Get a bike to save the planet

[two fingers]

you would lose that bet, and unless you live deep in the woods or in an old european city, the lanes are wide enough that only cyclists who are d-bags 24/7 with or without their bike are in your way. Biking doesn't make me holier than anyone, nor does eating a real breakfast in lieu of coffee and a pop tart or any other physically healthy choice I make for myself. It must suck to be in whatever place you're in in life to feel so less holy than anyone as to get consumed with rage at the mere inconvenience of arriving at your destination less than a minute later than you'd hoped due, not to a traffic light, not to a busted water main, nor to many other common things we deal with in daily modern life, but to another person making use of public roadways in a slower form than you. Seriously, how much later do they make you? Did you miss your father's funeral because of a cyclist slashing your tires? I doubt it, but as I say below, I don't know your town, I don't know the d-bags in your town, maybe they are acting way outside of how cyclists in my community behave as a matter of common decency.

@two fingers, I know you've seen my likes on hundreds of your posts, you know I respect you. You read a lot more between my lines than was there, I'll start a blogspot upon request, maybe next autumn, to elaborate and articulate if you like. I'm definitely not a cyclosupremist, I'm certain that the number of non-potted-plants who nearly never touch a bike greatly outnumbers the population of would-be and actual cyclists combined. I'm not in your town to know if there's shoulders on the roads and the cyclists are being dillholes and refusing to use them, nor am I there to see if it's, as you seem to wish to imply, that an entire queue of 40-200 cars are lined up behind one cyclist as in Jeremy Clarksons demo of his P48 nano car all the way up till s/he arrives at a red light and deigns to scootch to the right. I've ridden the East coast pretty extensively and found that roads that shouldn't be biked are pretty obvious, but almost all towns are able to be biked politely (without being suicidally obstructive). (Truly being respectfully lighthearted here) You're a jersey in the same way as FZ said "broken hearts are for [jerseys]" for saying in the same post "it is what it is", still getting to work on time, but implying that anyone at all is failing to get to work on time due exclusively to the cyclists.

"It is what it is", just like red lights, potholes, and stop signs. This should be a non-issue. You, unlike trillions of humans living concurrently and before us, are travelling seated with radio and a/c at speeds faster than a f!#/ing panther is capable of! Dude, you gotta slow down for how long behind the assholiestasshole pedaller for how long? What? Ten, twenty whole mississippi counts? You've got a f$!#ing radio! There's still people walking barefoot to find work.

The only thing I'm ever holier-than-thou about anything in life it's this: whether you get to work by car, service truck, bicycle, bus, foot, or helicopter, get the f!@$ out of bed early enough to get solid food prepared for your day and leave for work early enough to be there fifteen minutes early, then leave for work early enough to get to work as early as fifteen minutes early, regardless of when you arrive relative to when you'd hoped to arrive at work, live your amazing 21st century life with all of its absurd and minor bumps and turns to the f$!#ing max!

Ha! Great post! I meant no disrespect either. We're just debating here. My writing style might imply that I'm more emotional about it than I am. Bike on, brother. Bike on.



.....just not on Firetower Road between 7a.m. and 6p.m.......thanks.

 

[fhm555]

Here's the thing, and i think it was mentioned indirectly in another thread yesterday regards opinions on owning motorcycles.

When we come to the point that an automobile is too expensive to operate, we will become a moped and step through scooter dominated society. When we reach the point where mopeds are too expensive to operate...

And as far as when mankind reaches the end of it's run. If it is not the result of a catastrophic meteor strike that kills everything in less than 24 hours, it will be a slow steady decline to extinction and the primary cause will be twofold.

First will be a refusal to adapt. Second will be an insistence we preserve our current state for future generations.

Inagine a world where the automobile never replaced the horse and buggy and the steam engine never gained acceptence.

Our survival does not depend on preserving our planet, our survival depends on our ability to adapt and continue making advances.

If we don't decend into chaos we will one day have a device into which we will dump all our waste, and when we want a ham on rye we'll just ask for it and the device will extract the required building blocks from our waste and build us a ham on rye.

