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Old July 26th 09, 02:08 PM posted to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,rec.bicycles.rides,uk.rec.cycling
ComandanteBanana
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Default too many "NATURAL BORN KILLERS" out there

On Jul 26, 1:07*am, (Tom Keats) wrote:
In article ,
* * * * ComandanteBanana writes:





On Jul 25, 12:00*am, (Tom Keats) wrote:
In article ,
* * * * Opus writes:


On Jul 23, 1:28 am, (Tom Keats) wrote:
In article ,
* * * * ComandanteBanana writes:


Not that you can do much about it other than building BIKE FACILITIES
(bike lanes and bike paths), or letting cyclists TAKE THE LANE, but at
least you know the bone of contention is COMPETITION.


Skilled riders don't compete with drivers, they cooperate with the
reasonable, rational & sociable majority of them, while letting
the impatient ones get ahead, and getting ahead of (or otherwise
avoiding) the indecisive, screwy ones who don't know where they
want to go.
snip


Until I was assaulted with a motor vehicle because I was riding my
bicycle on the street I would have agreed with you, but there are
drivers (thankfully a very small percentage) that think any bike on
the road is wasted space, that anything (including drivers in other
cars) that slows them down or even makes them change lanes is
"impeding traffic" (they are the only "traffic" that counts).


I'm inclined to /let/ the impatient ones get ahead of me.
That's right where I want 'em -- where I can see what
they're up to. *That's not to say I let them run me off
the pavement, neither is it to say I'm going to make them
wait behind me until I find a nice, big, roomy turnoff.
If the impatient driver wants to go faster, that speeds
up his overtaking, so the rider doesn't need as much space
in which to reasonably safely heave-to, let the driver get
past, and then the rider can resume his original line.
It seems to me a lot of road/street users fixate on space
while disregarding the time, or rather: ~timing~ element.


There's a certain dynamic I've noticed, between drivers
and riders:


a) riding consistently close to the nearest curb invites
* *brush passes


b) making a political, "I'm a road user too" statement by
* *consistently adhering to a line and thereby detending
* *upcoming drivers until they get a chance to wholly change
* *lanes to pass, just ****es 'em off something fierce


c) there are usually many "little," fleeting opportunities
* *where the rider can move a little to the right and
* *slow down a taste, and the impatient upcoming driver can
* *move a little to the left -- maybe straddle a dividing line
* *a little, but no big deal. *Driver gets past, rider doesn't
* *get the Evil Eye, and everybody's on their merry ways.


I've actually gotten a lot of nice "thank you" honks, waves,
peace signs and Dancing With The Devil salutes by so doing.
Using those fleeting little opportunities takes a little
discernment of space, speed and time; in other words it's a
skill, but it's not rocket surgery. *I often intuit those
drivers are astounded that a bike rider was for once actually
considerate toward them.


Anyways, it seems to me that so many people want to battle
for space, because if they have space, they don't have to
make the effort of dealing with timing. *It's a lazy out
on the parts of both drivers and riders.


Both the Take The Lane and bike lane approaches are all
about space. *Nothing at all about time or timing.


Let's
say that that number is .01%, or 1 in 10,000. That may be high or it
may be low, but until they start giving psych exams to drivers we just
have to guess as to how high the number of sociopaths and psychotics
with licenses is. I ride in a densely auto populated urban area, the D/
FW Metroplex, and I estimate that there are times when I get passed as
much as 2,000 times an hour.


That seems like a fairly steep number. *Being passed by a car every
second works out to 3600 car-passes/hour, disregarding traffic light
stops. *That would be like a 60 MPH stretch of freeway.
Being passed 2000 times/hour is roughly between 2/3rds and
3/4ths of that, or an ambient traffic flow of between 40 and
50 MPH. *That hardly sounds like a densely auto populated
urban area, unless it's inflicted with cross-town freeways,
or doesn't have traffic lights. *Dallas/Ft. Worth, eh? *Do
you get to ride on the cross-town freeways?


That's another SWAG, as I'm too busy
trying not to be killed by the people on the bottom end of the bell
curve in driving skills to count everyone else. So using those
assumptions you would expect to face a psycho- or sociopath about once
in 5 hours of cycling in heavy traffic.


There are also drunk drivers, and drivers who've dropped
a cigarette under the bench seat, and have to reach down
and fish around to find it, while taking their eyes off
the road. *And women wearing shoes with high heels that
get snagged in the gas pedal so they accidentally shoot
their cars into store fronts or bus stops populated by
elderly people with canes and walkers.


The good part is that cycling
in heavy traffic actually prevents the nutjobs from hitting you, the
bad part is every once in a while they catch you on a deserted road,
like what happened to me in 2001.


As I alluded to in the previous paragraph, the most common threats are
drivers who can't drive, in spite of having a license.


The most common threat in city traffic is me-firstism.
No matter what vehicle. *The second most common threat
is a long stretch of dry weather followed by rain or snow.


Jason from Friday the XIII, Hannibal Lecter and famous
wealthy blonde chixs who don't really do anything to
deserve their celebrity are way down the list.

Those are nice and dainty words, but in a society born and bred in
violence, there are way too many "NATURAL BORN KILLERS" out there.


Yeah, life is pretty scary in a society born and bred in violence,
and populated by natural born killers.

Maybe I should give up my bike and stay out of drivers' ways,
just like you want.

The good thing is you are likely to make it to the Six O'Clock News
(feed the ratings), so you will make it to the screen.


Whatever.

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

- Show quoted text -


Maybe I want to control and regulate those Natural Born Killers. Maybe
I think it's a good idea to put CAMERAS around, so they can be on
camera but not on TV precisely.

You just want to keep IGNORING the issues that keep the cyclists away,
like 99.6% of them.
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