Does a trike put me on a collision course with traffic?

Papa Tom schrieb:
I'm sorry to say, but everything is falling apart so much that I feel I
live in a Banana Republic!

I thought Banana Republic was an overpriced clothing store that sells
garments made by slave labor in third world countries?



Banana republics were those Central-American countries run by the CIA
and the United Fruit Company, at least to my knowledge.

"ComandanteBanana" wrote in message
...
On Mar 31, 2:51 pm, "Papa Tom" wrote:
Would I be able to stand my ground or just give in to the law of the
jungle?

The speed limit on the road I described is 30mph. It has two schools and a
20mph speed limit in front of each. It also has a huge curve and a
grade-level railroad crossing at the end of a mile-long straightaway.
Still, the average speed driven on that road is 45, regardless of who is
walking or biking along the shoulder. If your town is like mine, my guess
is that you'd have to move AT LEAST 30mph on your trike (yeah, RIGHT!) or
be
physically driven off the road.

It sounds like a good reason for NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE. They push me
and I won't budge.

That is called being a Darwin Award Winner. Sounds like you are way too
stupid to be out there.

On Apr 1, 4:24 pm, Jens Müller wrote:
Papa Tom schrieb:

I'm sorry to say, but everything is falling apart so much that I feel I
live in a Banana Republic!

I thought Banana Republic was an overpriced clothing store that sells
garments made by slave labor in third world countries?

Banana republics were those Central-American countries run by the CIA
and the United Fruit Company, at least to my knowledge.

Banana Republic could also be a place where's there's no law to
protect the weak ones like cyclists. The Corporations rule...

'A handful of rogue megacorporations and their "think tank" and
"lobbyist" front groups are sullying our democratic waters'

Time to Remove the Bananas...
and Return Our Republic to Democracy
by Thom Hartmann

Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush both seem to have a funny idea about
democracy: they think it's about voting. Saddam was able to win his
election without even having to use corporate money or Supreme Court
justices appointed by a relative: just hold an election and therefore
it must be a democracy. Bush and many, if not most, other American
politicians, think that giving hundreds of millions of dollars to huge
media corporations to carpet-bomb the minds of voters means that
democracy is served when a vote is held.

But in the earliest democracy, there was no voting: the Athenian
Greeks had an annual lottery, and every citizen was in the pool. When
your name was drawn, you had to serve in the Polis or legislature for
a year. At the end of the year, you were out and replaced by a new
person selected in the lottery. Sort of like jury duty.

...

I'm writing this from London, where a few days ago one of the local
newspapers, The Guardian, ran a news story about our then-upcoming
elections. In their November 2 issue, the newspaper referred to "the
2000 elections, when Florida became internationally famous for its
banana republic approach to the electoral process."

So long as our Supreme Court continues to assert that non-voting
corporations are "persons" entitled to Bill of Rights protections,
including the right to participate in politics alongside voting
citizens, we will continue to move further from the Founder's vision
of a true republican democracy and into an ancient and hauntingly
familiar form of governance that was once called feudalism and is now
seen in banana republic nations across South and Central America.

It's time to get the banana companies out of our republic. A handful
of rogue megacorporations and their "think tank" and "lobbyist" front
groups are sullying our democratic waters, corrupting our political
processes, and through monopolistic behavior wiping out local
businesspeople and putting free enterprise at risk along with the
democracy it once nurtured.

Stripping personhood from corporations (a simple return to the
policies of our Founders) will open the door to truly reforming our
electoral process, putting it back into the hands of the people, and
make it possible to return to our airwaves the voices of politicians
who haven't sold their souls to corporations for funds to buy
advertising. This can be done by bringing back public service and
public debate programming requirements, a ban on corporate money in
politics and elections (they can't vote, the Founders said, so why are
they involved in politics?), and putting in place instant runoff
voting (IRV) to widen the political spectrum.

With these steps, We, The People, can bring about a revitalization of
democracy in America, and reverse our current slide into banana
republic neofeudalism.

There's many links here...

http://banana-republic.net/

On Apr 1, 4:45*pm, "Jack May" wrote:
"ComandanteBanana" wrote in message

...
On Mar 31, 2:51 pm, "Papa Tom" wrote:

Would I be able to stand my ground or just give in to the law of the
jungle?

The speed limit on the road I described is 30mph. It has two schools and a
20mph speed limit in front of each. It also has a huge curve and a
grade-level railroad crossing at the end of a mile-long straightaway.
Still, the average speed driven on that road is 45, regardless of who is
walking or biking along the shoulder. If your town is like mine, my guess
is that you'd have to move AT LEAST 30mph on your trike (yeah, RIGHT!) or
be
physically driven off the road.
It sounds like a good reason for NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE. They push me

and I won't budge.

That is called being a Darwin Award Winner. * Sounds like you are way too
stupid to be out there.

I thought you actually had to be stupid to be out there. Monkeys
riding bikes in traffic don't qualify for "survival of the fittest,"
which in this jungle means the ones that can afford the SUVs.