And there will be certain among us who will exploit the technology for gain and others who will decry it as the work of ole scratch, but most of us will load our trash and ask for a sunburst and tort P with flats...and the world will keep on turning.

 

[Fat Freddy]

Once a month, I like to rent a bigass truck and go cyclist hunting....

 

[StyleOverShow]

moved to the pacific northwest 8 months ago, where they are struggling with growth(from aholes like me moving out of megapop centers).

i noticed the city, Portland, was re-striping car lanes in favor of transit and cyclists. would never happen in LaLaLand but here, its a start.

gonna buy myself a bike and do not intend to tote my rig. thats what my hybrid is for.

btw, raised two Cali kids, both do not own cars, they ride bikes. go figure

 

[Fishheadjoe]

you would lose that bet, and unless you live deep in the woods or in an old european city, the lanes are wide enough that only cyclists who are d-bags 24/7 with or without their bike are in your way. Biking doesn't make me holier than anyone, nor does eating a real breakfast in lieu of coffee and a pop tart or any other physically healthy choice I make for myself. It must suck to be in whatever place you're in in life to feel so less holy than anyone as to get consumed with rage at the mere inconvenience of arriving at your destination less than a minute later than you'd hoped due, not to a traffic light, not to a busted water main, nor to many other common things we deal with in daily modern life, but to another person making use of public roadways in a slower form than you. Seriously, how much later do they make you? Did you miss your father's funeral because of a cyclist slashing your tires? I doubt it, but as I say below, I don't know your town, I don't know the d-bags in your town, maybe they are acting way outside of how cyclists in my community behave as a matter of common decency.

@two fingers, I know you've seen my likes on hundreds of your posts, you know I respect you. You read a lot more between my lines than was there, I'll start a blogspot upon request, maybe next autumn, to elaborate and articulate if you like. I'm definitely not a cyclosupremist, I'm certain that the number of non-potted-plants who nearly never touch a bike greatly outnumbers the population of would-be and actual cyclists combined. I'm not in your town to know if there's shoulders on the roads and the cyclists are being dillholes and refusing to use them, nor am I there to see if it's, as you seem to wish to imply, that an entire queue of 40-200 cars are lined up behind one cyclist as in Jeremy Clarksons demo of his P48 nano car all the way up till s/he arrives at a red light and deigns to scootch to the right. I've ridden the East coast pretty extensively and found that roads that shouldn't be biked are pretty obvious, but almost all towns are able to be biked politely (without being suicidally obstructive). (Truly being respectfully lighthearted here) You're a jersey in the same way as FZ said "broken hearts are for [jerseys]" for saying in the same post "it is what it is", still getting to work on time, but implying that anyone at all is failing to get to work on time due exclusively to the cyclists.

"It is what it is", just like red lights, potholes, and stop signs. This should be a non-issue. You, unlike trillions of humans living concurrently and before us, are travelling seated with radio and a/c at speeds faster than a f!#/ing panther is capable of! Dude, you gotta slow down for how long behind the assholiestasshole pedaller for how long? What? Ten, twenty whole mississippi counts? You've got a f$!#ing radio! There's still people walking barefoot to find work.

The only thing I'm ever holier-than-thou about anything in life it's this: whether you get to work by car, service truck, bicycle, bus, foot, or helicopter, get the f!@$ out of bed early enough to get solid food prepared for your day and leave for work early enough to be there fifteen minutes early, then leave for work early enough to get to work as early as fifteen minutes early, regardless of when you arrive relative to when you'd hoped to arrive at work, live your amazing 21st century life with all of its absurd and minor bumps and turns to the f$!#ing max!

