Why I don't care for the cyclists here

[BusBus]

I have no problems with cyclists in general. Cycling is great exercise and an environmentally sound alternative to driving the Hummer to work. I would bike to work myself if my place of work was not so transit accessible (it's faster to commute there than to drive). Plus, I don't think my colleagues would enjoy working with my sweaty alter-ego. I will say that my city is not cyclist friendly. There are designated bike lanes on some roads, but these are sporadic at best. I would love to see more bike lanes around to encourage this activity. My blood line hails from the land of bicycles, so it's against my DNA to say otherwise.

Now, this being said, the cyclists in my city...piss.me.off. They bike on the main roads without bike lanes, forcing cars to slow to 10 clicks an hour until we can swerve into the left lane to bypass them (which isn't always possible on a main road, which are usually busy during the day). They cut me off on the road when they want to turn left at an intersection (the way not to do this is to swerve from the right lane and cut off the driver in left lane). Even yesterday, I was driving along a road with a big designated bike lane. There was a cyclist. Was he using the bike lane? No! He was using the road. Argh! I don't drive on the sidewalk, you don't ride on the road, kapeesh?

Ok, I feel better now....

[Arachne]

There are a lot of cyclists where I live, and I hates them! I hates them! They don't seem to have ANY IDEA that they have no protection whatsoever from my ROLLING DEATH MACHINE. We have really wide bike lanes in my town, but inevitably they insist on biking right on the white line. I've known them to swerve randomly over into my lane, and it scares the hell out of me not knowing what they will do.

If they're not on the edge of the bike lane, they're on the freaking sidewalk when I'm trying to walk somewhere, even though THERE IS STILL A BIKE LANE. They come up behind me totally silent and then buzz past me with inches to spare. How do they know I won't randomly step to the side? Do they care?

If they're not on the edge of the bike lane or running me down on the sidewalk, they're halfway in the middle of the street at corners while they wait for the light to change, making it impossible for me to make right turns. And then they're flipping me off for trying to go around them.

If they're not preventing me from making right turns, they're biking like drunken chimpanzees in the middle of the night in an unlit area wearing dark clothing without any kind of illumination.

And if they're not doing any of those things, they're biking in the middle of the street WHEN THERE IS STILL A BIKE LANE. Once, I was driving through a pretty crowded area (there was an event going on at a nearby park), and some idiot cyclist was biking in the dead center of the road. Huge, wide bike lane a few feet away from him. So I'm wondering what the hell he's doing, and he stops. In the middle of the road. To have a conversation with someone going the other direction.

What. The hell.

People started honking at him, but he just all the cars piled up behind him the finger. Finally, I'd had enough. I started creeping closer and closer to him with my car. He, with his nerves of steel and absolute belief that the universe revolved around him, did not move. I got as close as I dared, then waited a second or two. Then, with my foot fully on the brake, I gunned the motor HARD. Jerk almost fell off his bike. It was beautiful.

He pulled over after that. And called me a bitch.

Guilty as charged. :devil:

[NightAngel]

This is a constant point of contension (sp?) between my hubby, the cyclist, and myself. He follows the rules, he stays out of the way. Yea for him- but it's like he doesn't/can't hear me when I tell him that *some jerk on a bike* peeved me off somehow.

Yes, some bike riders do follow the rules and they don't bother me.

The rest are the SC's of the bike world.

[powerboy]

I wish my city, was more bike friendly. Hell around here, if someone is on a bike, they would some how end up dead, because of some gang, or asshat, stealing the bike, in that part of town. I would love to ride my bike to work, but, I don't feel like getting my bike stolen. Plus it needs new pedals, that I am to lazy to put on. Around my house, it is a good place, to ride them, but in the city, there are asshats everywhere

[BookstoreEscapee]

the ones that bother me most are the kids who do that kind of swervy thing with their front wheel. when i see cyclists in bike shorts and helmets, looking like serious cyclists, they don't make me as nervous, since i've never had one randomly swerve out into the road. my area has a lot of mexican immigrants, and a lot of them ride bikes to work. they are somewhere between the dumb kids and the athletes on my nerve-wracking scale. but there are no bike lanes on the roads and often no sidewalks, though bikes aren't supposed to ride on the sidewalks anyway.

[Rahmota]

hey at least you guys HAVE bike lanes. Out here in the country if I want to ride a bicycle anywhere then I have to use the road. Now I am smart enough to stay over to the edge and flow with traffic and use signals and all but it makes me very mad when I have some jerkwad driver who can see for the next 2 miles and the road is clear and he decides to buzz my elbow and see if he can blow me off the road. Or throw things at me or blow his horn at me.

I mean if there is traffic coming I'll get off in the ditch to increase the clearance but if the road is clear I have just as much legal right to be out there as they do and a responsible driver should and those who are out there do share.

