Can you make it to the market on a bike?

[donquijote1954]

On Aug 5, 4:26 pm, [email protected] (Bill Z.) wrote:
> "Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email protected]> writes:
>
> > On 04 Aug 2007 17:07:43 -0700, [email protected] (Bill Z.)
> > said in <[email protected]>:
>
> > >so you were a young, inexerpienced cyclist at one point and had
> > >problems that cleared up when you had more experience, but for some
> > >reason you attributed your former problems to bike lanes rather than
> > >to your lack of experience.
>
> > What always amuses me about your posts, Bill, is that you make
> > comments like this without spotting the self-evident irony.
>
> What's always amusing about you anti-bikelane fanatics is how you
> act like a bull in a china shop whenever anyone doesn't disparage
> bike lanes.
>
> > See how Tome points out what happened as he became a more
> > experienced and skilful cyclist? He took to not using cycle
> > "facilities", just as many other experienced cyclists choose to
> > avoid them, and for the same reasons: they fix a problem which is
> > largely illusory (danger from same direction traffic) at the expense
> > of increasing a danger which absolutely is not (danger at junctions
> > and from opposing traffic).
>
> Nope, he merely developed the skills needed to ride safely in traffic,
> and then got some sort of anti-bike lane religion,

I don't think the believes held by the anti-lane crowd is a
religion... It's a more of a sect, luckily mostly confined to America,
and some copycats in the UK.

 

[Tom \Johnny Sunset\ Sherman]

donquijote1954 wrote:
> On Aug 5, 3:28 pm, "Tom \"Johnny Sunset\" Sherman"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Andrew Muzi wrote:
>>> Ed, it hasn't killed me yet- even though most of my cohort is long gone
>>> from other causes. Want an aderenalin buzz? Follow me between buses in
>>> the morning, brushing elbows on both sides. Danger? Bah! Sitting home
>>> *****ing will kill you sooner.
>> Don't you find the commute much safer when UW is on break? The moronic
>> undergraduate pedestrians wandering out into the street and idiotic
>> motor scooter riders create considerable chaos.
>
> The scooters are not that idiotic. They fill a void particularly when
> riding a bike in traffic puts you at odds with cars.
>
> Mine is parked outside.

Note that the adjective "idiotic" modifies "riders", not "scooters".

Considering that motor scooters can travel the speed limit or more on
urban streets, and some can keep up with traffic on arterial roads, they
need to be operated the same way as motorcycles, not as bicycles.

However, in the area near Andrew's shop, it is not uncommon to find
students on scooters riding at considerable speed on the side walk,
across pedestrian only areas, running stop signs and stop lights, etc.

When climate allows, modern scooters (with low emission engines) are
more desirable than single occupant cars, since they use less fuel and
space.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

 

[donquijote1954]

On Aug 6, 8:32 pm, Pat <[email protected]> wrote:

> > Zigzagging: Most Dangerous Driving
>
> > Don't ask me for a study that backs up such a statement, it's just
> > obvious. Every time you get on the road you see these wild vehicles
> > (usually SUVs and larger vehicles) zigzagging all around playing a
> > game of Russian Roulette --a game they always win since they are
> > bigger...

>
> You guys always lose me with these SUVs are evil threads. I never
> have any problems with them when I'm on my motorcycle. You just have
> to drive your motorcycle like a car, following the same rules, keep
> your high beam on in the daytime, and make eye contact.

You'll be lucky if you can make eye contact. Most of them have tinted
windows.

If you are
> experiencing problems, I would guess it is one of three things: you
> are not keeping up to road speed, you are not accelerating as quickly
> as everyone else, or your bike just too small to be seen/noticed.

If they can miss a scooter, what comfort there's for a bicycle? Or
could it be that they simply miss it because they are engaged on the
phone, changing pampers, etc?

>
> You might want to consider something a bit bigger. I've ridden the
> Honda Silver Wing and that's a sweet ride.
>
> Other than that, the best you can do is get a really loud horn, such a
> boat horn or something.-

How about requiring these TRUCKS to require a TRUCK DRIVER'S LICENSE
(a step above driving a regular car but not a fully semi driver's
license) and banning cell phones, etc? I guess that would be too much
for the big business involved in SUVs...

 

[Pat]

On Aug 7, 12:11 pm, donquijote1954 <[email protected]>
wrote:
> On Aug 6, 8:32 pm, Pat <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > Zigzagging: Most Dangerous Driving
>
> > > Don't ask me for a study that backs up such a statement, it's just
> > > obvious. Every time you get on the road you see these wild vehicles
> > > (usually SUVs and larger vehicles) zigzagging all around playing a
> > > game of Russian Roulette --a game they always win since they are
> > > bigger...
>
> > You guys always lose me with these SUVs are evil threads. I never
> > have any problems with them when I'm on my motorcycle. You just have
> > to drive your motorcycle like a car, following the same rules, keep
> > your high beam on in the daytime, and make eye contact.
>
> You'll be lucky if you can make eye contact. Most of them have tinted
> windows.
>
> If you are
>
> > experiencing problems, I would guess it is one of three things: you
> > are not keeping up to road speed, you are not accelerating as quickly
> > as everyone else, or your bike just too small to be seen/noticed.
>
> If they can miss a scooter, what comfort there's for a bicycle? Or
> could it be that they simply miss it because they are engaged on the
> phone, changing pampers, etc?
>
>
>
> > You might want to consider something a bit bigger. I've ridden the
> > Honda Silver Wing and that's a sweet ride.
>
> > Other than that, the best you can do is get a really loud horn, such a
> > boat horn or something.-
>
> How about requiring these TRUCKS to require a TRUCK DRIVER'S LICENSE
> (a step above driving a regular car but not a fully semi driver's
> license) and banning cell phones, etc? I guess that would be too much
> for the big business involved in SUVs...

