Time for another whine blog about people that bother me. This is my 3rd one in a row so I might make it a theme. So far people that annoy me are:
People that use the word "sheeple" Litterbugs
and now... Cyclists. Not all cyclists. Not even a majority, or a significant minority. Even I commuted by bicycle for 2 years 10-15 miles a day. However there does exist a small yet significant group of cyclists that love to cry about how the road is "for everyone to share" but also insist on hogging it themselves. This video illustrates my point quite nicely.
Notice how there is a perfectly usable bike lane not even 3 feet from the guy but he insists on riding his bike in the middle of the road and then throws a fit because someone passes too close. There's no reasoning with these people. If you tell them that they should just ride in the bike lane because it's a douchebag thing to do to make other cars wait on you while you trod along at 15mph they will say something like this
If you can find the bit in the highway code where it says you have to use a bike lane, anything I ever earn will be yours. Till then, shutup.
Okay? I'm not legally obligated to hold the door open for the person behind me or get an item off the top shelf for a little old lady at the grocery store. It reminds me of the movie Bowling for Columbine when people ask the NRA why they came to Columbine after the shooting and they say "The constitution gives us the right to." By the way, that quote isn't something spouted by one guy. I've seen it repeated by many people.
Then there are these things called "Critical Mass" rides. I'm not too keen on what they are about but it seems like the main idea is to have a ton of cyclists blocking all lanes of traffic and going 5 mph while singing "la-la-la-la you're legally not allowed to run over me! la-la-la-la." For example:
I just don't have the nerve to force a bunch of people to queue behind me because I want to take my merry time hogging an entire lane. I don't understand how these people live with being so inconsiderate to other people. Maybe somebody can explain it to me..
Wow. This whole 'critical mass' ride thing is ridiculous. Nothing says douche like going out your way to try to aggravate people who could easily be in a hurry to something important.
In the second video its almost like they were baiting something like that. Basically setting up for someone to get clipped and then they swarm the car with cameras and profanity; I would have sped away with reckless abandon too, those people are scary,
Also, I like your blogs; so far the people that annoy you also annoy me,
Hahaha I don't know why, but your blog strongly reminded me of this
And watching that again makes me assert this point: not just cyclists, but road-users who are dumbasses and jerks annoy the hell out of me.
We don't have a bicycle lane in Singapore, but cyclists stick to the left hand side ( our roads are opposite of US's ) and stay there. Cars go really fast, so there's an unseen barrier as to how far cyclists here would dare to mess around.
In fact, i only recall one accident in the last year that involved a bicycle user.
couldnt agree more. i, too, despise when cyclists do things like this. they claim the road is to share, and then hog the road themselves and dont obey the rules.
nothing makes me rage harder than when they just run through stop signs like they dont have to acknowledge them, as if they don't apply to everyone on the road. I wonder what their reaction would be if i ran through every stop sign i saw?
the critical mass thing is also annoying- or even just when a few friends are spewed all over a 1 lane road instead of riding single file in the bike lane for cars to pass.
of all the things that 'grinds my gears', this is also on the top of my list. I get impatient at times, I especially hate it when they try to share the one lane roads. I don't mind too much if I'm behind a mail-truck vehicle but not cyclists. I get super annoyed to the point where I see someone dress up in cycling wear, it just annoys me and I think they look stupid lol.
I think most of the time these people are being smug and smelling their own farts too much to be considerate of other human beings. Or maybe they are mad that people still use combustion engines to get around and this is their passive-aggressive way of expressing it.
I'm a cyclist too. I just hate the other cyclists who go into the car lane for a brief moment to get around a large truck without looking, or signaling, because they expect cars to stop for them. Too many dangerous cyclists. Then there are cyclists who ride way too close out of the bike lane to pass like stupid shits. People are too impatient.
I might be hypocritical. I run stop signs after slowing down to a near halt, but only after making sure the road is clear. (not at major intersections).
I also run 3 way crosswalks. Cars can turn left or go forwards, but can't go right. I figure there's no danger in going if there are no pedestrians because no sane driver would crash into me and the sidewalk.
SO many of them think they own the road, and the worst of them think they are better than you because they cycle instead of using a car. So annoying >.<. (The nice law abiding ones are cool though <3)
I hate stupid cyclists, drivers, horse riders, pedestrians, uni-cyclists, skaters, well everyone that behaves stupid in traffic. Meaning thinking they are the only ones having rights and neglecting their duties.
