EPTPeople that annoy me #3 - Page 2
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reincremate
China2216 Posts
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Servius_Fulvius
United States947 Posts
However, let's not forget that some drivers are pretty bad themselves. I've been run off bike lanes, almost been run over at intersections, and forced to slam brakes in parking lots. Cars backing out of parking spaces are the worst since cyclists are in the blind spot - the spot you're supposed to check when backing out. The lights of the car backing out are hard to see in the day time, so I've taken to clearing parked cars by at least 5 feet just in case. Next to that are right turns on red. Most major intersections have walk signs for pedestrians when the cars have a red light. I diligently check these because I was run over by a car 5 years ago (while running) and got a ticket because I couldn't tell the responding officer if the sign was white or yellow. I ride on a main road with intersecting roads that don't have as much traffic. This means many drivers are making right turns on the red. The driver is almost always looking left before they turn, so they don't see me coming from the right. Even though I have the right of way I'm not going through the intersection unless I make eye contact with the driver - this has saved me MANY times. Parking lots are terrible. If I can help it I'll stay near the store where cars slow down to avoid people or on the far outskirts. Not only do I have to deal with many cars backing out, but also shoppers AND vehicles that don't follow the flow of traffic. Every parking lot for a grocery store, department store, or mall where I live has arrows drawn on the pavement. Cars are supposed to zig-zag around the parking lot. However, no one follows this because there's enough clearance for two lanes of traffic (when they're supposed to act as one-way streets). I really don't have a right to complain about this because I never noticed the arrows until I started biking, but it's astonishing how many people ignore them. tl;dr - I run into many situations on my bike where I have the right of way or am doing nothing wrong and still have to slam on brakes/stop/swerve. Is this fair? No. Am I going to slam on brakes/stop/swerve anyway? Yes. In a game of car versus cyclist the car is always going to win. I rely heavy on visual communication with the driver. Communication is the key and if I don't at least have eye contact from the driver then I'm not taking a chance. | ||
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iSTime
1579 Posts
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Enki
United States2548 Posts
Personally I don't like cyclists around here, we dont have a bike lane so they ride on the edge of the road past the yellow line, it's just dangerous because you have to vere into the other lane to pass them. Some people are just outright dicks though, I don't see how people could ever be so mad at a biker to run over their foot or run into their bike in most cases, people just fucking suck :/ | ||
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tryummm
774 Posts
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iSTime
1579 Posts
On June 27 2011 07:49 reincremate wrote: While it is inconsiderate to block cars with your bicycle, I don't think most people (or almost anyone) should even be driving a car to begin with. Getting to places faster is not an adequate justification for the frivolity of driving a car (especially if it's a single driver in a car that seats 4+). lol fuck off Most suburban and rural areas cannot be traveled without a car in any reasonable way. User was warned for this post | ||
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Laerties
United States361 Posts
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BlackJack
United States10574 Posts
On June 27 2011 07:54 Servius_Fulvius wrote: I agree, some cyclists are downright obnoxious. I don't own a car, so I've been depending on a bike to get me to and from work, grocery shopping, and around town for over a year now (about 1200 miles since last June). If there isn't a bike lane then I will do everything in my power to ride on the shoulder. If the shoulder is too small I will ride on the grass. Luckily, since I'm living in Louisiana, the winters are mild and I don't have to worry about snow. However, let's not forget that some drivers are pretty bad themselves. I've been run off bike lanes, almost been run over at intersections, and forced to slam brakes in parking lots. Cars backing out of parking spaces are the worst since cyclists are in the blind spot - the spot you're supposed to check when backing out. The lights of the car backing out are hard to see in the day time, so I've taken to clearing parked cars by at least 5 feet just in case. Next to that are right turns on red. Most major intersections have walk signs for pedestrians when the cars have a red light. I diligently check