Good sense goes a long way in every aspect of life, @Yosemite, and it is unlikely that my cycling ever impedes the flow of traffic or even an individual more more than a minute at most and then rarely. I have no sense of entitlement to the road beyond expecting common courtesy from others and since I have no destination or schedule to meet pulling into driveways and taking side roads gets me out of the way of traffic when appropriate and when the weather is nice and long ride seems in order I drive to the Tangle foot trail and pedal an hour or so out and then turn back. I hope to have a warm winter. I pedalled more than 500 miles in July when the weather was unseasonably mild.
@Rod knox;I tried to word my reply so that you would not take offense. It is not your riding style that concerns me, and I doubt it concerns others. It’s those that do NOT ride sensibly like you that concerns us all.
It’s like the “rolling stop” with a car…10mph around a turn is not a “rolling stop”.
None of us wish to have to go home and pick pieces of spandex out of the radiator.
I love to see people out biking and enjoying the ride…especially the family groups. I wish I could, but my sciatica would not allow it.
I thought that I might be able to bike with one of those recumbent bikes but they are hard to find…where you can try one out. I tried to stop an old lady riding one to ask her about it, but when she sprayed me with mace and threw her false teeth at me…I took off running.
Yosemite
I wasn’t offended by your post @Yosemite. We are enjoying ourselves having a discussion on the brothers’ dime.
As for the recumbent bikes, I see them occasionally on the trail and they range from race ready to easy chairs. Some are 3 wheeled. And as for pains, while I am not familiar with sciatic pains my back often reminds me that I worked for a living until recently and the cycling along with some peculiar exercises give me a great deal of relief. Getting the seat and handle bars adjusted to be comfortable and sometimes raising and lowering the seat during a long ride helps.
And BTW, I installed a tow hitch and bike carrier to a friends new Rav 4 and often have company on my rides now. The hitch was a piece of cake to install and cost less than $120 for everything.
Most cyclists are very good at obeying the law. I guess they enjoy living. Of course there are the 10% or more who seem to be suicidal. I don’t mind them rolling a stop sign or red light. It is at their own risk although I would hate to hit one. In my state they are required to obey the same laws as motor vehicles which they do not. The ones with superior skills can stop and stay mounted with feet on pedals while wiggling the front wheel. Yes. They can obstruct traffic on roads with no shoulders and have the right to do so (ARRRRRRRGH). My main problem with cyclists is when they pretend to be pedestrians if it is to their advantage. Pedestrians have the right of way on sidewalks and in crosswalks. “Unmarked” crosswalks are all cross intersections but not T intersections or parking lots. Most pedestrians have no clue and think they “always” have the right of way which they do not. I would not want to hit one as I have already done that with a little 4 year old boy who ran out from between parked cars. He survived but I would never want to experience that again. The bad cyclists for some reason love to pretend they are pedestrians even if it is not to their advantage. They ride on sidewalks when bike lanes are available and sit on their bikes at crosswalks waving their arms and shouting obscenities because traffic will not stop. They could easily become a pedestrian by dismounting their bike and walking it on sidewalks and in crosswalks. One example was when I stopped at a stop sign intending and signaling to make a right turn. I looked left and traffic was clear. I always look in the direction I am going before proceeding which was fortunate for the adult “spandex warrior” cyclist who zipped across from my right at full speed on the sidewalk. I could have suffered a dented fender and the idiot could have died. By the way, there were perfectly good bicycle lanes on both sides of the road. What are they “NOT” thinking??? An additional “puzzler”. Why do they ride the wrong way in bicycle lanes that have big arrows painted in them? I would really hate to personally kill one but the herd does need to be thinned. Of course motor vehicle operators can be just as stupid. I will address some of those in the future as it is late and I am tired.
