Where the cyclists in America belong: back alleys, gutters andsidewalks

In article
,
ComandanteBanana wrote:

Well, my arithmetic knowledge lets me know that if you publish in 5
groups, you have 5 times more chance to reach to out people.

Or, alternatively, you have five times the opportunity to continue
looking like a whack troll.

On Apr 15, 3:29 pm, Tim McNamara wrote:
In article ,
"Dave Larrington" wrote:

In

, ComandanteBanana tweaked the
Babbage-Engine to tell us:

That's where the cyclists in America belong: back alleys, gutters
and sidewalks.

Remind me again why BRITONS should care?

Because we're a big export market for British, Irish and Scottish beers?
The more we ride our bikes, the thirstier we get. ;-)

That's right. They are making us pee too much!

Something difficult to do when you are riding a bike and there's no
bushes around.

Hey, don't get me wrong, it's not that I want the Bushes around
anymore.

On Apr 15, 2:57*pm, wrote:
On Apr 15, 10:45 am, ComandanteBanana
wrote:

On Apr 14, 10:27 pm, wrote:

Pat (who?), Jack May, and "donquijote" all manage to be very wrong,
although the first two come at it from a different direction than our
"banana" boy.

DonQuijote and ComandanteBanana are the same thing.

I'm aware of that.







No, you won't get killed riding a bike, despite what Jack and Pat
claim. *No, the world doesn't have to be transformed to make bicycling
safe, despite donquijote's paranoid whining.

All three of you need to learn a lot about the real data. The fatality
rate from bicycling is infinitesmal. *There are roughly fifteen
million miles ridden between bike fatalities. *People who cycle
regularly have been shown to live longer than typical motorists. *Many
researchers have found that the risk of cycling is less, per hour,
than the risk of motoring, or less than the risk of walking near
traffic.

Man, you need to go in the jungle more often... "Riding a bicycle in
peak-hour traffic is at best harrowing, and at worst downright
treacherous."...

I've trimmed the rest of your usual paranoid whining.

I've ridden your "jungle" since I was in my 20s, many decades ago.
Unlike you, I've never needed to whine about how terrible the world
is. *Unlike you, I've had no trouble dealing with traffic. *Unlike
you, I've taken the time to look for actual data on bicycling's level
of danger. *And in doing so, I found that despite the prevalence of
"Danger! Danger!" worriers, cycling is an _extremely_ safe activity.

I've commuted by bike since 1977. *I've cycled in hundreds of cities,
and in peak rush hour in many of them. *I've ridden in at least eight
countries. *I've done many self-supported tours, *up to 4000 miles.
I've ridden for nearly 40 years. *In all that time, my only on-road
injury was one skinned knee. *Off road, add one incident where I
scraped my hands a bit.

You're unreasonably paranoid and obnoxiously noisy about it. *If
you're afraid to ride busy roads, don't do it. *Ride where you're
comfortable, and quit your wimpy whining.

- Frank Krygowski- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That you may be a veteran of war doesn't prove that wars are safe...

I even bet you that riding a bike on America's roads is more dangerous
than doing service in Iraq.

We have to do the numbers, but I think that that's more true than
Obama's statement that soldiers in Iraq are safer than kids in
Chicago. At least I see more terrorists on our roads.

On Apr 15, 4:29 pm, ComandanteBanana
wrote:
On Apr 15, 2:57 pm, wrote:





I've ridden your "jungle" since I was in my 20s, many decades ago.
Unlike you, I've never needed to whine about how terrible the world
is. Unlike you, I've had no trouble dealing with traffic. Unlike
you, I've taken the time to look for actual data on bicycling's level
of danger. And in doing so, I found that despite the prevalence of
"Danger! Danger!" worriers, cycling is an _extremely_ safe activity.

