Hide in yer whole coz I aint gonna slow......

[Darmanicus]

I think I'm gonna go freakin well mad! The reasoning for this? Well it's either.......

1. Pedestrians who are either......
a. Blind.
b. Stupid.
c. Related to Charles Bronson and have a f*****g DEATH WISH!
d. All of the above.

OR

2. Motorists who are either........
a. Blind.
b. Stupid.
c. Of the mind-set that "I'm in 2-3 tons of steel and you're not"......a***holes!
d. All of the above.

Let me take a few steps back in order to elaborate.......

I'm a cyclist and I cycle to work and back 5 days a week. I've NEVER had or caused an accident involving another cyclist/motorist/pedestrian in the roughly 20 years I've been cycling on roads, and therefore consider myself a damned good cyclist.

It was this morning that finally made me want to attatch wheelblades to my bike and see where the wind blew me. Not only once did I have to swerve to miss some dumb*ss pedestrian or motorist, I had to do this several times and I snapped, (something akin to Michael Douglas in Falling Down).

The thing is there seem to be patterns emerging with regards to the location of these events.....

The most noticeable of these seem to be the closer you get to the city centre the more likely you are to have an accident, or in my case a really near miss, because of an a**hole. Get inside the city centre and it's a freakin free for all of the biggest concetration of d*ckwads you've the misfortune of ever meeting; people just don't seem to care about there own lives or anybody elses!

Out in the suburbs, people seem more aware of each other and tend to be more considerate but get to the city centre and it goes up. You'd have thought that what with the increase in traffic it would make one a LOT more aware but no instead you get used to it and this somewhat seems to make the danger less.

Zebra crossings are another good one.......it seems as though any pedestrian within about 100ft of one has immunity to traffic or right of way over any part of any road, or at least that's what they'd like to believe! You have to see it to believe it, it's madness.

So what is it with these people and is it really true about location = incident?

I can forgive kids for such transgressions because they only fit into the pedestrian category, they are kids and it's expected of them and you could run a kid over and it'd be up in 5 mins time, (they are virtually impossible to kill).

It's obviously the adults which do my head in. I've noticed one group in particular and these are the students. Now I know students get a hard time for a lot of things but after today they f******g well deserve it. I don't know the reason why they just walk out into a main road with no thought for themselves or anyone else, they just do. Maybe they're still getting over the weed they smoked and the couple of pints they had the previous night? Maybe it's that herd mentality and when there's a few of 'em the ol' safety in numbers thing kicks in?

Maybe next time I'll be driving a lorry!

And what's the crack with people rushing to get everywhere? The city in which I live, Southampton, gets gridlocked every morning fom virtually outside my front door yet if there's 50ft of clear road in front of a motorist they'll insist on doing an equal speed in mph!!! Why do they bother? Who knows? The problem is though is that they'll do this and if it means overtaking me around a corner which they cannot see round and then having to pull in suddenly and carve me up in the process because a vehicles coming the other way, they'll do it. And just to get a few yards up the road a bit quicker which doesn't make any sense because a couple of minutes later I've overtaken them!

Now I know I'm biased here and some of you out there'll probably have stories re cyclists or whatever it is that you're not when it comes to travelling to work but I get this EVERY day of the working week.

Any thoughts/stories anyone?

 

[jonesy]

Now I know I'm biased here and some of you out there'll probably have stories re cyclists or whatever it is that you're not when it comes to travelling to work but I get this EVERY day of the working week.

Well there was this instance where I was on my morning walk with my dog. He's a big black monster, so there shouldn't have been any possibility of not seeing him. So the dog sits down onto the grass by the road and starts looking at some squirrels playing like he would like to hunt them down. I have the chain (he's a big dog and it's a strong chain) tight and I'm standing on the side of the road also looking at the squirrels. And the blindest cyclist I ever saw comes crashing through the goddamn chain! And then he gets up and starts yelling at me for standing there? Nearly punched his teeth in.

I'm just saying that there are morons everywhere.

 

[Darmanicus]

Nearly punched his teeth in.

Why didn't ya? It's one thing an accident happening in the 1st place but to blame it on someone who's fault it wasn't is way out of line. I'd have set the dog on 'im, hehe!

I'm seriously starting to get road rage and it's really mucking up my morning at work. Being angry and wound up is NOT condusive to speaking to clients, especially in the morning when I'm a bit grouchy anyway,(ok, really grouchy).

Now I'm not giving up cycling to work, it's the only thing keeping the rough shape that's me from getting any rougher so I suppose I'm stuck with a**holes.

Can't really do much about the pedestrians apart from maybe shout at them really loud as I pass and hopefully scare the s**t out of 'em.

The only thing I can think of with re to drivers I suppose is to take a note of their plate and report 'em to the police, (which is not something I want to do but some of these drivers KNOW you're there and STILL try and pull some stupid s**t around you and I for one don't wanna be road-pancake).

 

[Mystery Man]

I can forgive kids for such transgressions because they only fit into the pedestrian category, they are kids and it's expected of them and you could run a kid over and it'd be up in 5 mins time, (they are virtually impossible to kill).

That reminds me of a story...

Years ago I was passing two kids on a country road on bicycles when one dumbarse kid decides that it would be better for me to drive in the middle of a split between the two of them and moves in the passing lane directly into the path of my 1979 Camero (Cameroes are great for speed in a nice straight line but they don't corner well). Needless to say I swerved and ploughed into him with the rear of my car at 35 mph. I skid to a stop and jump out of my car fully expecting to see a bloody smear down the middle of the passing lane but much to my surprise the kid is standing up with eyes the size of dinner plates. He jumped off his bike the split second my car slammed into him. So I have them wait there while I go find a phone and call for help (my tire was flattened) and get them a ride home. He must have thought he did a bad thing and didn't want to get into trouble because when I got back with my dad he and his friend were were long gone.

 

[Desdichado]

I'm seriously starting to get road rage

I don't bike to work anymore (it's a 30-35 minute commute by car) but I used to get road rage pretty bad when I first moved up here. Folks in Detroit ain't exactly the most polite you'll ever meet. But I decided to cool it and not take it personally, and not try to hurry too much either. Plus, that hour or so a day sitting in my car is sometimes the only time I can listen to any music all day, or make some progress on an audiobook, or at least just not have anybody coming up and asking me something, or asking me to do something. Now, I kinda enjoy it.

 

[WayneLigon]

Most places in the US don't have bike paths by the road, so I seldom ever see bikers. I see a couple very young guys downtown that bike to work, but that's it.

 

[drothgery]

Most places in the US don't have bike paths by the road, so I seldom ever see bikers. I see a couple very young guys downtown that bike to work, but that's it.

I keep telling myself that sooner or later I'm going to break down and buy a good bike and ride to work a few days a week. I live very close to the office in a city with excellent weather and bike lanes on most roads.

 

[Darmanicus]

I keep telling myself that sooner or later I'm going to break down and buy a good bike and ride to work a few days a week. I live very close to the office in a city with excellent weather and bike lanes on most roads.

You might be surprised as to how in shape even a short coupla bike rides a day can keep you. You also generally don't have to worry about traffic jams.

 

[drothgery]

You might be surprised as to how in shape even a short coupla bike rides a day can keep you. You also generally don't have to worry about traffic jams.

... which is the other big reason why I keep thinking about buying a good bike. Two or three times a month, for no apparent reason, my 4.5 mile commute takes me 40 minutes or more.