It makes you so mad that someone would wish ill will, that you hope they have medical problems. VERY NICE, classy too.
Are you the head of the profiling team in the great white north? You’ve only targeted one racial group. Come on.
Have someone run you off the road (or hit you outright) and laugh with their friends after as you thank God all you have is road rash, and you lose class real fast.
Totally agree - the worst thing for any media person is to be ignored. Love them or hate them it’s great because both generate listeners. The Clear Channel inflammatory bike talk clearly spread because it generated ratings. The best thing to do is totally ignore it.
I don’t understand why people yell stuff out of vehicles. The doppler effect plus all the wind and traffic noise make it almost totally unintelligible unless they slow way down first. Some chick yelled out of a pickup a while back and I couldn’t tell whether she said “nice bike” or “nice butt”, and I really wanted to know which.
Its difficult for me to judge as I have never cycled anywhere else, although a friend of mine wanted me to bring my pedals and shoes to SF last time I was there. I can’t imagine doing the hills there in the city.
As for the city, Central Park is generally a pretty good route in that its almost a perfect 10k, with some decent hillclimbing. I believe Hincapie used to work out here. The only problem is that car traffic is allowed on weekdays from 6-9AM and 3-7pm. Car-free on weekends and midday. Unfortunately, car-free also means available to rollerbladers and rather stupid pedestrians. They both seem bent on making cyclists responsible for their safety, albeit in different ways. Rollerbladers seem to think its okay to blade with Ipods in their ears, oblivious to other traffic, while pedestrians seem to think that the many pedestrian-walkways are inadequate and feel the need to walk in the street, against traffic, cross without looking, etc. I whacked a pedestrian last week and I took the brunt of the crash, as I did an Armstrong-like pancake on the asphalt.
There’s also a bike/ped route along most of the western shore of Manhattan, running along the river from Harlem all the way to Battery Park, which is quite scenic, and includes Hudson River Park. Apparently Brooklyn’s Prospect Park has some decent loop cycling as well, but I haven’t been there.
The only advantage to city riding is that drivers tend to be more aware, with all the pedestrians around, and cars can’t move too fast so impacts tend to be less catastrophic. On the other hand, there are buses, potholes, and taxis, but its sort of fun in a masochistic way.
way to go apolack1! The only bad thing is that in all likelyhood their poor lifestyle won’t kill them until they’ve reproduced! Take 'em on as patients then charge them extra!
Way to go cerveloguy, we finally agree on something
I have had things thrown at me, I’ve had them drive within inches of me, I’ve had them get real close and lay on the horn, I even once had a guy move over to the shoulder and kick up gravel at me. There are always going to be a few jerks.
There is a certain amount of risk involved in cycling on roads and not everyone is going to be happy to see you on a bicycle.
I’m actually going to remove this information. Although it is easily obtained, I would feel guilty if something happened because of it.
Entirely right. At least where I ride, the overwhelming majority of drivers are courteous and show respect to cyclists.
Yes, there are drivers out there who make bad choices, although even most of these don’t do it on purpose. I also don’t believe you can classify these into certain groups.
Cerveloguy,
And here I thought you were a nice liberal. Then you go and blow that “tolerance” by name calling and labeling people.
Trio_jeepy,
Do you never walk anywhere? And if you do does that make you a “stupid” or “retarded” pedestrian?
Sounds like something that would come from an ‘elitist cyclist’ who believes they own the road.
I’m disappointed in both of you. I would bet that you two may be the type of cyclist who give the rest of cyclists a bad name.
Well, given that I live in New York City, I think I probably walk more than most people, period.
The pedestrians I speak of are those who simply jaywalk and do so without even a look up from the ground. They seem to do this quite often in park, crossing roadways without looking left or right, or worse yet, simply camping out in the middle of the roadway, daring people to hit them. It’s entirely senseless that in a park lined with pedestrian walkways that pedestrians somehow seem to think that they have some kind of right to stand in the middle of a roadway, despite the fact that there is rollerblader and cycle traffic quite obviously zooming around them. It’s this “it takes two to make an accident” attitude which is simply unbelievable.
Believe, I walk the streets a lot. And sometimes I jaywalk, but I always do it when the road is clear and I’m not going to create an obvious hazard.