I've watched quite a few youtube videos on cyclists now. European roads suck. How can you force a cyclist to ride on main roads? Most cyclists stay on the right and only use crosswalks to turn left. North American standard is that you are on the right side of the road and driver side is left.
It's funny cause I agree with him all the way... until it gets to 0:51. Watch how he flies over the parking spots in a parking lot and jumps onto the road at full speed and blows through an intersection and expects everyone to predict his crazy behavior. How entitled does that guy think he is that he expects people to yield for him when he doesn't even obey the traffic laws that everyone else has to? You're supposed to come to a stop when going from a parking lane onto a driving lane.
When I ride a bike I stick to bike lanes/sidewalks. There's too much risk of crazy driving as a cyclist. One mistake and you're screwed. Not only that, when I'm on the other end (driving a car) I get annoyed as hell that they are smack in the middle of the road and almost always pass immediately (and so does everyone else) so basically it's like they are taking up a whole lane for themselves in the proximity around them. Pretty unnecessary.
If I were ever a cyclist, I'd never ride close to cars.. I knew a girl in high school that was killed by the trailer on the back of a pickup truck because it drove too close to her.
Aren't bikes technically allowed the full usage of the lane? I mean That's how I've been taught, that they were just another vehicle on the road and should be treated as such when passing and driving behind.
On June 27 2011 07:13 Shotcoder wrote: Aren't bikes technically allowed the full usage of the lane? I mean That's how I've been taught, that they were just another vehicle on the road and should be treated as such when passing and driving behind.
And technically, I can shoot anyone on my property after dark. Doesn't mean it's a good idea.
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+).
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.
I don't understand why the U.S just can't have bike lanes like they do in Germany. They have plenty of space in their lane, and the cars have space in theirs, it works.
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 :/
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.
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.
I dont understand. Why are they just blocking traffic? They're doing whatever they're doing at the expense of everyone else and if they're protesting biker disrespect or whatever they are just giving everyone else another reason to hate them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bicyclists can be very annoying but most I encountered hug the right side of the road so cars can pass easily. I didn't watch the second video but the driver in the first video pissed me off. Sure the guy could have hugged the left side a bit more or used the bike lane, but there is no reason for anyone to zoom pass a bicyclist that fast or that closely. At the very least the driver could have honked and waited a couple seconds for the guy to pull over.
Some cyclists really annoy the hell outta me as well, today I got off a highway exit and there was a pack of like a dozen cyclists driving on the road! Even worse, it was like 5-6 pm so the opposite lane was entirely crowded with cars so I couldn't just swerve around them. In the end it took me like 30 minutes to get through a road that usually takes me 10 minutes. How can these people feel comfortable biking when they know 20+ drivers are stuck driving at 5mph behind them?
Critical mass is a manifestation to make more bike lanes. Been attending regulary for like 6 years now. When I ride my bike I hate cars. When I ride my car I hate bikes. Once there's a decent way for bikers to commune, critical masses will be no more. In my place they're actually supervised by the state and police. But yea, I stick to bike lanes and if there ain't one I ride as close to the right side as possible.
I'm stunned at the sight of such moronic reactions.
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.
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.
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.
I've never been one to take up urban biking (bad knees) mainly because of how scary it is to me. Yep, you on a little bike next to half-ton tanks is pretty fucking dangerous. So really, lol@ bikers who think they have priority over cars, even for slight bending of traffic rules, because you'd never be a 1m60 50kg guy trying to cut in line in front of a 1m90 120kg guy.
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.
That annoyed me! Luckily I have never seen this phenomenon in scandinavien although some cyclists can be pretty blind and do stupid things but this insisting on having the "right" to be annoying, never seen that. jeez.
