycle.

But if she wants to get really, really sophisticated she'll need more.
"Sophisticated" as in figure out how much paint or wallpaper to buy. Or what's
the car's gas mileage. Or modifying a recipe to feed a big crowd.

Why in the world would my wife want to figure out how much paint to
buy or wallpaper to buy? Or, for that matter the car's gas mileage.
That is her husband's job. As for a recipe to feed a big crowd...
Well, she doesn't have written recipes and so far she hasn't had any
problems feeding a crowd. We had the typical "house warming" ceremony
for the new house with the usual a group of Monks and all the
neighbors and friends and relations, some of whom drove 200 km to get
here, and she seemed to cope pretty well (with no algebra at all).
Some of the ladies even complemented her on some of her dishes.

Are you going to do all your riding on bike paths? Or on highways with two-meter
shoulders that you're never going to leave? Are you always going to ride just
for fun, in nice predictable conditions? Then maybe all you need to know is how
to balance, pedal and brake.

But do you want to ride your bike (as I did today) to go shopping, where there
are intersections, narrow lanes, motorists who may not be paying attention, etc?
Do you want to ride to explore new territory, or travel long distances by bike?
Then you need to know more.

As I said before, how to calculate the square root of -1? Or even
calculate the hypotenuse knowing the base and the altitude, is vital
to riding a bicycle?

It's up to you. But if you stop with the easy stuff, don't pretend you don't have
serious limitations, or that nobody knows more than you do.

- Frank Krygowski

The hard stuff? Intersections? Narrow lanes? Motorists who may not be
paying attention? This is something new? Strange, I seem to have been
coping with these things as long as I have been using the roads,
walking, motoring, or riding a bicycle. Successfully, I might add,
since I started walking to school (on a two lane public highway) when
I was 6 years old.
--
cheers,

John B.

On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 5:54:55 PM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 5/8/2019 7:15 PM, Radey Shouman wrote:
jbeattie writes:

On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 10:59:34 AM UTC-7, duane wrote:
On 08/05/2019 1:52 p.m., wrote:
On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 5:19:25 AM UTC+2, jbeattie wrote:


I avoid at least one crash every day and two on Sundays -- I
avoided one yesterday morning when some car right hooked my son
and me. He hit the jets and engaged the driver, for better or
worse. She was French and said that "I szaw you" (pointing at
her eyes for accentuation). WTF? Why would you even say that?
It means she saw us and turned anyway. Hmmmm. "F*** you, au
revoir!" DEPORT HER DONALD!

-- Jay Beattie.

Same here. I was riding along yesterday and a woman in a car
wanted to drive onto the road from the right. I saw it coming and
shook my head trying to say don't do that in a nice way. She
nodded her head trying to 'yes I will' and yelling at me she is
coming from the right and have right of way. I said you coming
from a parking lot and have to give right of way to anybody on the
road. You have to deal with this kind of situations at least once
every ride.


Funny how these things seem common to some of us but apparently there's
a book you can read to solve it all.

The reactions of violating drivers is particularly interesting. I
love the waive. It's like "I'm totally f****** you, but I'll waive.
Hey, how ya doing?"

I live in the land of the traffic wave, and I can completely see the
logic in that. Originally, back in the days of the penny farthing,
people waved at someone who let them into traffic, or otherwise cut them
some slack. Nowadays this is expected, and I have heard bitter
complaints about some driver who, given his break, refused to wave.

Now, since you're expected to wave to someone after they allow you a
liberty, it stands to reason that you should wave before taking one,
doesn't it? I tell people unused to driving here that if someone waves
unexpectedly at them, it's not that he's friendly, can only mean that he
will very shortly cut them off.

Way out in the sticks, like where my brother lives in Missouri, everyone
waves at all visible traffic. Just two fingers lifted off the wheel
will do, to let them know that you observe the social niceties.
Otherwise they'll know you're not from around there (as if they couldn't
tell).


I was riding home last night through this intersection behind another
rider. https://tinyurl.com/y2b82ljz The on-coming, left turn cycle
ended; the green light activated; the other rider took off, and I gave
him a gap. And then some total ass-wipe runs the turn light and
almost t-bones the other rider in the middle of the intersection. It
was really, really close. The driver not only runs the left turn
light, but he leaped into the turn lane from two lanes over, exiting a
car wash and cutting off a bunch of drivers proceeding straight.
Graciously, he waived and drove off. I was yelling and screaming at
the guy. The almost-victim was very calm about it. I just don't have
that level of calm after all these years. I'm more of a one-man
editorial department.

I was riding behind two riders in a bike lane a few years back, and a
car traveling the same direction decided to rat-out of stopped traffic
by making a hard right turn up a side street. He hit both of the guys
in front of me. I stopped and lectured them soundly about riding
position and avoiding impacts with cars -- while they were still down
on the ground. I threw them a couple copies of my self-published book,
"Bicycle Illuminati Part Trois -- Defeating Cars!" (now available on
Amazon and at better book sellers). Luckily, nobody was seriously
injured.

I was clearly the better rider because I didn't get hit. I'm counting
that as an above the line deduction to my total number of crashes.

-- Jay Beattie.


Indeed I've seen the Iowa Wave:
https://tinyurl.com/yxoeq5tf

Elsewhere, civility is more 'Portland':
https://tinyurl.com/y4huezzc

Portlandia GIFs! The guy in the car incident I described just waived, but it is true that when bikes start taking over, drivers get ****ed. Its like the Roosevelt elk in Gearhardt -- https://tinyurl.com/yyjvjefe Cute and quirky until there are a lot of them. Then they're an annoyance. A lot of bikes is an annoyance even when you're on a bike.

