the disturbing conspiracy of the bicycling elite

On Aug 31, 10:46*am, RicodJour wrote:
On Aug 30, 11:25*am, KingOfTheApes
wrote:



There are cyclists standing on {sic} the way of cyclists.

Like you, for instance? *You're the poster boy for shooting oneself in
the foot.

At least you're entertaining yourself and not out actually trying to
accomplish something - that'd just backfire horrendously... *Come to
think of it, you've already discovered that fact, haven't you?

R

I've tried it long enough to notice that I will get killed if I keep
doing it.

Is my own survival a good enough reason not to bike that much on our
roads? I thought SURVIVAL is the most important aspect of life in the
jungle...

(The original subject is kayaking, another sport where I feel hunted
down, so to speak)

Yes, you are a sitting duck, which is a really good reason not to go where
you can't be safe. I presume you would not ride your bicycle on I-95, which
would you ride you kayak in a zone where running on a plane is legal?


Not only I wouldn't ride on a highway, I wouldn't even ride on the
street right in front of my door. It's so bad that most people stay
away from riding bikes on the road around here and rather ride the
sidewalks...

Of course, you ain't safe there either. Just today, as I was coming
down on the sidewalk to cross this intersection, a car came blasting
the horn at me because he felt every right to beat me to the corner.
I
had to use my brakes to the limit or else. That was a close call. And
the guy kept going like nothing. I'm sure he knows we've got few
rights --if any.

Then you realize you live in the jungle.

Welcome to the Jungle --if you dare.

ComandanteBanana wrote:

.... But somehow you miss WHY the Londoners can enjoy such a bike
paradise and America can't: their drivers and traffic laws. The UK
has
one of the safest driving records in the world, something hard to
say
about America.

Indeed it does, by this measure
http://www.driveandstayalive.com/inf...apita-2004.htm

The US is well down the list, at 40th.

Of course, there's a couple of quirks in using per capita
fatalities. India comes in at 16th, and anyone who's been to India
in the past few years knows why they strongly recommend foreigners
hire a driver.

--
Mike Kruger
http://mikekr.blogspot.com/

On Aug 31, 6:32*pm, ComandanteBanana
wrote:
On Aug 31, 10:46*am, RicodJour wrote:

On Aug 30, 11:25*am, KingOfTheApes
wrote:

There are cyclists standing on {sic} the way of cyclists.

Like you, for instance? *You're the poster boy for shooting oneself in
the foot.

At least you're entertaining yourself and not out actually trying to
accomplish something - that'd just backfire horrendously... *Come to
think of it, you've already discovered that fact, haven't you?

R

I've tried it long enough to notice that I will get killed if I keep
doing it.

Is my own survival a good enough reason not to bike that much on our
roads? I thought SURVIVAL is the most important aspect of life in the
jungle...

(The original subject is kayaking, another sport where I feel hunted
down, so to speak)

Yes, you are a sitting duck, which is a really good reason not to go where
you can't be safe. I presume you would not ride your bicycle on I-95, which
would you ride you kayak in a zone where running on a plane is legal?

Not only I wouldn't ride on a highway, I wouldn't even ride on the
street right in front of my door. It's so bad that most people stay
away from riding bikes on the road around here and rather ride the
sidewalks...

Of course, you ain't safe there either. Just today, as I was coming
down on the sidewalk to cross this intersection, a car came blasting
the horn at me because he felt every right to beat me to the corner.
I
had to use my brakes to the limit or else. That was a close call. And
the guy kept going like nothing. I'm sure he knows we've got few
rights --if any.

Then you realize you live in the jungle.

Welcome to the Jungle --if you dare.

You and EnoughAlready need to take up a dialogue so that you can go
harass yourselves and leave everyone else alone. Maybe you could go
do it in alt.paranoid.schizo

On Aug 31, 6:39 pm, Tom Sherman
wrote:
ComandanteBanana wrote:
...
Not only I wouldn't ride on a highway, I wouldn't even ride on the
street right in front of my door. It's so bad that most people stay
away from riding bikes on the road around here and rather ride the
sidewalks...

Of course, you ain't safe there either. Just today, as I was coming
down on the sidewalk to cross this intersection, a car came blasting
the horn at me because he felt every right to beat me to the corner.
I
had to use my brakes to the limit or else. That was a close call. And
the guy kept going like nothing. I'm sure he knows we've got few
rights --if any.

Then you realize you live in the jungle.

Welcome to the Jungle --if you dare.

DUDE, GET OFF THE SIDEWALK!!!

Sure, *YOU* come here and you show us that you can ride Biscayne Blvd.
Yes, you are tough enough to be braver than us people from Miami who
dare NOT ride on such streets. FYI, though, maybe you'll be alone
riding such a major street that runs north to south connecting Miami
to Ft. Lauderdale.

Or maybe you want to take the challenge on Collins Ave or Flagler st,
etc.

Beware of the beast, though!

On Aug 31, 6:50*pm, "ZBicyclist" wrote:
ComandanteBanana wrote:
.... But somehow you miss WHY the Londoners can enjoy such a bike
paradise and America can't: their drivers and traffic laws. The UK
has
one of the safest driving records in the world, something hard to
say
about America.

Indeed it does, by this measurehttp://www.driveandstayalive.com/info%20section/statistics/stats-mult...

The US is well down the list, at 40th.

Of course, there's a couple of quirks in using per capita
fatalities. *India comes in at 16th, and anyone who's been to India
in the past few years knows why they strongly recommend foreigners
hire a driver.