these because I was run over by a car 5 years ago (while running) and got a ticket because I couldn't tell the responding officer if the sign was white or yellow. I ride on a main road with intersecting roads that don't have as much traffic. This means many drivers are making right turns on the red. The driver is almost always looking left before they turn, so they don't see me coming from the right. Even though I have the right of way I'm not going through the intersection unless I make eye contact with the driver - this has saved me MANY times. Parking lots are terrible. If I can help it I'll stay near the store where cars slow down to avoid people or on the far outskirts. Not only do I have to deal with many cars backing out, but also shoppers AND vehicles that don't follow the flow of traffic. Every parking lot for a grocery store, department store, or mall where I live has arrows drawn on the pavement. Cars are supposed to zig-zag around the parking lot. However, no one follows this because there's enough clearance for two lanes of traffic (when they're supposed to act as one-way streets). I really don't have a right to complain about this because I never noticed the arrows until I started biking, but it's astonishing how many people ignore them. tl;dr - I run into many situations on my bike where I have the right of way or am doing nothing wrong and still have to slam on brakes/stop/swerve. Is this fair? No. Am I going to slam on brakes/stop/swerve anyway? Yes. In a game of car versus cyclist the car is always going to win. I rely heavy on visual communication with the driver. Communication is the key and if I don't at least have eye contact from the driver then I'm not taking a chance. imo the worst are people that fly up to stop signs and red lights . There's usually a stop sign, then sidewalk/crosswalk, then bike lane, then traffic lane. People like to fly past the stop sign and the cross walk and stop at the bike lane as they check traffic to see if they can pull out. People should make a complete stop at the stop sign and then check for pedestrian traffic, and then inch up so they can see street traffic. If everyone spent a year as a cyclist then they would be better drivers as they have another perspective. | ||
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Lebesgue
4542 Posts
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Hidden_MotiveS
Canada2562 Posts
On June 27 2011 08:07 tryummm wrote: Bike lanes are dangerous compared to sidewalks in my opinion. If you're in a downtown area you shouldn't bike anywhere unless your fast enough to bike the speed limit on the street. I can't stand it when bikers go in the street and bike half the speed limit. Also, its annoying driving while they are in bike lanes since the bike lanes are so small here in the US. Yeah, and it's not like theres a sign that drivers can use to indicate to other drivers that they need to stop because some asshole cyclist is too close out of the bike lane. He either needs to hit the cyclist, stop and get rear ended, or swerve and risk hitting a car on the other side of the road. | ||
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reincremate
China2216 Posts
On June 27 2011 08:10 PJA wrote: lol fuck off Most suburban and rural areas cannot be traveled without a car in any reasonable way. Which is why the suburbs are a highly flawed form of residential development. I said most people (not all) shouldn't be driving; most people don't live in rural areas and therefore don't need a car. | ||
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Unlikely
United States32 Posts
On June 27 2011 08:07 tryummm wrote: Bike lanes are dangerous compared to sidewalks in my opinion. If you're in a downtown area you shouldn't bike anywhere unless your fast enough to bike the speed limit on the street. I can't stand it when bikers go in the street and bike half the speed limit. Also, its annoying driving while they are in bike lanes since the bike lanes are so small here in the US. It's illegal in most parts of the United States to ride a bike on the sidewalk. | ||
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Defeat
United States476 Posts
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Rokusha
United States207 Posts
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iamho
United States3347 Posts
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HornyHerring
Papua New Guinea1059 Posts
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Kukaracha
France1954 Posts