I've commuted by bike since 1977. I've cycled in hundreds of cities,
and in peak rush hour in many of them. I've ridden in at least eight
countries. I've done many self-supported tours, up to 4000 miles.
I've ridden for nearly 40 years. In all that time, my only on-road
injury was one skinned knee. Off road, add one incident where I
scraped my hands a bit.

You're unreasonably paranoid and obnoxiously noisy about it. If
you're afraid to ride busy roads, don't do it. Ride where you're
comfortable, and quit your wimpy whining.

- Frank Krygowski- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That you may be a veteran of war doesn't prove that wars are safe...

I even bet you that riding a bike on America's roads is more dangerous
than doing service in Iraq.

We have to do the numbers, but I think that that's more true than
Obama's statement that soldiers in Iraq are safer than kids in
Chicago. At least I see more terrorists on our roads. - Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

OK, here I respond to my own challenge, since there's been no
challengers so far...

Some numbers on nationwide bicycle fatalities from 1975-2002:
"660 bicyclists were killed in crashes with motor vehicles in 2002."

So, since the deployment in Iraq accounts to 150,000 or so, we have to
prove that the same number of people riding bikes on heavy traffic
have a greater death toll. Of course, this doesn't apply to well
maintained bike paths where the beautiful people live nor to those
living in the actual Green Zone in Baghdad.

And also you have to take into account that bikers are not wearing
heavy armor...

How sad, you have a strong idea and then you die because you were
wrong all along. Case in point is how Crocodile Hunter was killed by a
manta ray while trying to prove that sea monsters were quite
harmless... No, they are not. I say, "NEVER TRUST THE BEAST!" A basic
concept in the jungle.

Here's another example of people who die because of their wrong
ideas...

Is Cycling Dangerous?
Cyclist Ken Kifer uses statistics from a variety of reliable sources
to show that bicycling is not as dangerous as people often think it
is. I think his number of cyclists is a bit optimisitic, and that
makes the fractional risk a bit too small in some cases, but overall
he makes a good argument that cycling is not that risky. Sadly, Ken
was killed by a drunken driver in September 2003 while he was
bicycling.

Well, America ain't alone in the law of the jungle. Even civilized
Canada suffers from it. But the solution is the same...

"if the cops do something about how much worse driving has gotten in
the city, even stupid humans will play nice to avoid consequences,
which they won't do just because it is right."


Cyclist Stabs Motorist
Posted November 2nd, 2007 by vic in road rage
The Toronto Star is reporting that a cyclist stabbed a motorist with a
screwdriver after a road rage incident. It happened this morning at
around 9:45am at the corner of College and McCaul.

A few more details on the City News website. They believe the cyclist
was a "courier".

It hurts me to read about incidents like this. I have no idea what
caused this altercation, or why the cyclist felt it was necessary to
stab the motorist. I was honked at and flipped off by a motorist on
Dundas St. this morning, then almost nailed by a left-turning car near
my work. But even when bad things happen to me on the road, I never
even come close to wanting to stab someone.

All this madness on the roads needs to end.

....

cars as weapons
On November 2nd, 2007 tanya says:
Definitely its not acceptable to stab a motorist over a road rage
altercation. Its not acceptable either to threaten them by waving a
knife in their face.

But yet when motorists get "road rage" they have a deadly weapon right
under their right foot. I've encountered motorists who will try to
intimidate me by gunning for me, then swerving at the last minute. Its
sad that this kind of knife waving is all too socially "acceptable".

....

Human nature is s%$#
On November 2nd, 2007 Aidan says:
Who cares what the guy's job, or lack of, was. He went postal. The
fact that every cyclist commenting here has likely fantasized about
doing something similar points to what we put up with. Human nature is
s%$#, but if the cops do something about how much worse driving has
gotten in the city, even stupid humans will play nice to avoid
consequences, which they won't do just because it is right.

http://www.ibiketo.ca/node/1735

donquijote1954 writes:

Well, America ain't alone in the law of the jungle. Even civilized
Canada suffers from it. But the solution is the same...

Fortunately it isn't the same - here it could have involved a gun
and a much higher chance of a fatality.