--
Mike Krugerhttp://mikekr.blogspot.com/

Gee, I better ride a bike in India.

On Aug 31, 10:39*pm, Pat wrote:
On Aug 31, 6:32*pm, ComandanteBanana
wrote:





On Aug 31, 10:46*am, RicodJour wrote:

On Aug 30, 11:25*am, KingOfTheApes
wrote:

There are cyclists standing on {sic} the way of cyclists.

Like you, for instance? *You're the poster boy for shooting oneself in
the foot.

At least you're entertaining yourself and not out actually trying to
accomplish something - that'd just backfire horrendously... *Come to
think of it, you've already discovered that fact, haven't you?

R

I've tried it long enough to notice that I will get killed if I keep
doing it.

Is my own survival a good enough reason not to bike that much on our
roads? I thought SURVIVAL is the most important aspect of life in the
jungle...

(The original subject is kayaking, another sport where I feel hunted
down, so to speak)

Yes, you are a sitting duck, which is a really good reason not to go where
you can't be safe. I presume you would not ride your bicycle on I-95, which
would you ride you kayak in a zone where running on a plane is legal?

Not only I wouldn't ride on a highway, I wouldn't even ride on the
street right in front of my door. It's so bad that most people stay
away from riding bikes on the road around here and rather ride the
sidewalks...

Of course, you ain't safe there either. Just today, as I was coming
down on the sidewalk to cross this intersection, a car came blasting
the horn at me because he felt every right to beat me to the corner.
I
had to use my brakes to the limit or else. That was a close call. And
the guy kept going like nothing. I'm sure he knows we've got few
rights --if any.

Then you realize you live in the jungle.

Welcome to the Jungle --if you dare.

You and EnoughAlready need to take up a dialogue so that you can go
harass yourselves and leave everyone else alone. *Maybe you could go
do it in alt.paranoid.schizo- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Where's your paradise? I understand you are not the Pat from NY, so
must be the one from Texas.

Yep, we've got a good taste of that in the last 8 years.

By the way, you must have the highest SUV percapita in the world, or
is it Kuwait?

Originally Posted by genec

London or England rather has a ride share similar to that of
America... so I would hardly say "things have worked out."

When we approach a ride share of say 10%, then I might think, "things
are working out."

***

True, but London itself might be approaching that figure after they
restricted vehicular traffic. NYC too is contemplating a similar law,
but New York is not the worst city in America. At least they've got
good public transportation.

Hey, Londoners, what's going on up there?

This comment says a lot. A whole lot. I think the conspiracy is
totally exposed here...

(I answer below)

Originally Posted by uke

An interesting thread. Here's an article that supplements it nicely:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26478179/

Basically, nearly every bike-friendly country on Earth has figured out
the two keys to getting people to ride bicycles: investment in
infrastructure and restrictions on automobiles. We can argue over
whether or not to follow the path or not, but the longer we spend time
trying to reinvent the wheel, the longer we're going to stay pegged at
an average of 1% throughout the country. The only city even close to
10% (the minimum percentage I'd consider necessary for a city to be
described as bike-friendly) is Portland at 4-6%, and, unsurprisingly,
that's the city that's taken the most steps toward investing in
infrastructure, though they're still far behind in tactics and
percentages relative to a bike-friendly city.

I do think it's amusing, if tragic, that bicyclists in the US are our
own worst enemies with respect to our cause. Creating a bike-friendly
city isn't rocket science; it's being done all over the world, and the
formula is damned easy to follow. But so many cyclists here refuse to
even acknowledge the formula, much less advocate its implementation. I
truly believe that many cyclists here (on BF, and in the general
commuting community) truly believe that cycling in the US should be
reserved for people willing to risk their lives without modifications
to the status quo. And the fact that the overwhelming majority of
people in the country will never make such a leap is fine with them,
as they see nothing wrong with a 1% commuting population.

In the meantime, cyclists in other countries are working with their
governments at the city levels to make cycling a safe and therefore
viable activity for the general population, and as a result, cities
all over the world are going from 1% to 5% to 10% or more. It's
amazing to watch us fall backward in comparison to so many other
places, and to see how many of us are so eager to ignore reality.

***

I think they are experimenting with something called "democracy." But
here it is understood as coming out every four years to vote for the
candidate that promises cheap gas --and more drilling.

The couch potatoes' tyranny.

I just need to quote this post without comments...

an excerpt from the Washington Post article today...

"...Yet in the United States, with the exception of a handful of
cities, (accomodation) strategies have been ignored. Car-centric
transport policies and suburban sprawl continue to make bicycle
commuting rare, arduous and relatively dangerous. Although millions of
Americans recreate on bikes, they ride them for just 0.4 percent of
their trips to work, according to the U.S. Census.

Germans are 10 times more likely than Americans to ride a bike and
three times less likely to get hurt while doing so. On any given
workday, more commuters park their bikes at train and subway stations
in Tokyo (704,000) than cycle to work in the entire United States
(535,000), according to the Tokyo government and the U.S. census."

link to article (featured in Sunday Seattle Times)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...icycles31.html

"ComandanteBanana" wrote

[snip]

Very informative of the way things should be: every street is a bike
lane.

Er, not so. A six lane highway is six bike lanes, not one. It just
goes to prove the point I made, and which you quoted in your own
message, just before your own reply:-

The result is that it's fairly obvious that
those who talk about bike lanes now don't even know what a lane
is.

Jeremy Parker