Quick Traffic Rant If I May....

[blas]

Unless heaven forbid I have just jinxed it all and Frosty's giant snowdick shall return with vengeance and this rant won't be necessary again for another month....

It's getting nicer out, finally. Yes, everyone in Wisconsin breathe a sigh of relief that the mercury has finally risen and we've now seen temps that we haven't seen since September and October.

I see many of you have taken up riding your bicycle. Yes, that's a great way to get some exercise and enjoy the beautiful weather. I applaud you for getting up off your butt, turning the TV/computer off, and getting out and doing something.

Having said that, I do have some bitching to do.

This city is VERY bicycle friendly. There are bike lanes everywhere. USE THEM. You are NOT a car. If there is a bike lane, get the f out of the damn road! I don't care if you are comparable to Lance Armstrong, you still are not faster than my car. I have a gas pedal. Within a small frame of time, I can go from 25 to 50 mph. You can't. And trust me, I do NOT enjoy watching your ignorant self ignore the bike lane, insist on riding in the middle of the road, a very BUSY road, where I cannot pass you because of heavy traffic, going barely 25 mph in a 40 and having a long line of cars behind me just as furious as I am because you won't get over in the bike lane so we can go around you.

What else pisses me off? When I do finally get around you, and a bit later I have to stop at a stop sign, waiting for traffic to clear so I can turn right, and your ignorant stupid self thinks bicycle = total right of way, and you sneak past me and wiggle between my car and the stop sign, and wheel off into traffic (AGAIN in the middle of the road!) and all the cars I was waiting for have to stop for you. Sorry, that stupid hand gesture does not equal = me on bike, me go first, you wait!. You could have gotten killed, I hope you don't always ride like that. Remember last summer when a cyclist thought the same way and went in the middle of traffic and was almost killed by an SUV? Apparently you don't....or you don't care.

Oh, and you motorcyclists. Just thank your heavenly friends that I can't roll down my driver's side window. When you are in the lane next to me at a red light and you think you are TEH COOLEST and you sit there revving your engine as loud as you can....I can still hear it. It hurts my ears. If I had my window down, it'd be even worse. I was so tempted to get out of my car and grab that guy and throw him off his bike. DON'T DO THAT. Go out in the country and go rev your engine until it blows up for all I care.....but no one in town thinks you're cool because you can rev your engine up to sounds comparable to a large freight train.

[protege]

Blas, I hear you about the motorcycles. Why is it that some (usually Harley riders) have to rev their engine at *every* damn stop light? Are they checking to see if it's still running? If so, methinks they need to get it to the shop... pronto! Also, what's the deal with the loud exhausts? They say that "loud pipes save lives." Uh, no they don't. All they do is annoy the ever living *fuck* out of people in traffic. All too often, the reason motorcycles get hit...is because their riders choose to ride unsafely. That is, they whip in and out of traffic, ride in the blind spots of cars, etc.

As for the bike riders, I hate them too. Locally, the vast majority are idiots. They want to "share the road" with cars, yet don't want to obey the traffic laws. I've seen more than one cyclist blow through a stop sign or two. Not a good idea, as even a small car, like a Geo Metro...can send them flying

[Amethyst Hunter]

Harley-revving = I am compensating for my terminally flaccid penis in a pathetic attempt to reassert my Manliness.

Motorcycle-revving is every bit as annoying out here in the boonie country as it is in the city, trust me. I hate those fuckers that think they're so damn cool because they're LOUD and have to let everybody else know it.

[AdminAssistant]

I so feel you, Blas.

Now this is a college town....check that, a MAJOR college with a small-ish town around it. A lot of people get around by bike. There's also an aging infrastructure...basically, the roads can't handle the number of people driving around (they're also in terrible shape, but that's a different rant). Now, if I'm on one of the main drags (no bike lane) and I see a bike AND that person is obviously just trying to get from A to B...then I'll be pretty forgiving. BUT if it's some *^%&* yuppie out for some exercise....sorry. If you want to exercise, ride around your neighborhood or take it to a park, don't further clog up the already clogged up traffic.

Now, on campus, a lot of people bike on the sidewalks, which is a completely different problem. Have I ever mentioned that KU is on a pretty steep hill? You'll just be walking along...and then (hopefully) you hear a bell or the pedals. "Abandon Sidewalk!!!!" Because somebody thought they'd be cute and just roll down Naismith. Nuh-uh.

[blas]

Oh I feel for you guys, too!

The roads here are just....shit. Period. One of the highest taxed states, yet potholes the size of small planets on every road.... and yes, a lot of the cyclists in the downtown area are college kids trying to get to/from class or to the store and back, and I usually have more patience for them than stupid hoity toities going for a graceful 10 mph stroll in the middle of the busy street I'm driving on.

I didn't mean to suggest that I want all the bad motorcyclists out in the country, as it would drive you country CSers insane as well.....I just find it obnoxious and annoying and just flat out rude that people think it's ok to rev and rev and rev their bike at every single red light or stop sign. It's just as horrible as people who drive around with fartcan mufflers or no muffler and think it's so cool that their vehicle is so loud. Noise does not always equal cool.

I swear as soon as I get that window fixed and I have it rolled down and another biker is revving up at a stop light, as soon as he lets off the throttle for a second (IF he does) I'm going to yell at him "All that revving and all that noise isn't going to make your dick grow, sorry!"

[ditchdj]

Hothead.

[protege]

The roads here are just....shit. Period. One of the highest taxed states, yet potholes the size of small planets on every road.... and yes, a lot of the cyclists in the downtown area are college kids trying to get to/from class or to the store and back, and I usually have more patience for them than stupid hoity toities going for a graceful 10 mph stroll in the middle of the busy street I'm driving on.