Funny, but I am not in any way angry, just expressing my opinion. So far, you have told me that I am an out of shape FF because I don't ride a bike to work and how on gods green earth do you have any idea about what I do or don't eat for breakfast. Just so you know, grilled road kill with a side of bacon.
Fishheadjoe

 

[bluesblaster]

this very morning a cyclist was coming toward me along the shoulder/ bike lane and viewing her cellphone at the same time, not paying attention to whats coming down the road in the same lane can get you killed. I believe this counts as distracted driving, she was operating a mobile vehicle on a public road. Just sayin, pay attention and be careful out there

 

[Fishheadjoe]

Just to give some perspective here... I live in Toronto, Canada's largest city. From the east end to the west of Toronto proper is about 25 miles long. Toronto also has as much or more traffic than L.A.. That's a fact. To get from one end of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) to the other is about 116 miles. We have built bike lanes in and out of the city. Many cyclists don't use them, they prefer to ride on the same streets as street cars, trucks and commuters, even though a block north or south, would put them on authorized bike lanes.
They pass you on the right at red lights, they don't do that at stop signs because they don't bother to stop.
When you live in this situation, I bet you can see how folks can get a bit put off.
Fishheadjoe

 

[ZenG]

Riding a bike to save the planet?

Hmmm.. they ride tons of bikes in China. Didn't seem to help them pollution-wise.

Reminds me of that other " Let's all go green" lunatic event where we all turn our lights off for an hour (as the contractors finish building another mega-subdivision across the street..)

There has been zero incentive put forth by the government here to further solar power. Because really they would rather you have you "on the grid" as it benefits them.

Bikes for the most part are impractical for year round use where I live.

I have a bike. This one I've owned for about ten years. It has about maybe ten miles on it. I don't need it to get fit. I am quite fit but use other programs that I like to accomplish that.

You can't haul much on a bike and it doesn't take passengers.

(If you think I'm buying one of those multi-seat trike rigs to peddle the relatives butts around:- that's not gonna happen).

Plus much of the shopping we do is about is about 40 miles away.

So...no thanks.

There are some good cyclists out there. But many of the ones I encounter drive like imbeciles. They are often unpredictable as to what they are going to do.

 

[fdeck]

Where I live, stop signs are merely a suggestion to cyclists, regardless of age or skill.
Fishheadjoe

That's pretty typical everywhere. What I've noticed is that most of the crimes of both cyclists and car drivers are crimes of opportunity and convenience. Why do most car drivers exceed the speed limit? Because it's easy and convenient. Why do most cyclists roll through stop signs? It's more convenient than coming to a complete stop. Speaking strictly hypothetically, of course. In both cases, matters are greatly improved if we all follow the same rule: "Don't be a jerk."

There are also some social rules that cyclists can observe. This is of course without suggesting that anybody actually break the law, but doing things less visibly and flagrantly will tend to make everybody feel more copascetic. Also, people have this weird objection to speedy bikes and cycling garb (spandex, etc.), even though it's fashionable for everybody to wear sports styled clothing. I've probably evaded the anger of car drivers, because I ride a very humble looking bike and ride in my regular street clothes.

I live in a winter climate where -35 is "normal". There is no way in hell I'm riding a bike to get around.

Fortunately, it rarely gets much below -10 F around here, especially these past two winters.

By the way...most developed countries have a negative birth rate, and most developing countries have a high birth rate. Less people is better, so if all countries became modern and advanced, the world's population would reduce naturally. Most modern societies also are cleaner than developing countries. Bikes are not the solution...21st century living is the solution.

Indeed, possibly the most effective weapon against poverty is the education and empowerment of women, and widespread use of birth control is a typical outcome.

 

[GregC]

Riding a bike to save the planet?

Hmmm.. they ride tons of bikes in China. Didn't seem to help them pollution-wise.

Oy vey.

 

[MattZilla]

I neither called you out-of-shape nor a fire fighter. What I did do was point out that your post illustrates a mindset that is not benefitting you at all.

As soon as I see those sew faaaawwnseh pants, tops, hats and goggles, I know that I am going to be in for an attitude when I am trying to pass the rider. I guess when you buy fancy riding stuff, you are automatically entitled to do what ever the heck you want on the road.
Here's a little tid bit for yah... in my city/province, it is illegal [in a car. reread your dmv handbook] to pass a vehicle that is in the right lane, on the right. So all those bikes that roll up the gutter on the right, when you are at a red light are breaking the law. Most don't know that. [Breitbart-level fact]

What are you doing to recieve an attitude? When you pass are you skimming their elbow with your mirror? Blaring your horn for longer than a plain ol "toot"? This post implies that your car piloting mentality is not normal as no raceyspandex rider is flipping the bird at every car that passes including those that pass with corteous brevity and distance.

