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- Thread starter billmac91
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It's not 30 seconds. That's a mild annoyance. It's when you're stuck behind them for minutes, which means the guy behind you is stuck for even more minutes, and so on.
The problem is cyclists want challenging roads and that translates to terrifyingly dangerous for all of us and extremely hard to pass. I get the major health benefits from bike riding but there has to be a better way to do it without choking the flow of traffic on the road and risking lives all around. This gets quite a bit worse when the bike fleets head out together to train for pelotonia. I'm not sure it's even legal to pass that group.
I live in Licking County. It's pretty hilly in most directions from my house. It takes a solid 7-10 minutes of driving (and whatever the equivalent of that is for bikers) to reach a non-terrifying place to bike (risking all of our lives). Many bikers like to use the motorcycle two wide system, forcing you to cross entirely into the other lane to pass them.
If they are regular vehicles, then they need to obey the same laws. If I drove 15-20 mph up a hill in a 55 mph zone, I would get a ticket. If I blew through a red light or stop sign, I would get a ticket.
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Exactly. If its a few seconds that's fine. But when it starts becoming 5-10-15 minutes the "show some patience" argument falls through. Especially if I have to be somewhere at a certain time and I end up late because a pack of bikers decided to take up the whole mostly non passable road.
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Taosman
Your Cousin In New Mexxico
Bicycle laws are "selectively" enforced kind of like cell phone usage while driving.
Obviously using a cell phone while driving 2 tons of iron posses a much greater danger to all.
But cell phone laws are politically poisonous to enforce.
Bicyclist fly under the radar most times. Most people don't even know what local bicycle laws are.
Obviously using a cell phone while driving 2 tons of iron posses a much greater danger to all.
But cell phone laws are politically poisonous to enforce.
Bicyclist fly under the radar most times. Most people don't even know what local bicycle laws are.
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Well, I'll get into this one because, I'm not gonna get into some philosophical BS about who should be on the road and where and when and in what clothes.
But personally Josh, outside the pelotonia swarms... I don't see much, if any problem with what you're describing. You'd have to cross entirely into the other lane to pass another car, truck, amish buggy, vespa or motorcycle.
Personally, I ride as little as possible on rural roads solo as I can. I also don't like to ride in large groups, 2-4 preferably with people that can ride similarly to me, but that's not always that easy to get together.
The problem isn't "wanting challenging roads" - if these folks were looking for that, you'd rarely see them. Getting into really secondary county and TWP roads that only go to dairy farms and switch back over ridges etc, no one drives there but the people who live there, and the grades have no real rules, etc, gravel, chip and seal etc... but that's demanding terrain. Especially on an unsupported ride. (Bike paths are mostly a joke except for fitness bikers, it would take me the entire Olentangy path to wake up in the morning... and well, these aren't really bike paths, they're "multiuse trails" and might as well be sidewalks in the summer. -- I don't mind them when its winter, and there's no one out there but me... though, they don't clear the ice on them all that well)
All in all, and its a PIA for me to get out to little used county roads (Although, that's one thing they SHOULD make as a goal for urban bike paths, and that's to get out of town, the Ohio Erie thing is nice since you can get to Galena pretty quickly without driving there first, then there are places to ride)
For those of you who don't understand why you'd put yourself at risk like that, I can't explain it to you. Go ride 100 miles solo and see how you feel. Or 100 in some real hills with a small group for 7 or 8 hours. This is mentally much different than any workout you can get in the gym. You can always just turn off the treadmill or put down the weights... but, ride 30 miles away from home, you have to ride the 30 miles back. Go climb 5 or 7 or 10K feet. You'll need a few beers after that.
Unfortunately for some people there's an overly social aspect to it, so that clouds their brains into the usual lack of self awareness and false sense of safety in numbers. (If anyone really wants to witness this, go out on the Olentangy bike path on a Saturday and watch the fleet feet ladies speedwalking -- its not jogging -- all get to the watercoolers they set out and just stop on the path... no idea what's around them -- Though one of the guys who sets the watercoolers out and I had a quick talk a few weeks ago, they're not on the path anymore-- its pretty bad lol... I was out for about 3.5 hours and on that path for a grand total of 20 mins and had 3 different near miss instances with the watercooler people. I exmplained to the dude that simply putting the spigot on the other side of the table would be much safer, but they went beyond that which was appreciated)
Its sorta tough, one guy I ride with is pretty social and kind of a flat road cruiser peletonia type... he's really good about traffic laws, etc... waving to the nice car drivers, etc... I ride with a couple club racers, they're more aggressive but, they move pretty good, and then another guy in the middle. I do my best with the traffic laws, unfortunately doing that makes you be in traffic some ways that drivers don't want or understand. Especially on left turns or going straight at intersections with multiple turn lanes.
95% of the cars that pass me are cool, but, its the 5% that cause the cyclists to be over defensive, so it snowballs. I think. I kinda came to the acceptance that at some point, there's going to be an incident, and hopefully that's just me going in a ditch and not getting hit by a car or me hitting something hard.
The Urban campus commuter fixie thing is different. They're nuts, and unfortunately, when you get a 19 year old on a bike in the city, they're not really all that far removed from kids doing kid stuff on a kid toy. They frustrate me too.
And yeah, ticket them for running red lights and stop signs. Also passing on the right. :) (and that goes for everyone)
Bummer for you. Its just shitty traffic. It happens.
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No problem:
Problem:
As a cyclist, I don't see any reason that cyclists cannot go single file when traffic builds so that people can get around them. I know that you may want to practice your peloton coordination or train for a speed, but if that is the case, then set out at 4 am or find a cycling route that isn't heavily travelled by cards...give folks a break.
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No problem:
Problem:
As a cyclist, I don't see any reason that cyclists cannot go single file when traffic builds so that people can get around them. I know that you may want to practice your peloton coordination or train for a speed, but if that is the case, then set out at 4 am or find a cycling route that isn't heavily travelled by cards...give folks a break.
I don't know what you wrote...you bastard
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That's all I'm asking. I don't want bikes to stop riding. I want to be able to drive on the path designed for cars without planning an extra 5-15 minutes for "bikers need the space to travel at illegal speeds in largely unpassable areas" traffic.
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I will say this though, if you happen to see a 300lb dude on a 29er mountain bike that he's re-rigged to be some sort of comfort road bike wearing a BMC kit with a go-pro on his helmet...
Please...
By all means... run them over.
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Anthony Lima needs to visi this thread 
(for those in Cleveland, he started a shitstorm on 92.3 The Fan you can find on Cleveland.com)
(for those in Cleveland, he started a shitstorm on 92.3 The Fan you can find on Cleveland.com)
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