abuse from cyclist on bike track

On 2005-08-16, neuroinf (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Hassles from cars I'm familiar with. But now, a disturbing new
development.

This morning as I cycled down Nepean Highway at about 8.30am, there is
a short distance where there is a bike path on the footpath. There was
a cyclist going the other way on the bike path. I sort of nodded, as
you do, and got this shouted in an abusive tone from said cyclist:

"Why don't you ride on the bike path !"

That's it. I'm never nodding again. Only brings out the kooks.

🙂 I think. Perhaps 🙁

--
TimC
"Back off, man. I'm a scientist."
- Dr. Venkman, _GhostBusters_

neuroinf said:

Hassles from cars I'm familiar with. But now, a disturbing new
development.

This morning as I cycled down Nepean Highway at about 8.30am, there is
a short distance where there is a bike path on the footpath. There was
a cyclist going the other way on the bike path. I sort of nodded, as
you do, and got this shouted in an abusive tone from said cyclist:

"Why don't you ride on the bike path !"

I could have explained that the bike path went for about 2% of my
journey, that yes bike paths are fine, but I prefer to stick to the
road. But I was just dumbfounded. What next? Abuse from mothers pushing
prams?

In the off-chance that you read this group, what sort of drugs are you
on? I suggest you get off them poste haste.

No exactly the same thing

But going down the yarra path into town.. I met a very large group
coming the other way .. one of whome forced me off the path to dodge
him.. and yelled abuse.. Bloke about my age.,. a dozen or more of his
mates. and a bunch of others.

I went after him and asked why he ran me off the road then swore at me..
He replied.. ¨ what are you going to do about it.. hit me?¨" with a smirk

Gee did he look suprised

On 2005-08-16, dave (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

But going down the yarra path into town.. I met a very large group
coming the other way .. one of whome forced me off the path to dodge
him.. and yelled abuse.. Bloke about my age.,. a dozen or more of his
mates. and a bunch of others.

I went after him and asked why he ran me off the road then swore at me..
He replied.. ¨ what are you going to do about it.. hit me?¨" with a smirk

Gee did he look suprised

When the price of petrol increases so much that all of the idiots are
out of their idiot boxes and on bikes, how do we tell which are the
friendly cyclists and which are the duds?

I agree that there seem to be a lot more bikes out there now compared
to the past year...

--
TimC
Just keep in mind that when you are using TRANSFER, you are not
programming, but hacking. All else follows logically from this
premise, Grasshopper. -- James Van Buskirk in comp.lang.fortran

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>> "neuroinf" == neuroinf <[email hidden]> writes:

neuroinf> I could have explained that the bike path went for about
neuroinf> 2% of my journey, that yes bike paths are fine,

That one isn't.

When I first started commuting to the city I tried the bike path, it was
an absolute horror story from start to finish. The next day I took the
road and couldn't be happier.

What time was this? I use that most days.
--
Cheers | ~~ __@
Euan | ~~ _-\<,
Melbourne, Australia | ~ (*)/ (*)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>> "TimC" == TimC <[email hidden]> writes:

TimC> When the price of petrol increases so much that all of the
TimC> idiots are out of their idiot boxes and on bikes, how do we
TimC> tell which are the friendly cyclists and which are the duds?

I don't nod and say hello to other cyclists because I think they're
decent people. I know nothing about them. One's mode of transport is
not a good predictor of dickheadedness.

I nod and say hello because it's a nice thing to do. Be nice and most
people are nice back, good result is a chit chat about this that and the
other and maybe sharing the load a bit down the road.. Indifferent
result is the non-committal grunt. Bad result is [censored], but [censored]
aren't that common fortunately.
--
Cheers | ~~ __@
Euan | ~~ _-\<,
Melbourne, Australia | ~ (*)/ (*)

TimC said:

On 2005-08-16, dave (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

But going down the yarra path into town.. I met a very large group
coming the other way .. one of whome forced me off the path to dodge
him.. and yelled abuse.. Bloke about my age.,. a dozen or more of his
mates. and a bunch of others.