I’m back now. I will post 2 stories. One which includes a motor vehicle and bicycle and one with a motor vehicle that is similar. I was driving on a 35mph street at the posted speed. It was dark and everyone had their headlights on. A late model black suburban was in the oncoming left turn lane. They waited for the 5 vehicles ahead of me to pass then turned directly in front of me! My Mitsubishi Eclipse did not have ABS. I locked up the front wheels and was going to hit the affluent blonde entitled driver who must have became bored with the peasants delaying her progress of turning into her high end neighborhood. As she had vacated her left turn lane which was empty I released the brakes and dodged left missing the idiot by about 2 inches with 2 screaming Granddaughters in the rear seat.
I was leaving work at 4:30 PM. Daylight and dry pavement. I was turning right from a driveway which had a traffic signal as Walmart an Lowes were across the road. Both ways had no left turn signal. A late model Mercedes SL was oncoming and signaling a left turn on a green light. Although I had right of way I was waiting for a 13 or 14 year old boy who was a proper pedestrian walking his bicycle in the crosswalk. Again the affluent, entitled blonde Mercedes driver saw this as a perfect opportunity to get ahead and turned left. She unfortunately was a poor driver and clipped the rear wheel of the bicycle. It spun around and knocked the boy down. She then proceeded down the 45mph road at 70+mph! I did not think to get a license number as I was running to assist the boy. He was OK with just a minor scrape on his elbow. Being a Grandpa I had a bandaid in my wallet. His bicycle was not disabled and he went on his way. I am to this day frustrated that I did not get the b****es license number although she was probably politically connected and would have got away with it anyway.
Here’s one from the bad cyclist side of it. A couple of days ago while on the way home I was sitting at a traffic light at an intersection of a couple of 2 lane streets. I was second in line and the pickup in front of me was about to make a right turn as the light went green.
Just about that time some guy (bearded, glasses, college professor stereotype) sailed by me on the shoulder and cut in front of the truck driver who had to slam on the brakes part way through his turn.
The cyclist then stopped in front of the truck, turned the bike around, and had a deep thought look of what planet am I on. The truck driver was hot and gesturing for this clown to get out of the way. The cyclist then turned the bike around again and pointed it in the direction he was originally going; straight ahead. He then made a complete circle in the middle of the intersection, causing a few other cars to stop, and rode on straight ahead.
I was sitting there praying the guy would get whacked and improve the gene pool by at least a tiny bit… 
I was involved in a pedestrian/bicycle accident. I was the pedestrian and was crossing the drive that goes around the older part of the campus where I was a faculty member. The drive is one way and I looked the direction that the traffic should have been coming. Seeing no traffic, I walked out into the drive and ran into a coed going the wrong way on the drive on her bicycle. I grabbed her to keep her from falling as the bicycle went out from under her. She was well-endowed and we won’t discuss what I accidentally grabbed to keep her from falling.
@Yosemite I would like to recommend a 3 wheel recumbent bike. Web search Sun ezrider as they are reasonably priced and can be adjusted to most people . The best part is if you go farther than you meant to you can just stop and you already have a place to set and rest.
I was glad when my teen aged son got his driver’s license and was driving the car to places he wanted to go rather than riding his bicycle. He has always been a careful driver and cyclist, but bicyclists are apt to be bullied by motorists.
I hope drivers don’t judge all cyclists by the actions of a few. And despite my efforts to avoid delaying drivers there are 2 long 6% inclines with no shoulder that I occasionally must struggle up and regardless how careful I am to time the climb there is often an impatient driver behind me before I reach the top.
Thank’s @Volvo V70; I’ll have to check that site out.
My buddy/neighbor and I chum together a little and he bikes even though he suffered a stroke years back. I’d love to be able to go on a nice Sunday ride with him.
Yosemite
Rod Knox " I hope drivers don’t judge all cyclists by the actions of a few."
I don’t judge any group of people by the actions of a few because that’s the way I was raised. Cyclists safely “rolling” stop signs and red lights only bothers me a little because if I did the same in my car or on a motorcycle I would certainly be cited. If I drove a motor vehicle the wrong way in the left lane because it would be more convenient to make a left turn it would be much worse.
- The 911 switchboard would be overwhelmed by calls.
- I would be arrested.
- I would be thoroughly tested for alcohol and all drugs.
- I would be given a psychiatric evaluation.