Here's another tip... as a cyclist, you may have the law on your side, but when a bike and a car collide, the biker will always lose. Being right, doesn't make for a better looking corpse.
Fishheadjoe

I know people who mutter this mantra on a daily basis. They stress out over a lot of things that really have should have no effect on them. I hope that you're not one of these people. You're a bassist ffs!

Coupla nights ago I had this thing called a "bacon bomb", recipe stolen from Hammie's BBQ. I'm certain you would come to the same conclusion I did if you find someone to do the silly seven hour cook.

@two fingers there's almost no shoulder on most of that road! 7pm to 630am is a fine window for me!

 

[Roland GR 88]

Just to give some perspective here... I live in Toronto, Canada's largest city. From the east end to the west of Toronto proper is about 25 miles long. Toronto also has as much or more traffic than L.A.. That's a fact. To get from one end of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) to the other is about 116 miles. We have built bike lanes in and out of the city. Many cyclists don't use them, they prefer to ride on the same streets as street cars, trucks and commuters, even though a block north or south, would put them on authorized bike lanes.
They pass you on the right at red lights, they don't do that at stop signs because they don't bother to stop.
When you live in this situation, I bet you can see how folks can get a bit put off.
Fishheadjoe

I live in Toronto and Joe, if you tried getting in and out of the city by bike lanes alone you'd never get there. Our infrastructure is sorely lacking for anyone that doesn't work or live near the DVP or the Lakeshore. I've been a daily commuter for over 30yrs and very little has changed despite a few painted lines here and there. Cycling in Toronto has become more of a political football than a reality for those of us that are brave, stupid or simply poor enough to get out and dance with cars, trucks and streetcars every day. I'm a driver too and simply accept the fact that bikes are part of this city and need as much respect as any other road user.
I've been through this argument so many times over the years and one thing you can take from it consistently is that drivers that give room to cyclists are unselfish and those that don't usually are.
When you live in this situation I bet you can see how folks can get a bit put off.

 

[hbarcat]

Like I said in my opening post , probably most of the USA isn't bikable in big cities yet but it can change.
There wasn't much roads for cars 100 years ago ....... things can change but people have to change their attitude and habits. It's really tough but feasible.

I lived 5 years in an area where cycling was easy. My car sat for most of the summer and I biked everywhere. But winters on the shore of Lake Superior are brutal. Four to five months a year you have to drive and that's not a problem that can be solved with a change in attitude or infrastructure. Still, every little bit helps.

Now i've lived in the Chicago suburbs for 15 years. For the 1st couple of years I tried to make cycling work, but it just wasn't feasible. I had to wear slacks, dress shirt and tie every day and interact with clients. It's more than just a minor inconvenience to transform myself every morning, after a 15 mile bike ride in sweat soaked athletic wear, into a presentable businessman, without the use of a shower or locker room. Am I to be labeled as a fat, lazy, American pig because I find this is routine too burdensome?

Still, I toughed it out and tried to bike as often as I could. I literally risked my life, on a daily basis as impatient or clueless drivers sometimes actually drove me off the road.

Until the one day when I saw the young man cycling ahead of me get smashed by a car, the driver apparently deciding his convenience was more important than the safety or the legal right of way of a cyclist.

I will spare recounting the details of the collision, but I will say that it was horrific.

I will also say that I was provided with a wonderfully graphic example of what I could expect to happen to me if I kept going with my idealistic attempt to do my part to "save the planet" by biking.

Forget it. It's not gonna happen. For the small percentage of people who can make this work for themselves, I applaud them. But don't expect that you're going to make a difference in the global picture. There's a different solution for that.