I went after him and asked why he ran me off the road then swore at me..
He replied.. ¨ what are you going to do about it.. hit me?¨" with a smirk

Gee did he look suprised

When the price of petrol increases so much that all of the idiots are
out of their idiot boxes and on bikes, how do we tell which are the
friendly cyclists and which are the duds?

the idiots will be the ones who force us to dodge them.

Often they will have casts or rearanged noses

Quoted message said:

I agree that there seem to be a lot more bikes out there now compared
to the past year...

Euan said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>>> "neuroinf" == neuroinf <[email hidden]> writes:

neuroinf> I could have explained that the bike path went for about
neuroinf> 2% of my journey, that yes bike paths are fine,

That one isn't.

When I first started commuting to the city I tried the bike path, it was
an absolute horror story from start to finish. The next day I took the
road and couldn't be happier.

My only major crash was on the Yarra bike path (my fault!). Dangerous
places. Bikes going too fast close together in opposite directions.

helmet on backwards is a givaway.

There's the crazy coot who rides up/down the lower reaches of the Moonee Ponds creek path, who knows how speak spray & spit all in the same drunken grable, but that's cool, he looks like he's more angry at himself than anyone riding past.

I don't really go about acknowledging other riders unless it makes a difference, if you know what I mean.

neuroinf said:

I could have explained that the bike path went for about 2% of my
journey, that yes bike paths are fine, but I prefer to stick to the
road. But I was just dumbfounded. What next? Abuse from mothers pushing
prams?

The sad thing about this sort of carry on is that we are required by law to
use those bike paths/lanes alongside the road instead of the road when they
are provided. The smart-#*se twit was legally correct, if morally wrong. You
could have told him to use a helmet/lights/bell <insert appropriate petty
road rule>.

Cheers
Peter

quote='Peter Signorini''neuroinf said:

I could have explained that the bike path went for about 2% of my
journey, that yes bike paths are fine, but I prefer to stick to the
road. But I was just dumbfounded. What next? Abuse from mothers pushing
prams?

The sad thing about this sort of carry on is that we are required by law to
use those bike paths/lanes alongside the road instead of the road when they
are provided. The smart-#*se twit was legally correct, if morally wrong. You
could have told him to use a helmet/lights/bell <insert appropriate petty
road rule>.

Cheers
Peter[/QUOTE]
my understanding..correct me IIAW, is that you are only compelled to use a marked bike lane on a road way, not the bike path OFF the road way, (eg: Beach Rd, no marked bike lanes for its substantive length but a bike path from Beaumaris to Yibbida Yibbada's fish shop ( plus Brighton gap)....
again and remember this too.... only if it is safe to do so....

I often have to deviate OFF the marked bike lane on the roadway due to bad surface, loose stones, glass, and huge holes, parked taxis, buses, mom trucks dropping kids or just stopping, construction vehicles, tradies trucks, orange witches hats and barriers......."so Hoffisa, its not safe to use the lane, I am permitted ( in my discretion) to use the road"...therefore I DO!

On 2005-08-16, rooman (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

Peter Signorini said:

The sad thing about this sort of carry on is that we are required by
law to
use those bike paths/lanes alongside the road instead of the road when
they
are provided. The smart-#*se twit was legally correct, if morally
wrong. You
could have told him to use a helmet/lights/bell <insert appropriate
petty
road rule>.

my understanding..correct me IIAW, is that you are only compelled to
use a *marked bike lane ::on:: a road way*, not the bike path OFF the
road way, (eg: Beach Rd, no marked bike lanes for its substantive
length but a bike path from Beaumaris to Yibbida Yibbada's fish shop (
plus Brighton gap)....
again and remember this too.... *-only if it is safe to do so-*....