-- Jay Beattie

On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 8:13:59 PM UTC+2, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 5/8/2019 1:52 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 5:19:25 AM UTC+2, jbeattie wrote:


I avoid at least one crash every day and two on Sundays -- I avoided one yesterday morning when some car right hooked my son and me. He hit the jets and engaged the driver, for better or worse. She was French and said that "I szaw you" (pointing at her eyes for accentuation). WTF? Why would you even say that? It means she saw us and turned anyway. Hmmmm. "F*** you, au revoir!" DEPORT HER DONALD!

-- Jay Beattie.

Same here. I was riding along yesterday and a woman in a car wanted to drive onto the road from the right. I saw it coming and shook my head trying to say don't do that in a nice way. She nodded her head trying to 'yes I will' and yelling at me she is coming from the right and have right of way. I said you coming from a parking lot and have to give right of way to anybody on the road. You have to deal with this kind of situations at least once every ride.

We drove and rode bikes in France for three weeks. I must confess, I
never understood the rule there, "priorite a droite" or whatever. I
seemed to see plenty of signs canceling it, and I don't remember seeing
anyone do anything different than the way we drive in America.


--
- Frank Krygowski

'priorite a droite' is the basic rule here except in case of a priority road, unpaved road, parking lot, driveways. It is a simple rule and the first thing you learn.

Lou

lou.holtman wrote:
On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 8:13:59 PM UTC+2, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 5/8/2019 1:52 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 5:19:25 AM UTC+2, jbeattie wrote:


I avoid at least one crash every day and two on Sundays -- I
avoided one yesterday morning when some car right hooked my son
and me. He hit the jets and engaged the driver, for better or
worse. She was French and said that "I szaw you" (pointing at her
eyes for accentuation). WTF? Why would you even say that? It
means she saw us and turned anyway. Hmmmm.

Refreshingly female savoir-conduire, emotional logic: She felt that she saw
you noticing her, therefore you could brake.

Do not (overtly) look at traffic supposed to yield, don't slow down the
cranks, just calculate emergency manoeuvers without showing. How come you
have never read a book on how to deal with Portland Euro driver trash?!

"F*** you, au revoir!"

So you admit you subconsciously longed to see her again, in a different context.

DEPORT HER, DONALD!

That's your inner Puritan shouting.

Same here. I was riding along yesterday and a woman in a car wanted
to drive onto the road from the right. I saw it coming and shook my
head trying to say don't do that in a nice way. She nodded her head
trying to 'yes I will' and yelling at me she is coming from the right
and have right of way. I said you coming from a parking lot and have
to give right of way to anybody on the road. You have to deal with
this kind of situations at least once every ride.

Riding on bicycle facilities, yes, but not riding on the regular carriageway.

We drove and rode bikes in France for three weeks. I must confess, I
never understood the rule there, "priorite a droite" or whatever. I
seemed to see plenty of signs canceling it, and I don't remember seeing
anyone do anything different than the way we drive in America.

Frank, didn't you also write you couldn't tell apart Usians from Europeans
any more? You should have asked a pickpocket for subtle clues ... or a
waiter at a tourist trap.

'priorite a droite' is the basic rule here except in case of a priority
road, unpaved road, parking lot, driveways. It is a simple rule and the
first thing you learn.

Executed with confidence in the left side complying, it can save the cyclist
plenty of energy, compared to empty 4-stops. Maybe Frank didn't notice
because he rode like a careful, elderly Midwestern tourist?

John B. wrote:
On Wed, 8 May 2019 14:17:07 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 5/8/2019 1:59 PM, Duane wrote:
On 08/05/2019 1:52 p.m., wrote:
On Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 5:19:25 AM UTC+2, jbeattie wrote:


I avoid at least one crash every day and two on Sundays -- I avoided
oneÂ* yesterday morning when some car right hooked my son and me.Â* He
hit the jets and engaged the driver, for better or worse.Â* She was
French and said that "I szaw you" (pointing at her eyes for
accentuation).Â* WTF?Â* Why would you even say that?Â* It means she saw
us and turned anyway. Hmmmm. "F*** you, au revoir!" DEPORT HER DONALD!

-- Jay Beattie.

Same here. I was riding along yesterday and a woman in a car wanted to
drive onto the road from the right. I saw it coming and shook my head
trying to say don't do that in a nice way. She nodded her head trying
to 'yes I will' and yelling at me she is coming from the right and
have right of way. I said you coming from a parking lot and have to
give right of way to anybody on the road. You have to deal with this
kind of situations at least once every ride.


Funny how these things seem common to some of us but apparently there's
a book you can read to solve it all.

That statement is very similar to "Ya don't need to know algebra. All ya
need is add and subtract."

Funny, you know. My wife doesn't know algebra and is now in her 70's
and hasn't yet seemed to need it. Would you care to elaborate why an
elderly woman like her needs to know advanced math?

You can get by with ideas that "seem common" if you limit yourself
enough, or are lucky enough. Just don't pretend you're really competent.

I see. You are defining my wife as not really competent? Gee. I'd
guess that she is a better cook then you, she is probably a better
dressmaker then you, back in her younger days she was probably... well
we won't get into that, I'm sure that she keeps a cleaner house then
you do and from your descriptions here she dresses better then you.
Lets see, what else, oh yes she speaks four languages.

No I think he’s defining ME as incompetent because I don’t need a book that
instructs me to break the law, asserting my primary position should be dead
center of the right most lane.

I wouldn’t notice these thing if no one replied to them.




But she is "not really competent"?
--
cheers,

John B.





--
duane