You think your roads are bad? Come down to Pennsylvania sometime, right MadMike? We have potholes that can swallow small cars. Hell, a few years back, we had a bridge over I-70 (just outside Washington, PA) that *collapsed* because it wasn't designed correctly. All I can say, is fuck you, PennDOT!

But, what annoyed the hell out of me in the country...was the motorcycles. It would be 3am, pitch dark, not a sound...and then some inbred idiot would literally roar past...waking up everyone within a 3-country radius. There's simply no reason for that sort of noise, other than to annoy people

[blas]

The past couple of weeks have been relatively mild, weatherwise (but like I said, I most likely just jinxed it....yup sure did, more snow later this week...gaaah!) and it only took a few days of my bf being in the car with me while I did my over-dramatic "AHH!" and "UGH!" and "OHHOWWW!" routine when going over potholes. Hell sometimes it probably looks like I'm a drunk driver trying to go around the potholes. They are bad enough to make your CD player skip. I think everyone in Wisconsin needs new struts every year.

[Greenday]

You think your roads are bad? Come down to Pennsylvania sometime, right MadMike? We have potholes that can swallow small cars. Hell, a few years back, we had a bridge over I-70 (just outside Washington, PA) that *collapsed* because it wasn't designed correctly. All I can say, is fuck you, PennDOT!

I feel like the majority of highways and the turnpike in PA are just giant potholes with a board placed over it. PenndDOT sucks. Only took them like 3 years to make adjustments to the turnpike entrance by me. 3 years? Are you serious?

[blas]

Well, one highway project in Wisconsin took almost 5 years to complete. It started before my family even moved to this area. Now, road construction in Wisconsin starts as soon as the snow melts (and they won't let one or two late spring freak snowstorms stop them!) and it goes on until it gets to the point where snow is piling up and not going away. Pretty much over half of the year, and it took 5 years to do just a few miles of highway?

Then "the strip". That took another 2 years to do, and they only did ONE side!

I will not get started on road construction.

I will not get started on road construction.

I will not get started on how detrimental road construction is.

I will not get started on how it takes me longer to get home during road construction in the summer than on a bad winter day.....

I will not get started on how orange barrels make me want to vomit Exorcist style.

[Megg]

There are certainly some folks who are idiots on bikes, I have seen them myself. Around here, those retards actually drive between the cars on the freeway, at like 80! OMG why do you want to die? I, too, hate idiots that think they are untouchable, and that everyone wants to hear them rev their engines at lights. People who do that remind me of the guys with the overly huge trucks.

I feel it is wrong to generalize, though. Not all riders are idiots. Not all people who get into accidents due to their own stupidity. Most, probably. Not all.

My parents (who are "Harley enthusiasts") had this friend who was riding along, minding his own business, when a fellow in a pickup truck who swore he didn't see him just came on over into his lane. Knocked the poor fellow 300 feet, into a building. Due to the fact that he was wearing a full sized helmet instead of a half or 3/4, his neck was broken and he died instantly. He was a good guy who didn't deserve to die like that. Loud pipes might well have saved his life.

[blas]

Oh Megg, I don't think all bicyclists or motorcyclists are suicidal assholes and Lance Armstrong wannabes. We just never notice the good ones because they are obeying the law and sharing the road that we just pass them by without a second thought. Maybe the next time I see a bicycle in the bike lane, I'll smile and say to myself "Wow!"

My Nancy Boy ex is a poster child for motorcyclists with a deathwish. He has been almost killed not once, not twice, but three times in motorcycle accidents, two of them being his fault. He's obsessed with crotchrockets....driving them fast, revving them up, and being a tough-ass.

The one time that it wasn't his fault, he had just gotten the green light to go straight through an intersection, and an old lady blew her red light and my ex ended up right in the driver's seat with that old lady. That is, after his helmet and his bike rammed her entire driver's side door and smashed the window. Nancy Boy never learned to quit gunning it the second the light turned green.

[RayvenQ]

They are bikers, so they probably like the sound of their own engine.

Due to the fact that he was wearing a full sized helmet instead of a half or 3/4, his neck was broken and he died instantly.

That sucks, though I think, he'd had died anyway based on how far you said he was thrown and what he hit.

My worst accident was when I was cruising along at 60MPH (maximum legal speed on the road i was on) some pillock pulled out without looking, result? I hit the back of his car, flew over the boot, landed on my back on the road and bounced several times.

Yes, sometimes it is the riders fault for acting as if they were in something very solid, though also a lot of the times if that cars simply do not look out for bikers.

Other times, some people can be just plain malicious, one tiem I was filtering through when the light was red (slowly going up the side of the non moving traffic) when some twazzock purposefully opened their door on me, luckily I managed to stop, they looked like they were going to argue with me, that is, until i tore off my helmet and they saw the look of absoloute fury on my face.

[sms001]

Unless heaven forbid I have just jinxed it all and Frosty's giant snowdick shall return with vengeance and this rant won't be necessary again for another month....

I gave you the benefit of the doubt here Blas, but it HAS snowed three times since then - just leave off will ya?

On topic, thanks for your patience. As someone who bikes everywhere all year long, I know it is often frustrating for cars to encounter oblivious bikers. And as a real biker, you have my whole-hearted endorsement to lay on the horn, gesture, or use 'sign language', whatever is most effective, to get those morons back in the bike lane.

[Amina516]

You think your roads are bad? Come down to Pennsylvania sometime, right MadMike? We have potholes that can swallow small cars. Hell, a few years back, we had a bridge over I-70 (just outside Washington, PA) that *collapsed* because it wasn't designed correctly. All I can say, is fuck you, PennDOT!

Holy Hell....Pennsylvania...is not even a state, its a pothole. Also, their weather management when it comes to plowing, snow, ice and salting is fuckin superb.....

If I had a hit list, PennDOT would be on it.