And then, the wording is "practical", not "safe". Remember kids:
There's a lot of impracticality about broken glass, parked cars (even
a long way ahead - you don't want to be dodging in and out of parked
cars now, do you?), potholes, gratings, gutter, and not keeping a safe
distance out from the kerb (you want to be seen by drivers in side
streets, and you want people to be forced to overtake you in a *safe*
fashion now, don't you?)

There's not that much marked bike lane that is practical, when you
come to think about it 🙂

--
TimC
"Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc
informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common
Lisp." -- Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming

"rooman" <[email hidden]> wrote :

Quoted message said:

my understanding..correct me IIAW, is that you are only compelled to
use a *marked bike lane ::on:: a road way*, not the bike path OFF the
road way,

<snip>

Quoted message said:

I often have to deviate OFF the marked bike lane on the roadway due to
bad surface, loose stones, glass, and huge holes, parked taxis, buses,
mom trucks dropping kids or just stopping, construction vehicles,
tradies trucks, orange witches hats and barriers.......*"so Hoffisa,
its not safe to use the lane, I am permitted ( in my discretion) to use
the road"...*therefore I DO!

Ah yes, you are correct with this one. Silly of me to forget. Now that
gives me the out to dodge the crazy bike lane on Morack Rd, with its
dividing islands to separate riders from the cars - that narrow the lane to
less than 1.2 metres and collect all the [censored] that the sweepers can't get to
now. Council spent thousands on traffic calming, didn't realise that
speeding cyclists were a problem in the area. Drivers can still happily bust
the 50 limit, the islands just give them more of a challenge to drive like
Fangio.

Cheers
Peter

TimC said:

On 2005-08-16, dave (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

But going down the yarra path into town.. I met a very large group
coming the other way .. one of whome forced me off the path to dodge
him.. and yelled abuse.. Bloke about my age.,. a dozen or more of his
mates. and a bunch of others.

I went after him and asked why he ran me off the road then swore at me..
He replied.. ¨ what are you going to do about it.. hit me?¨" with asmirk

Gee did he look suprised

When the price of petrol increases so much that all of the idiots are
out of their idiot boxes and on bikes, how do we tell which are the
friendly cyclists and which are the duds?

No problem 🙂
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article305918.ece

John Kane
Kingston ON
Canada

Quoted message said:

I agree that there seem to be a lot more bikes out there now compared
to the past year...

--
TimC
Just keep in mind that when you are using TRANSFER, you are not
programming, but hacking. All else follows logically from this
premise, Grasshopper. -- James Van Buskirk in comp.lang.fortran

snip path vs. road

I've always advocated riding on the road because it's safer. Well.. I've been hitting some footpaths here simply because Dresden roads are soooo frickin' cobbled! I thought Belgium was bad, but here, the cobbles are further apart and generally rougher. My pannier hooks are already bent and weakened and I'm worried the whole kit and caboodle is gonna hit the deck soon.. oh and the rear tyre keeps spinning out on these slicked up rocks! It's mucho fun though! 🙂

I think I'm about a foot shorter from spinal compaction..

hippy
drinkinnwhinginismathang!

neuroinf said:

Hassles from cars I'm familiar with. But now, a disturbing new
development.

This morning as I cycled down Nepean Highway at about 8.30am, there is
a short distance where there is a bike path on the footpath. There was
a cyclist going the other way on the bike path. I sort of nodded, as
you do, and got this shouted in an abusive tone from said cyclist:

"Why don't you ride on the bike path !"

I could have explained that the bike path went for about 2% of my
journey, that yes bike paths are fine, but I prefer to stick to the
road. But I was just dumbfounded. What next? Abuse from mothers pushing
prams?

In the off-chance that you read this group, what sort of drugs are you
on? I suggest you get off them poste haste.

