Out of Pod Experience

I was on my way to see a movie the other day and passed by a pack of those tights/speedo-wearing, Whole Foods-shopping, bike riding weirdos peddling along on the side of the street. I didn't really think much of them other than my usual "I hope they get run over." -- I'm fairly live and let live after all - but then I noticed up ahead that a sherriff's department patrol car was parked sideways in the intersection, blocking traffic both ways. As it turns out there was some sort of bike event or something and they were turning onto the main road, meaning all of us in cars who drive on roads like normal human beings had to stop and wait for all these freaks to make their turn on the route.

The wrongness of it all really struck me as I was waiting there for a good 2-3 minutes. Since when do bikes get a right of way? If people want to ride bicycles on roads they ought to: A. Attach a motor to the bike or buy/ride a motorcycle instead - seriously, no one is impressed by your silly little bicycle and B. Have to compete with and dodge/evade traffic in a survival of the fittest scenario like other animals (like deer) must do in the road.

This is simple Newtonian physics. My vehicle has more mass and acceleration than your bicycle. Therefore I win. The laws of the universe say that car/truck > bicycle every time they exchange forces in a collision.

Inappropriate comment removed. Spitfire

My guess...it went something like this:

OPs friends: Don't you know how to ride a bike?
OP: of course I do. My dad taught me when I was four years old.
Friend: Prove it.

OP starts taking off his clothes.

Friend: Uh...wtf are you doing??
OP: This is how my daddy taught me.
Friends: Dude...

OP calls dad in prison to ask 'wtf' then goes to bedroom and logs into EvE Forums.

Bolded the parts that I do not understand???

Oh, that's another thing that happened to me just last month.

Close to where I live there are some railroad tracks atop a small hill and you can't see what's on the other side until you go over the hump. So I didn't know what I was about to drive into. Sure enough I drive over the tracks and to my horror - a ******* parade.

Thankfully it wasn't one of those rodeo parades with perma-crapping horses they sometimes have around here but it still blocked traffic. But it wasn't the parade that really annoyed me that time. It was the Cub Scouts. The little twerps were being pulled along on the back of a fire truck throwing candy. Several pieces hit my car. They didn't do any damage, of course, but it's the principle of it.

You don't just throw stuff you think may hit a car. I don't care if you're not trying to hit the car. If you're too puny to throw over the road, or if you're just going to fling it aimlessly like a chimpanzee with a piece of poo, then do me a favor and just hand it over to the fat Cub Scout kid to eat instead.

same here. I can use back routes, there are bike paths everywhere around where I live, and I can bike just about anywhere downtown and I can quite often actually do that faster than people in a car can.

and as to the



I've actually been hit a few times (all of them while I was in a cross walk) and every time I've come out on top. worse that has happened to me was I broke a pedal on my bike. I have taken out headlights, bumpers, and grills. so you may have mass on our side, but I have flexibility on my side, and lots of poky bits.
oh, and I'm not one of those spandex wearing people, I actually hate those people. I really don't need to see every curve and bump on their body.

I have a special little place in my dark heart for my hatred of bicyclists, but to play devils advocate, bicycles are considered motor vehicles by law and in most places you are actually prohibited from riding them on sidewalks. Smart localities provide bike lanes, but unfortunately most localities are not smart.

Also, many localitites block off roads for any number of reasons from parades to motor car races, so nothing new here.




Sade

Cyclist here... you don't know what you are missing. And since Einstein did it, it's geeky too. Get a road bike and take that lane!

PS: About the bicycle specific pants... word of caution: The acceptance of men in lycra decreases exponentially with distance from the bike.

kind of similar here. not so much the cold since I don't notice the cold. but because, one, I hate spandex, two, I wear this to school so I need something functional to hold my wallet, cell, keys, things like that, and three, I really hate spandex.
and as to the damaging jackasses vehicles, my shoulder took off a rear view mirror on my way home from school today. they were using the bike lane as a turning lane and apparently didn't see my headlight, or me, or my bike. a bit sore, but well worth it since they are out a rear view mirror on what looked like a fairly new car.

Which is pants on head ******** for two reasons:

1. Bicycles don't have motors. Those are called motorbikes, they are considerably better modes of transport then bicycles.
2. Cyclists do less damage to pedestrians then cars do to cyclists

I hate the transportation situation leaning so hard towards cars.

It's funny to me, to see people talk about the early pioneers and their hardships. Today we have GPS, sure, but try walking the continent. Every major road is completely illegal to cross on foot, not to mention dangerous. Every state line is paperwork for anything you carry. Every park has hours or restrictions. Every area of open land is grounds for someone to shoot you for trespassing. Kill animals for food? Drink water from a river? LOL

Our technology to make our lives better does not stack up against our nature to make eachother's lives worse.

How many times have you sat in traffic thinking someone walking or on a bike is 'getting there' better than you are? Bad news, friend-o: A car with one person in it, or a motorcycle, is our upgrade from a HORSE which runs faster than a bike or person while it carries more.