Cylists often react as if they were some sort of half-pedestrian half-vehicle hybrid, and loosely follow the rules. Many of them show a certain irresponsability. But drivers, on the other hand, often display an aggressive behaviour, forgetting that a cyclist is a fucking dude on a bike. Compared to that, you're a high-speed tank. Oh, so you're going to teach him a lesson and drive past him, you could kill him but you don't give a flying fuck. I remember seeing a dead cyclist with his brain scattered all over the street. The car was nowhere to be seen, probably just fucking drove home. A car is comfort, yet some people try to leave that comfort and try to do some sport instead of being a fat retard in a metal box. Because no matter how awesome a car is, it's still noisy, pollutes, yada-yada you know the song. And these people are seen as a disturbance. I live in Paris and you can imagine that there is a lot of traffic, 10 millions of rich people is a lot of cars. Riding a bike in the middle of that looks pretty dangerous to me. And the problem is not the cyclists, it's the idea that a car is a toy you play with. People react in the same way with cars and videogames. No communication, straight insults. Second problem is the idea that a car is the norm. Aren't these people jealous that others show some signs of originality and don't look like they've eaten McDonalds all their life? That person who ran over all of those cyclists could've just sait "I'm in a hurry, please let me through". And they woul've probably let her through. But she just wanted to "teach them a lesson". But sometimes lessons kill. But at the same time, blocking traffic is a stupid idea. Tl:dr, so much stupidity on both sides blows my mind. | ||
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Daozzt
United States1263 Posts
On June 27 2011 07:49 reincremate wrote: While it is inconsiderate to block cars with your bicycle, I don't think most people (or almost anyone) should even be driving a car to begin with. Getting to places faster is not an adequate justification for the frivolity of driving a car (especially if it's a single driver in a car that seats 4+). Yeah, we should all ride on horseback, just like the old days. | ||
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Rotodyne
United States2263 Posts
On June 27 2011 07:49 reincremate wrote: While it is inconsiderate to block cars with your bicycle, I don't think most people (or almost anyone) should even be driving a car to begin with. Getting to places faster is not an adequate justification for the frivolity of driving a car (especially if it's a single driver in a car that seats 4+). At least in the USA, there are many places that a car is the only feasible method of transportation. The USA mass transportation also sucks for mass transportation, especially for shorter distances. | ||
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bITt.mAN
Switzerland3693 Posts
In terms of critical mass I've been to one and to be honest it was fucking fun; I'll tell the story instead of laddering. First of all this was in Geneva Switzerland so I really doubt you can linken it to much any event elsewhere. Not because I'm so proud I think I'm special, but because it was nothing like and of the critical mass videos posted. I was skating home late (had gone to a cafe' with a girl and was coming back to take my train) and I crossed this pedestrian bridge over the river seperating the two sides of the city. I see quite a lot of people (it was winter around 7:30 PM but I'd say 200 ) on any sort of vehicle with wheels. I pulled up and asked a guy nearby (in French, though that adds nothing to my story) what was going on and he said it was a "Cireticalle Masse, mec", which he explained as effectively a bunch of people without cars going around disrupting traffic, being annoying and giving shit to 'the cars' . Oh, and there was half-litre beer at 1CHF apiece, but he overtely told me that all I needed was to chip in a bit and I could take a few more. To descirbe the people there I'd say think of your general image of the sketchy skaters, punks, people who absolutely depend on government aid and people who look like your young liberal bike-activists. I had to leave to catch my train right after it started, but we left at 8:00 to go and block the main streets and disrupt traffic. Last Friday of every month meet at 7:00 PM near Ile Rousseau if you're interested! I've got to say, from expereince it was really fun. We did have enough people together that we were effectively impervious to individual cars and the beer the beer. A note on that beer. It was ridiciously fucking cheap. Usually a beer like that would cost you at least 3.50 CHF (CHF = Swiss Franc =+- roughly $1), and the way you could take as much as you wanted I really feel it was secretly subsidised, but that's consipracy theories about Swiss Liberal Politics and if anyone would even be able to discuss that here it should be in PM's.TL;DR Critical mass can be fun for the sake of "we don't give a fuck, let's get some free beer, stick together, mess around and annoy people for a bit". No I did not think about how the cars must have felt and I fully admit that it was a complete dick-move. If I had been in the car that day I would have raged my ass off, but as I was on my U-Gotta-Skate-mobile I fell in with it and it was pretty fun. | ||
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