A month or two back one of my pannier clips crapped itself as i was riding across the Macauley Road bridge where it crosses the Moonee Ponds Dra... err.. Creek. The road is narrow and the surface [censored], it was peak hour and I needed to lift my bike onto the footpath to find out what had just mangled itself into my back wheel. Rather than squeeze into the gutter and start off again, I rolled over the rest of the bridge on the footpath (all, 4 metres or so), checking to see if my cobbled together pannier fix was going to make it.

A cyclist went past on the road and abused me for riding on the footpath 😎 I am sure he felt like a real hero, but I'm always surprised at the lengths to which people will assume they understand strangers' intentions.

There are plenty of f^ckw!ts on two wheels...

ali

"neuroinf" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hassles from cars I'm familiar with. But now, a disturbing new
development.

This morning as I cycled down Nepean Highway at about 8.30am, there is
a short distance where there is a bike path on the footpath. There was
a cyclist going the other way on the bike path. I sort of nodded, as
you do, and got this shouted in an abusive tone from said cyclist:

"Why don't you ride on the bike path !"

I could have explained that the bike path went for about 2% of my
journey, that yes bike paths are fine, but I prefer to stick to the
road. But I was just dumbfounded. What next? Abuse from mothers pushing
prams?

In the off-chance that you read this group, what sort of drugs are you
on? I suggest you get off them poste haste.

I assume you are referring to the stretch of Nepean Highway between South
Road and North Road. Yes, that's what eventually put me off from riding on
the road - where the left lane has been widened for cyclists, but for
unsoecified reasons Vicroads hasn't marked it as such. Currently I do take
the bike track - at 7:15am, before the school kids career along it, then go
left into Bay Road, then right into New Street and rejoin St. Kilda Road at
Glenhuntly road.

Even the odd enraged driver is bad. So is the fact that you're running a
risk of getting skittled at every left turn and service road entry. It's
doubly sad that even other cyclists feel the need to vent their rage on you.

Henry.

"TimC" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On 2005-08-16, dave (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

But going down the yarra path into town.. I met a very large group
coming the other way .. one of whome forced me off the path to dodge
him.. and yelled abuse.. Bloke about my age.,. a dozen or more of his
mates. and a bunch of others.

I went after him and asked why he ran me off the road then swore at me..
He replied.. ¨ what are you going to do about it.. hit me?¨" with a smirk

Gee did he look suprised

When the price of petrol increases so much that all of the idiots are
out of their idiot boxes and on bikes, how do we tell which are the
friendly cyclists and which are the duds?

The duds are the ones driving 4WD bikes.

Henry.

"Peter Signorini" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

neuroinf said:

I could have explained that the bike path went for about 2% of my
journey, that yes bike paths are fine, but I prefer to stick to the
road. But I was just dumbfounded. What next? Abuse from mothers pushing
prams?

The sad thing about this sort of carry on is that we are required by law
to use those bike paths/lanes alongside the road instead of the road when
they are provided. The smart-#*se twit was legally correct, if morally
wrong. You could have told him to use a helmet/lights/bell <insert
appropriate petty road rule>.

Cheers
Peter

Yes, I've heard of that "rule" but have never had it confirmed. Can you
specify the exact law which states that? If that indeed is the law, then why
does Vicroads list Nepean Highway as having specially widened left lanes
despite there being an off-road bike track?

Henry.

hippy said:

snip path vs. road

I've always advocated riding on the road because it's safer. Well..
I've been hitting some footpaths here simply because Dresden roads are
soooo frickin' cobbled! I thought Belgium was bad, but here, the
cobbles are further apart and generally rougher. My pannier hooks are
already bent and weakened and I'm worried the whole kit and caboodle is
gonna hit the deck soon.. oh and the rear tyre keeps spinning out on
these slicked up rocks! It's mucho fun though! 🙂

I think I'm about a foot shorter from spinal compaction..

hippy
drinkinnwhinginismathang!

--
hippy

Lotte and I like cobbles 😉

Tam