Cyclist Stabs Motorist
Posted November 2nd, 2007 by vic in road rage
The Toronto Star is reporting that a cyclist stabbed a motorist with a
screwdriver after a road rage incident. It happened this morning at
around 9:45am at the corner of College and McCaul.

A few more details on the City News website. They believe the cyclist
was a "courier".

It hurts me to read about incidents like this. I have no idea what
caused this altercation, or why the cyclist felt it was necessary to
stab the motorist. I was honked at and flipped off by a motorist on
Dundas St. this morning, then almost nailed by a left-turning car near
my work. But even when bad things happen to me on the road, I never
even come close to wanting to stab someone.

I was in one incident (fortunately no injuries or crashes) in which
an irate driver passed me in very light traffic on a perfectly straight
road, and then, when the road went from 4 lanes to 2, he tried to
close the gap between us and would slam on his breaks, repeating this
behavior 3 times. I managed to avoid an accident, but it was very
close.

I got his license number and reported it to the police. With the reaction
I got from the f___tards in the DA's office, coupled with the lies and
run-arounds, I can see why someone might react the way this Canadian
cyclist did. If society wants people to do the "right" thing and let
the criminal justice system handle it, the criminal justice system has
to uphold its part of the bargain.

BTW, the driver admitted to the braking. His excuse was that I was
supposedly going 30 in a 25 zone and he couldn't outrun me, but I
was blocking traffic anyway. And that was on a knobby-tired mountain
bike on basically level ground.

--
My real name backwards: nemuaZ lliB

ComandanteBanana wrote:
On Apr 15, 11:50 am, "Pat" wrote:
- Frank Krygowski
Frank, these posts occur every so often and I think there is an agenda
behind them. Otherwise, why all the cross-posting? What the OP has to say is
that it's an "us versus them" world---and "them" are homocidal maniacs bent
on destroying people riding bicycles. That is not the real world as you and
I both know. Ergo, I smell a troll with these posts.

Pat in TX

I've said before you look retarded. Frank it's not even on *your
side,* since you hate bicycles, even though you don't care because you
live in the boondocks.

WRONG!!!

"Pat in Texas" is NOT the same Pat who lives in the boondocks in upstate
New York. The former Pat is a cyclist, the latter is not.

Of course, if people would use a last name we would not have this confusion.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

Eric Vey wrote:

Jack May wrote:

"donquijote1954" wrote in message
...

On Apr 14, 5:49 pm, h wrote:

"ComandanteBanana" wrote in message

...



Something funny happens though. The more you move to the right, the
more they squeeze you. It's a power game, I believe, where only the
strong (read SUVs and cars) survive.


It's an evolution game where the smart survive. Trying to win the
Darwin prize is not smart.


When gas gets expensive enough, even Jack will be walking. His whole
outlook will change. Right now, only "poor" people walk and get mown
down by drivers, but wealth is relative.

Didn't we read some days back in the trike thread, that he IS A CYCLIST?
T.
--
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary
depends upon his not understanding it.”
Upton Sinclair in The Jungle

On Apr 15, 10:16*pm, Tom Sherman
wrote:
ComandanteBanana wrote:
On Apr 15, 11:50 am, "Pat" wrote:
- Frank Krygowski
Frank, these posts occur every so often and I think there is an agenda
behind them. Otherwise, why all the cross-posting? What the OP has to say is
that it's an "us versus them" world---and "them" are homocidal maniacs bent
on destroying people riding bicycles. That is not the real world as you and
I both know. Ergo, I smell a troll with these posts.

Pat in TX

I've said before you look retarded. Frank it's not even on *your
side,* since you hate bicycles, even though you don't care because you
live in the boondocks.

WRONG!!!

"Pat in Texas" is NOT the same Pat who lives in the boondocks in upstate
New York. The former Pat is a cyclist, the latter is not.

Of course, if people would use a last name we would not have this confusion.