An Amusement & Diversion for The Genteel Cyclist. Daily.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Stop the presses! Car in Oregon delayed for a few moments by group bike ride!

Seen in the afternoon newspapers...





But, you know, "Inconsiderate drivers irk bicycle riders" wouldn't make the papers any sooner than "dog bites man."

True enough, though, there is nothing uglier than a self-righteous cyclist. But this dude is sorta overreacting. If the presence of bikes in itself is a goad -- even to another cyclist -- then he ought to take a long look into his empty soul, while reciting this mantra: "Automobiles must give bicycles at least three feet of clearance at all times, or wait until it is safe to do so." Alternative mantra: "I am not the most important person in the world, and this one time, my schedule and expectations about unimpeded travel can accomodate other taxpayers wishing to use the roadway."

Also, sarcasm is right up there with name-calling, as far as effective rhetorical devices. Just saying.

3 comments:

Matt said...

A comment I've seen a couple of times about cyclists is how they ignore the speed limits, and one of the comments to this article mentions the posted speed. This mystified me for a while, especially if it fell in a litany of sins: always run stop signs, run red lights, ignore speed limits. Ignore speed limits? I hardly ever exceed the speed limit (and am usually very proud of myself if I do!), and motorists do it all the time. Then it occurred to me: these people are long enough out of driver's ed to have forgetten that speed limits are legal maximums, not suggested minimums. Actually, a lot of motorists have forgotten that, and you can annoy a lot of people by declaring Speed Limit Day and driving no more than the posted speed limit all day long in your motorized vehicle.

Pinchie said...

That's funny and bizarre, Matt.

A vaguely related note: Here in Minneapolis, cyclists are frequently yelled at to ride on the bike path along the parkways, as if they are required to do so. They aren't. In fact, bike paths adjacent to or shared with walkers have aposted speed limit of 10 mph. And that's pretty slow for your average daily commuter or weekend warrior. So I frequently tell angry motorists that "it's not legal for me to ride my speed on the bike path."

When that fails to impress them, I usually point out that I was moving at around 20 mph -- less than 5 mph under the maximum posted limit.

When THAT fails to impress them, I suggest they take an alternate route. "Parkway" should generally have a meaning that diverges from "highway."

Anonymous said...

One of my faves when a motorist yells bike path as they speed by me on the parkway is to yell back at them the name of the nearest busy street that they are actually attempting to AVOID THEMSELVES BY DRIVING ON A PARKWAY. For instance when riding down Minnehaha Parkway toward Fort Snelling drivers will often scream "BIKE PATH" as I will often scream back (while pointing emphatically) "HIAWATHA AVENUE." They never seem to get it though and they just keep driving down the parkway yelling at bikers.