Thursday, June 29, 2006

Blog Stuff: Share the road... ...with a front bumper.

Folks, I can completely empathize with the desire to go out and zoom about on two wheels, even without a motor, and being a rider (albeit of the powered type) I know how annoying it can be to have to share the asphalt with the bovine herd asleep at the wheels of their GMC Yukons, but there's a time and a place for everything, okay?

There are roads around here, little twisty, two-lane, shady, hilly, shoulderless roads with no over-run areas, that have speed limits of thirty to forty miles an hour and are just no place for pedal-operated bikes, "share the road" or no. When you're coming through the apex of a blind corner on Mourfield or Canton Hollow at 35mph and there's a sweaty cyclist struggling along at 15-per on the uphill grade in the middle of your lane, it can be a hair raising experience. If there's oncoming traffic, you'd have no choice but to bunt the rider into the kudzu.

It's a thousand wonders that they don't have to pick spandex and toe clips out of the grill of a Durango at least once a week on Westland. Folks, for your own safety, go Share The Road someplace safe, okay?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's your hurry? You're only on the way to work...

Todd said...

Give the pedal pushers a break. You share a climbers paradise and all they want is a foot or so. So slow down a tad and enjoy the scenery.

Now, if they're 2 abreast or riding the middle line, fair game! :)

Anonymous said...

Tam:

There's a windy, twisty, steep road between San Jose and Santa Cruz - Hwy 17? - where I've seen pedal-pushers. Ther's no shoulder what-so-ever in many places. Thrucks, cars & SUVs share what little room there is. I'd be terrified to ride a bike there, but some dang fools persist.

jb

NotClauswitz said...

It's not just "Share the Road," to them it's "We Own the Road." We have the same asinine self-absorption and smug insistence of two and three abreast riding in these hills.
jb knows it; Hwy 17, Hwy 9, Skyline (Hwy 35)- from the spandexified elites of precious Portola Valley and Los Alto Hills on $3k+ peddlers up and over to the coast and back. "Only on the way to work?" They're only on a sweaty self-indulgent work-out. They're all "working" roads that people actually live-on and trucks and other working vehicles ply - not "play-roads" for muscle-toners. There's the laws of physics too, and it's "only" a 30mpg speed difference and a +/- 3000-lb weight differential.

Jeffro said...

I haul oversized loads, often through the Rockies on I70. Tall loads (and hazardous loads) are routed over Loveland Pass because the Eisenhower Tunnel is too "short" plus HS fears a load of gas could blow up in there.

This is a tight, winding, steep graded road, so naturally it is a major challenge for bicyclists. That's where I'd wanna be - in front of a load of gas going down the mountain on jake brakes. The tankers tend to go faster than the bikes.

Anonymous said...

And the reason bicyclists fail to understand basic physics is...?

Anonymous said...

The ones that really torque my motor are the ones that ride two- or even three- abreast, even though they know damn well that a car is behind them.

It's times like these a phrase my mom taught me as a boy sticks out: "You can be right, but you can also be dead right."

Dr. StrangeGun said...

"And the reason bicyclists fail to understand basic physics is...? "

A keen mix of hubris and stupidity, aged like a fine wine... or a moldy blue cheese. Haven't figgered that part out yet.

Anonymous said...

At the risk of raising ire, as a bicyclist there are VERY VERY few places where you can actually "share the road" safely, small roads rural roads where the speed limits are in the 35mph are about the only places.

So slow down already and play nice., and then pass as if you had a slow car in front of you. You aren't the only thing on the road and the speed limit is the upper legal limit.

For bicyclists after all, the highways are off limits, the major boulevards are a nightmare of parked cars, full of moving vehicles that refuse to yield inches,that actively cut off and block the way and many many other roads are plagued with huge potholes (what's a minor bump in your car is a big deal on bike, in case you didn't know) and there are masses of gravel on the shoulders, and...oh, lotsof other things that make the life of cyclists a misery...and no reasonable alternatives.


As to "we own the road" syndrome among bicyclists , it's exists alright, but in my experience it's an attempt to not get casually run off the road by utterly clueless drivers who are intolerant of anything not weighing 3000 lbs and having 4 wheels...and who sure as hell aren't sharing anything.

If most cars "shared" anything like as politely as cyclists there'd be little need for cyclists to be assertive.

I won't even start on what it's like to be a _pedestrian_ which is life threatening in most places, and specifically made to be a misery almost everywhere

staghounds said...

Boxstockracer, that's great advice, and not just for two wheeled riders.

You can beat the case, but you can't beat the physics.

I grew up on Cherokee Boulevard (Tam knows what that is) and my mother lives on Westland. It sometimes seems that cyclists, and pedestrians, are TRYING to be hit by a slightly less than alert driver.

The proliferation of cell phone talkers also raises the risk. Talking on a cell phone degrades a driver's ability about like 2 drinks does. Next time you're stopped at a light, check the drivers around you. If there are 8, at least one will be on the telephone.