I am curious as to where you live.

In NYS, you can't tint front windows or windshields, so that problem
goes away. It is also illegal to talk on a cell phone (except with
hands-free or a headset).

 

[donquijote1954]

On Aug 8, 8:46 am, "J. Clarke" <[email protected]> wrote:

> > How about requiring these TRUCKS to require a TRUCK DRIVER'S LICENSE
> > (a step above driving a regular car but not a fully semi driver's
> > license) and banning cell phones, etc? I guess that would be too much
> > for the big business involved in SUVs...
>
> Write a legal definition of "truck" so that it can be determined who has
> to have such a license (can't be "everybody knows what a truck is", it
> has to be one that a lawyer can't argue away in court) and figure out
> what training should be required and come up with a convincing argument
> why that particular training would improve safety then suggest it to
> your Congresscritter and you may be surprised at what happens. SUVs are
> basically a way of working around the CAFE tax and if that could be
> closed wihout seeming to be an SUV ban until after it was in place the
> Congresscritters might be all over it.
>
> As for banning cell phones, that's not going to happen. That genii is
> well and truly out of the bottle and any Congress than successfully
> enacted legislation prohibiting their sale and possession would be out
> of office at the next election.
>
> As for bans on using them while driving, such bans are essentially
> unenforceable--yeah, a cop can bust somebody if he catches them in the
> act, but cops can't be everywhere all the time and most people who use
> them while driving don't use them all the time, so the likelihood of
> actually getting caught is too low to serve as a deterrent.
>
> Personally though I've never noticed SUVs "zigzagging around all over
> the place playing a game of Russian Roulette". The big problem I have
> with them is that SUV drivers seem to be unwilling to just PASS THE
> EFFING TRUCK. They'll pull up behind an 18-wheeler, take ten minutes to
> slowly creep by it, and having passed it then take off at 90 mph. And
> meanwhile I'm sitting there in the buffet zone waiting for this circus
> to end so I can get by the blasted thing.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary
depends upon his not understanding it."
- Upton Sinclair

I think the paper on which I'd write to my Congressman (woman) could
be put to better use. It's all about money, you know...

'And what does Detroit think about all this? They love it. Why?
Because when they sell an SUV, they're selling their lowest-tech
vehicle that has the least R&D expense and costs the least to produce,
since its basically the same product they've been selling -- as a
truck -- for the last 50 years. Come on, people! Challenge Detroit!
Ask for a product they have to break a sweat to design and build! "No
thank you," says Mr. and Mrs. America, "even though we spent the 1980s
and 1990s putting down American cars as being technologically inferior
to European and Japanese products, we've changed our minds now and
want to buy cars that American manufacturers were good at making -- in
1950."

So much for the idiotic decision to buy an SUV that America has been
making in showrooms for the last ten years. What about SUVs on the
road? Let's face it: Most people aren't very good drivers and even the
best drivers have bad moments. This is one reason SUVs are popular.
When I rant about SUVs to my friends (many of whom drive SUVs), they
often respond that they feel "safer" in an SUV. They're right, in one
sense: Surrounded by a ton of unnecessary extra steel, they're likely
to come out of an accident with a normal-sized car better off than the
people in the car. But they don't ask themselves whether being in the
SUV may have contributed to the accident in the first place: With a
higher center of gravity, poor handling and terrible stopping power
due to the extra mass of the vehicle, I think this is a real factor in
a lot of accidents. But, please, let's not think about what we're
doing, OK? Let's just wrap an extra ton of steel around the kids.'

http://www.gregburch.net/cars/suvs.html

My effort go toward THE REVOLUTION. Hey, it may never happen, but I'm
having fun...

By the way, you think the monkeys will ever learn to drive?


What do you think of the monkeys?
Well, put your headphones on --and grab a banana-- before you can
enjoy/cry over what these stupid monkeys are doing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a15KgyXBX24

Oh, we should add that some of them want to believe themselves to be
lions...

***

Hey, I don't want to leave you depressed with those stupid monkeys.
Some monkeys really know how to have fun...

Do you imagine life as a monkey would be like?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_EyXPs2_Jk

A lot of fun, for sure. I sure like to play with those lady monkeys.

Hey, if you are really proud of who you are, you may consider this T-
shirt:

"Have you felt like monkeying around without any apparent reason and
with a sense of guilt? Well, now you know what to do..."

http://www.zazzle.com/product/235602224199217660

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote

THE BANANA REVOLUTION
http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote40


__________________
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" -M.L. King

 

[Dana Myers]

Edward Dolan wrote:

> I most emphatically agree with Mr. Sherman's point of view on population.
> Unfortunately, the human species is programmed to reproduce like crazy
> lemmings.

Evolution has a way of doing that - programming surviving species to
"reproduce".

Dana