Bikers are my biggest pet peeve in the entire world for so many reasons. Just so you know, the Mayor in Vancouver is trying to turn Vancouver in to a cycling city as they exist in Europe...but while in these European cities the cycling is part of centuries long traditions, in Vancouver they are really, really not.
a) Critical mass is the most selfish, terrible thing ever (well, not really, but its pretty bad). I live in Vancouver and they block the lions gate bridge in rush hour for a couple of hours. That backlogs thousands of people from catching the ferry to the Island or getting home to their family on the North shore for many hours. My brother got caught up in the excitement and joined them one day just because he was already in downtown, and said it was like a big fun family affair with music and dancing on the Lions Gate bridge. To me, however, they may as well be terrorists dancing on the pride of our city, crushing the nuts of the people trying to get home and pissing on their families which are waiting for them.
b) Roundabouts. Vancouver has put in a ton of roundabouts all over the city because statistically they reduce car-on-car collisions. Unfortunately, a significant minority of cyclists don't know how to use roundabouts. This isn't a big deal on the BIG roundabouts, but there are now a ton of these little roundabouts at small 4-way residential street corners. Visibility is bad approaching the roundabout, yet these cyclists just blast into them going far too fast to slow down if they needed to. It makes it so dangerous to drive even on rural streets since I feel like a biker could come out of nowhere (as they often do) and cut in front of me or even just careen into the side of my car. It is almost always female cyclists who don't cycle often (identifiable from the ratty old helmet, lack of form-fitting cycling attire, and substandard biking posture).
c) Cycling infrastructure in Vancouver doesn't make any sense! They have put in so many bike lanes everywhere, which in and of itself isn't bad. But one example is they took out street parking along one of the main shop streets to put the bike lane in, making it far more difficult for people to park nearby. It has significantly contributed to at least 2 small businesses that have had to close down. Literally just one block over was a residential street they could have installed the lane in. The business association (for which one of my friends was a representative at this meeting between the business association, bikers association, city of vancouver (mayor etc.) and other stakeholders) said in the meeting, "Can we move the bike lane over 1 block so that it doesn't impact the businesses as much along this stretch?". The bikers association president, who is very close friends with the mayor, said (paraphrasing) "You can't push us around, we're gonna put a bike lane wherever we want." The business association people at the meeting were so furious, because it didn't make any sense and was inherently unreasonable. Needless to say, the Mayor has earned a lot of hate from anyone related to businesses in the downtown core.
d) Bridge cyclists. Now maybe this is me just being a little selfish, but I hate people who bike on the Granville street bridge at any time of the day - in particular during rush hour it really pisses me off. There is a perfectly fine bridge about 10 blocks away with a dedicated bike lane - and all of the good cyclists use it since they are in good enough physical shape to take the 10 block detour. However, all these idiot amateur cyclists try to take the granville street bridge to save time and so you end up with these wobbly bikers trying to go uphill (slowly), taking up the entire lane because they have to work so hard to go uphill that they can't keep to the side, and blocking a huge amount of traffic. Idiots.
On June 27 2011 09:07 Kukaracha wrote: 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.
The bikers wouldn't have let them through, their whole protest is about holding up everyone in a car as long as possible
On June 27 2011 21:53 bITt.mAN wrote: "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
Critical mass iss retarded beyond retarded. You take a bunch of people, feed them alcohol and then have them do their best to incite agression and violence, after which they then mob the poor person who just wants to go home after work. While I don't agree with violent acts, those bikers sure as hell were asking for what they got.
iirc the story behind that incident was the guy in the car got his car scratched by one of the bikers on the ride. In anger he got agressive with his car which resulted in a whole bunch of the bikers attacking him (which is what a lot of them are waiting for). Faced with a wall of people on bikes and a bunch of bikers surrounding his car trying to attack him, he did what any sane person would do. He considered his own safety and got the hell out of there.
I see all these stuff is more on the Western Realm... but you know the asians like us also get sooo annoyed!?
If only people in this world is more filled with GRACE? More genuinely graceful and sincere? It's really so sad to see these in other countries too... sad... "and I thought it only happens to Singapore..." ~~~~~~~~~ with reference to writer Blackjack - "Time for another whine blog about people that bother me. This is my 3rd one in a row so I might make it a theme. So far people that annoy me are:
People that use the word "sheeple" Litterbugs
and now... Cyclists. Not all cyclists. Not even a majority, or a significant minority. Even I commuted by bicycle for 2 years 10-15 miles a day. However there does exist a small yet significant group of cyclists that love to cry about how the road is "for everyone to share" but also insist on hogging it themselves. This video illustrates my point quite nicely."
EPT
