I live in a bicycle friendly community in Oregon where bike lanes are available on most major streets and many people choose to bike to work and school. It’s a small college town with 4 bike shops and we have good cycling and triathlon clubs, especially considering the size of our town.
It was pretty shocking to see this opinion voiced in our community, but I guess I shouldn’t be suprised considering how many people I know who have been threatened by cars while out riding. I wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper about the article, I hope it gets published, but this is depressing!
I recently cut my hair short and have been worried about riding my bike and being mistaken for a boy. Something about men in lycra that causes other men to want to be violent??? It seems less likely that some white trash dude is going to run me off the road since I’m a chick. I’m thinking about wearing a blond ponytail under my helmet…
What an idiot. The dude must have consumed too much Red Bull for breakfast or something. Maybe he got ditched by his girlfriend (a hardbody biker) who got tired of having a pasty white. couch potato, geek journalism major for a boyfriend.
He does have some valid points but they get lost in his illogical ranting and raving. Who would’ve thunk that kind of article in a Oregon college newspaper! Of course we are talking OSU, not the Ducks…
As for being worried about looking like a guy, it’s my experience that women get harassed far more often on the road while on their bikes than men. My wife (long blond hair) and her girlfriends have been clipped by rear view mirrors, hit by guys leaning out their window, and in general been bothered much more than when I or my male associates ride.
Don’t take this wrong but I thought he was kind of funny - especially the way he contridicted himself. Not to mention that cars commit every violation that he listed except sidewalks.
I like the way he bitched about having to share the road with a bicycle than immediately launched into a tirade about having tax dollars spent on bike lanes.
I think he needs to meet Claudia from TNO and get a serious bitch slapping.
Don’t take this wrong but I thought he was kind of funny - especially the way he contridicted himself. Not to mention that cars commit every violation that he listed except sidewalks.
He is funny, he said “then you see a 50 pound bicycle amoung two-ton vehicles…” no wonder he hates bikes! Anybody riding a 50 pound bike would be angry. I’m having to restrain myself from taping a photo of him to the front of my bike with the words “IDIOT” on it.
I found that a lot of what he said was overstated but not all of it was totally irrational. All cyclists are not like the members of this forum. There are plenty of idiots out there on bikes that don’t wear helmets, wear headphones, ride on the wrong side of the street, and are completely ignorant about how to ride in traffic. They piss me off, too.
If he really means what he says then we aren’t his target. We already obey laws and respect things that are big enough to crush us into the pavement with no effort. Most of us drive cars and pay road taxes already. If we had to pay a little extra for bike related stuff, we’d do it.
Did Oregon really exempt cyclists from stopping at stop signs? I don’t always put one foot on the ground and would be upset if I got a ticket for that. But stop signs are usually put there for a good reason and I don’t condone blowing through them.
Maybe the writer does have it in for cyclists in general but most of the things he was complaining seemed to be what I consider bad riding behavior and I agree that it’s a nusiance. It’s unfortunate that he lumps everyone in there.
The guy should do some fact checking. In his first paragraph he states:
Allowing bicycles on the road is one of the worst things to ever happen since the introduction of the automobile.
Motorists actually have cyclists to thanks for all the nice roads we share. Courtesy of the League of American Wheelmen. From their web site:
In the 1880’s, bicyclists, known then as “wheelmen”, were challenged by rutted roads of gravel and dirt and faced antagonism from horsemen, wagon drivers, and pedestrians.
In an effort to improve riding conditions so they might better enjoy their newly discovered sport, over 100,000 cyclists from across the United States joined the League to advocate for paved roads. The success of the League in its first advocacy efforts ultimately led to our national highway system.
I don’t always put one foot on the ground and would be upset if I got a ticket for that. But stop signs are usually put there for a good reason and I don’t condone blowing through them.
I never blow through stop signs, and I usually don’t have to put a foot down. I usually reach out and grab the sign post so I don’t have to unclip.
I actually have a T-shirt from a century ride, sponsored by the bike club I belong to, that spelled the word “Outpedal” as “Outpeddle.” Classic. (The shirt design was a takeoff on the “Survivor” logo.)
You don’t even need the loan. Florida will give you 75% of what is already a low tuition if you get out of high school with a 970 SAT and 3.0 GPA. If you are black, or any other minority, standards are low enough that you don’t even need a pulse.