- I would be heavily fined.
- My license would be suspended.
If cyclists 16 years and over were licensed the same as on road motor vehicle operators perhaps the possibility of having the license suspended or revoked would provide some incentive for the bad cyclists to be a little better although it doesn’t seem to help much with bad drivers. Most people obey laws because they are law abiding. Some people obey laws because the consequences are more than they are willing to risk. A few people just don’t obey laws no matter what.
I have a thought on the recumbent bikes. Aren’t they pretty low? I can imagine they are easy to miss even when they have that ridiculously small flag flying. I just think they are more dangerous around vehicles then a regular bike.
I witnessed 2 blatant stop sign/red light runners a few days ago. I was standing on the sidewalk of a busy 35mph 4 lane boulevard near a residential side street. The side street is a right turn only. A small sedan on the side street only slowed enough to turn the corner and blew through the stop sign! A minute later a landscape service truck did the same thing. The truck drove a short distance to a busier 45mph boulevard and did the same thing at the red light! Why do drivers constantly put themselves and others at serious risk to save a few seconds?
There was a cop waiting to catch people either speeding or running the stop sign on my street the other day. Concealed in the woods. You can’t go very fast normally on that stretch of road because with cars parked on both sides and just barely enough room for 2 way traffic it’s 15mph at best. A couple weeks ago I was going home and right outside the entrance to one of the apartment complexes was a group of people standing out in the street (where it’s not as well lit) thankfully i could see them in advance thanks to headlights but still not a safe place to just hang out. Granted this is on a side street with a 25mph limit.
A couple of days ago I encountered a 4 way stop in a residential area and stopped. A pickup was approaching from my right and appeared to be preparing to stop. Instead of stopping they just slowed and completed a right turn. I pulled ahead and ended up following them at 20mph in a 30mph zone. Why would someone risk a serious moving violation to “get ahead” then drive substantially below the speed limit? This was not a one time puzzler. I have had this happen several times over the years.
On the Interstate the other day I observed many people do the dive from the passing lane to the off-ramp at the last possible minute (At around 10mph over the limit) or change lanes constantly just to keep doing 10+ over the limit.
Some drivers seem to feel that they are the loser as long as there is a car ahead of them. They are obviously compelled to overtake the car ahead. But then there is another car and it must also be passed even if they are turning left 100 yards after passing it. Such drivers must have miserable lives, berating themselves every night for the cars that were still ahead of them when they turned into their driveways.
I witnessed an odd one a couple of days ago. I was on Main St. in a 20mph zone. A full size pickup was intending to run a stop sign on my right about a block ahead of me. There was another vehicle ahead of me that was much closer. The pickup driver slammed on the brakes. The back end came around to their left. They jumped the curb onto the sidewalk flattening a parking sign and stopping. Their passenger side mirror and aftermarket step were laying on the sidewalk behind them. Ironically they stopped in front of the old police station which is now empty. Fortunately there were no pedestrians on the sidewalk and the uninjured 30 something male driver was climbing out as I passed. I continued to my destination laughing and singing “Instant Karma Gonna Get You”!
I had a twofer last night. I followed a Jeep Grand Cherokee for quite a few blocks that had no tail or brake lights. They eventually pulled into a left turn lane while I continued straight and could see their headlights were working. I can’t confirm if their turn signals work or not as too many of todays drivers do not bother with them. Within a few blocks I was behind a 1980s? Volvo sedan. It was a real beater and had no tail or brake lights. It made a right turn onto the bridge and did not display a turn signal. Once we were on the 55mph highway it did not seem able to exceed 45mph and was smoking. When I passed it had very dim headlights. These two examples are only bad drivers because they are ignorant and clueless that these signals to other drivers are very important. During my 10+ years as a commercial driver I was required to check these signals before hitting the road. I now check them weekly except for brake lights which I still check every time. I have a small piece of white tape in my rear window which will at least confirm that my high brake light is functioning. I have had many years of formal (certified) training in military aviation safety (accident prevention, accident investigation) fire safety, and OSHA safety. Am I safety obsessive? I hope so!