Papa Tom schrieb:
Where I live, Long Island, New York, you'd barely get out of your garage on
the trike without someone trying to run you off the road. When I ran my
bike recycling program a few years ago, I had the opportunities to test ride
a few trikes AND a quad. I thought riding the quad on the main street
running through my town might raise some awareness of alternate
transportation options, so off I went...only to return ten minutes later
having been honked off the road and forced onto the sidewalk more than a
dozen times.

How does somebody honk you off the road?
Or better why do you care, if being honked at? Or did some car-maniac
apply physical force to you?

Tadej
--
"Frauen sind als Gesprächspartner nun einmal interessanter,
weil das Gespräch nicht beendet ist, wenn nichts sinnvolles mehr zu
sagen ist."
David Kastrup in d.t.r

On Apr 1, 4:23*pm, Jens Müller wrote:
ComandanteBanana schrieb:

4- LITTERING (Hey, who cares about littering anymore? Someone will
pick up after me...)

Here, some Neoliberals say: Well, that's creating jobs for people to
pick up the stuff.

The problem is they don't even pick it up. It lies there forever,
until it disintegrates or something.

5- RELIANCE ON OLD PEOPLE (They are the ones who vote, usually about
issues that have more to do with quality of life)

Here, much more than 50% of the voters are people who get money from the
state ... The welfare republic ...

As a nation, it's the people who got money who vote.




8- TOLERANCE OF DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR (Noisy parks, beaches, etc, with
the notorious absence of signs that call for proper behavior)

What exactly is "proper behavior"?

Like talking low, or playing radios down.


9- MINDING OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES (Elections based on homosexuals or
abortion, not constructive issues)

Well, one might consider that "disruptive behavior"? Where to start,
where to end?

Say talking on the cell phone. It can kill people. Should that be
allowed?


11- LACK OF BIKE FACILITIES (Yes, a city that is hostile toward those
who care for a better planet, qualifies for the Banana Republic
title)

Bicycle parking facilities? Well, that might be the case. Facilities for
moving bicycle traffic? Here, there are much too many of them ...

Nice. Most of the nation lacks those facilities.

Has anyone read this article?

"WHAT YOU CAN DO TO FIX AMERICA'S TRAFFIC LAWS --AND WHY YOU SHOULD"

http://www.jamisbikes.com/usa/reviews/index.html

It would be interesting...

ComandanteBanana schrieb:
Bicycle parking facilities? Well, that might be the case. Facilities for
moving bicycle traffic? Here, there are much too many of them ...

Nice. Most of the nation lacks those facilities.

No, not nice. They are actually causing completely real deaths of people.

On Apr 1, 5:37*pm, Jens Müller wrote:
ComandanteBanana schrieb:

Bicycle parking facilities? Well, that might be the case. Facilities for
moving bicycle traffic? Here, there are much too many of them ...

Nice. Most of the nation lacks those facilities.

No, not nice. They are actually causing completely real deaths of people.

What is causing their deaths, the bike facilities?

WE NEED BIKE LANES or 20MPH LANES --enforced by cameras.

This is a fair comment that I stick to...

tjspiel
Was at a book store last night thumbing through the latest Bicycling
magazine. I ended up buying it mostly because of their feature report
called: "What you can do to fix America's traffic laws - and why you
should".

There was a lot of text devoted to several people that that been
killed or sustained permanent, life altering injuries. They were
struck by drunk drivers or in one case, a driver trying to grab
something out of a bag in her back seat. All of the cyclists had been
riding on a wide shoulder or in a bike lane and had been hit from
behind.

The article seemed to focus more on stonger penalties for people who
kill or injure cyclists and not so much on new laws. There were a lot
of interesting statistics. For example cities with more cyclists had a
lower percentage of fatal collisions. Another thing they mentioned
that is absolutely true is that in the U.S. there is little or no
driver training related to being on the road with cyclists. There's
also little formal training for cyclists on how to ride safely in the
street. Both are sorely needed.

One good idea though was implemented in Kansas. Apparently when you
renew your license in that state there is a written test. A guy there
was able to successfully get the state to insure that there would be
at least one question related to cyclists on the test. The current
version has a multiple choice question on how many feet you must leave
between your car and the cyclist when passing. In Kansas, it's 4 feet.

Anyway, the whole article definitely made me a little more nervous
about riding with fast moving traffic. I still contend that segregated
bike lanes are the way to go. You can't legislate away lapses in
judgement and attention.

On Mar 31, 1:00*pm, ComandanteBanana
wrote:
Having other types of bikes in my collection, I'm about to get off the
beaten path and get either a ROAD TANDEM BIKE or a FANCY UPRIGHT
TRIKE. Well, I like them both but the road tandem would necessarily
put me on the road AMONG THE BEASTS all the time, while the trike I
can use on the back streets and on a new path being built overlooking
the ocean (cool). But I'd be tempted to ride it on the streets
sometimes, squarely TAKING THE LANE because then I'd be more of a
vehicle.

What's your thought, I'd be safer in the trike than on the road
tandem, or should I start planning my funerals?

WHY THE BANANA REVOLUTION?http://webspawner.com/users/bananarevolution

As much as I had hoped that this would be some sort of April Fool's
joke, it isn't.

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregio...ry/312617.html