 

[Fishheadjoe]

I live in Toronto and Joe, if you tried getting in and out of the city by bike lanes alone you'd never get there. Our infrastructure is sorely lacking for anyone that doesn't work or live near the DVP or the Lakeshore. I've been a daily commuter for over 30yrs and very little has changed despite a few painted lines here and there. Cycling in Toronto has become more of a political football than a reality for those of us that are brave, stupid or simply poor enough to get out and dance with cars, trucks and streetcars every day. I'm a driver too and simply accept the fact that bikes are part of this city and need as much respect as any other road user.
I've been through this argument so many times over the years and one thing you can take from it consistently is that drivers that give room to cyclists are unselfish and those that don't usually are.
When you live in this situation I bet you can see how folks can get a bit put off.

Just to clear the air a bit here... I drive like the little old lady from Pasadena and frankly, my issues with bikes stems almost entirely from my concern for the person on the bike. I in no way want to cause them any grief, delay or pain, I simply don't have confidence in either their ability or willingness to follow the same rules I am. If I can't count on them doing things in a certain way, then I am concerned that someone could get hurt. It's likely not going to be me as I have a few thousand pounds of metal and plastic surrounding me, none the less, I do care for my fellow man enough to not want to hurt anyone. As far as my driving skills, I've been driving for close to 40 years, never been pulled over, never received a ticket. I am probably the most courteous driver you will ever meet.
In my city, crawling up the right on a vehicle in the right lane at a red light is against the law, I called the cops to find out. They just don't bother to enforce it because of manpower issues.
Fishheadjoe

PS... you had me at bacon and I'll cook it!

 

[Gaolee]

I live in a scenic area that bike clubs like to ride. My only problem with them is when you have 50 or more cyclist riding together, they have a nasty mob mentality. Last summer, I was at a 4 way stop intersection. It was my turn to go. Then the leading cyclist blew thru the stop sign and everyone else follows. I honked my horn in anger and 10 guys or so flip me off. I rarely feel rage when driving but afterwards my wife had to calm me down. Just my 2 cents.

This is my experience, too. The bicycle commuters and bicycle as transportation types are a lot different from the weekend peloton of spandex warriors.

My bikes will never, ever save the planet. I have to cover too much ground to pedal, so mine have motors. They go fast and I have a good time on them. I used to ride a bicycle on a daily basis, but alas, no more. But, still on two wheels.

 

[Funky Ghost]

In Sacramento I've learned a lot about Bicycles.

I've learned that stop signs don't apply to them.
I've learned that if they turn in front of me when I am in mid turn it's my fault.
I've learned that they can ride in the street but I can't drive in their lane.
I've learned that adults should never wear spandex bike suits, even when they're fit.

Ever.

I've learned that if I'm walking along the river on the trail they can and do yell at people for walking on the trail where they ride.

Not a fan of cycle "culture" for the most part.

 

[FilterFunk]

In Sacramento I've learned a lot about Bicycles.

I've learned that stop signs don't apply to them.
I've learned that if they turn in front of me when I am in mid turn it's my fault.
I've learned that they can ride in the street but I can't drive in their lane.
I've learned that adults should never wear spandex bike suits, even when they're fit.

Ever.

I've learned that if I'm walking along the river on the trail they can and do yell at people for walking on the trail where they ride.

Not a fan of cycle "culture" for the most part.

The funny thing is that there's a city not too far to the west of Sacramento that is, and has been for a very long time, perhaps the most bike-friendly city in America (Davis, CA). I went to Davis High in the mid-to-late '70s, and I remember bicyclists everywhere. I rode a bike, but then again, I was a teenager in the '70s!

 

[JimK]

Ride a bike every day...in the gym.

 

[Mike N]

God gave me two feet..... one for the gas and one for the clutch.

 

[Funky Ghost]

The funny thing is that there's a city not too far to the west of Sacramento that is, and has been for a very long time, perhaps the most bike-friendly city in America (Davis, CA). I went to Davis High in the mid-to-late '70s, and I remember bicyclists everywhere. I rode a bike, but then again, I was a teenager in the '70s!

I had to drive to Davis twice a day for 5 years. I know it well A lot of that bike "knowledge" came from that time.