Another thing that irritates the heck out of me is people that let their dogs run loose when I try to go bike riding. For those special mutts I keep a canister of police grade pepper spray on the bike and blast them with it. I had a stupid owner sitting in the yard watch me do that and yelled at me fo it. I told him either he chains the dam dog up like the county law says or the next time the dog catcher takes it or I run it down. He said somethign else and got up out of his chair so I yelled back you come near me and you get pepper sprayed too. Fortunately he just went and hosed his mutt down.

I'll agree that some people are just stupid no matter how many wheels they have underneath them though.

[ahanix1989]

Ah! I hate bikers who bike on the road during winter -- because of snow buildup, they're biking down the 'CAR' section. Then when they come up to a parked car, they bike right down the middle of my lane -- regardless of whether or not I'm coming. My car weighs damn near four tons, and in the snow.... it doesn't stop. Or turn. I've literally come to a complete stop and slid sideways.

[irateguy]

I'm a cyclist but I stay as far on the right as I can or ride on the sidewalk. I also say "on the left/ right" when Im about to pass somebody and I have a red light for when I do my night rides

[NightAngel]

It's a law here that bicycles have a flashing red light on the back under the seat and a headlight for night riding. There are so many bicycle riders here and so many of them get hit/killed. It's very sad but also not surprising.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Not cyclists around here, but skateboarders. Those little pissants think that they're Tony Hawk or some such crap and that they can survive being rammed with my car. ...maybe they can. I've never hit any of them head-on...I have taken some DNA samples with my side mirrors before. But sometimes when they're really in my way, I have to park my car and get out to deal with things.

Completely unrelated, would anyone be interested in a deal on some slightly shattered skateboard gear? Duct tape adds character, after all...

[BlaqueKatt]

sometimes when they're really in my way, I have to park my car and get out to deal with things.

Completely unrelated, would anyone be interested in a deal on some slightly shattered skateboard gear? Duct tape adds character, after all...

Mysty-can we move somewhere that marrying another woman is legal? Seriously:p I think I love* you.


BlaqueKatt-who is Autistic, kinda like mysty......:wave:

*in a totally non-creepy, non-stalkerish manner of course :D

[blas]

How about cyclists, who, despite there being bike lanes, insist on riding in traffic, with all the cars, trucks, SUVS, and semis on the road! No shit, no lie. Dead serious.

Imagine having to go 10 mph or slower because some asshat who thinks he's the next Lance Armstrong insists that he is part of traffic, and insists on being in the middle of the road in a 35 mph speed limit area, with about 30 cars behind him all wanting to just run him off the road.

Even worse.....bicyclists who ignore stoplights and green lights at intersections on the highway and gently and slowly walk their bikes across the highway while the oncoming lanes have a GREEN light!

It's almost as bad as the ignorant pedestrians around here who will run out in the middle of traffic and expect everyone to stop, and the even bigger idiots who pull that shit at busy highway intersections with speed limits of 50+!

[ahanix1989]

Your bike has a trailer on it! It's not gonna tip over on ice, I think you can safely bike through the quarter-inch of snow on the sidewalk, rather than right in front of me. I HAVE TO BE TO SCHOOL. They will NOT accept "Idiot bicyclist" as an excuse for being late.
Ever notice that they'll sometimes bike less than a foot from the curb no-problem, but once they hit a parked car, they're practically on the center line?

[MystyGlyttyr]

Mysty-can we move somewhere that marrying another woman is legal? Seriously:p I think I love* you.


BlaqueKatt-who is Autistic, kinda like mysty......:wave:

*in a totally non-creepy, non-stalkerish manner of course :D

*bows*

Honestly, I've only had to really wrangle with one or two of the little suckers. Most of them don't realize how fragile their stupid little boards really are and therefore are quite impressed (re: terrified) when you pick the sucker up and snap it in two and promise a leg will be next.

I don't mind skateboarders, I'd try it myself if I had anywhere to learn. I wouldn't even mind them being IN the road doing their thing, if they'd just MOVE when the cars are coming. It's the little smartasses who think they're too special to get run over that need to have their behavior corrected.

[Lace Neil Singer]

They're just as irritating on the pavements; my fave trick is to stomp on the end of the board, flipping idiot kid up in the air.

As for cyclists, round here we call them "Lycra louts" and I really get annoyed when they consider themselves to be my equal, when my bike has a motor, dammit! Get out of the way!

[blas]

I don't see many skateboarders around here but I do see a lot of stupid little kids with those stupid roller shoes, the tennies with the little rollers on them so they can whizzzzzzzzzz around. Every little kid wearing those nearly running into me in public deserves to be tripped.