Murdering Bicyclists

[trysail]

ETA: This is the toll for just the last five (5) years.



I have just been informed that my state has had THREE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED ( 3,800 ) automobile-bicycle crashes.


THIRTY ( 30 ) riders have been killed.


Another THREE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED ( 3,100 ) bicyclists have been injured.


I had absolutely no idea that the slaughter was that bad. It is horrifying; it is terrifying.


Automobile drivers scare the shit out of me when I drive my car. There are too many goddamned idiots driving cars. I assume they are all distracted morons yapping on cellphones and have the attention span of a two-year old.


The dimwits scare the absolute bejesus out of me when I'm on my bicycle. They are completely and utterly clueless. The fat dimwitted slobs have never been on a bicycle and have no idea whatsoever what it's like to have TWO TONS of steel and alumin(i)um whooshing by you at sixty or more miles per hour.


I have given up completely. You are idiots and I really don't want to die at the hands of a feeble-minded murderer given a license by the state.



​

 

[warrior queen]

I have the opposite problem.
My city is supposedly cycle-friendly, with dedicated bike lanes springing up everywhere.
Which SHOULD work well...... if it weren't for suicidal bike riders darting out into traffic every 10 seconds. Not to mention cyclists who hang onto cars to get a free tow. Or cyclists who blow through red lights because they think stoplights don't apply to bikes. Or cyclists who ride just outside the bike lane in 80km/hr traffic because they want to have a conversation with the other 3 cyclists they're riding abreast of. Or......
You get the picture.
My dashcam is filled with footage of near-misses, not one of which is my fault as a car driver!

 

[pensivepoet]

I'm ok wth murdering bicyclists
Amish too

 

[pensivepoet]

I have the opposite problem.
My city is supposedly cycle-friendly, with dedicated bike lanes springing up everywhere.
Which SHOULD work well...... if it weren't for suicidal bike riders darting out into traffic every 10 seconds. Not to mention cyclists who hang onto cars to get a free tow. Or cyclists who blow through red lights because they think stoplights don't apply to bikes. Or cyclists who ride just outside the bike lane in 80km/hr traffic because they want to have a conversation with the other 3 cyclists they're riding abreast of. Or......
You get the picture.
My dashcam is filled with footage of near-misses, not one of which is my fault as a car driver!

Also, there are a lot of auto free bike trails now.
But for some reason, the cyclists seem to prefer riding on busy roads that were made for autos.
I think they like to show off their little pants.

 

[warrior queen]

Also, there are a lot of auto free bike trails now.
But for some reason, the cyclists seem to prefer riding on busy roads that were made for autos.
I think they like to show off their little pants.

I have no problem with their little pants. Especially as they are usually encasing tight buns
I have been known to slow down to 5km/hr just so I can get a really good eyefull.....

 

[oggbashan]

I have the opposite problem.
My city is supposedly cycle-friendly, with dedicated bike lanes springing up everywhere.
Which SHOULD work well...... if it weren't for suicidal bike riders darting out into traffic every 10 seconds. Not to mention cyclists who hang onto cars to get a free tow. Or cyclists who blow through red lights because they think stoplights don't apply to bikes. Or cyclists who ride just outside the bike lane in 80km/hr traffic because they want to have a conversation with the other 3 cyclists they're riding abreast of. Or......
You get the picture.
My dashcam is filled with footage of near-misses, not one of which is my fault as a car driver!

I agree with warrior queen. If cyclists obeyed traffic laws, particularly in London, there would be fewer accidents to them.

Opposite my house are two no-cycling signs put up because of near misses and accidents with small children playing around the beach huts. The local council reviewed the by-law (local law) in 2005 and replaced the 1920s no-cycling law with a new one. The maximum penalty is now £500.

Yet dozens of cyclists ignore those signs every day in winter, and hundreds every day in the summer.

The two no-cycling signs now have a much larger sign beside them. It hasn't made any difference. They still ride straight past them.

Last month a cyclist was thrown from his bike after colliding with a dog's lead. The lead was a metre long. Neither the dog, nor the dog's owner had heard the cyclist approaching from behind at speed on the no-cycling path. The cyclist started abusing the dog's owner who was trying to comfort the startled and shocked small dog - until other walkers pointed out to the cyclist that he should not have been riding there.

He rode off, hurling abuse.

The club and racing cyclists behave impeccably. It's the local cyclists who normally drive cars who behave badly.

 

[digitalia]

I have just been informed that my state has had THREE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED ( 3,800 ) automobile-bicycle crashes.


THIRTY ( 30 ) riders have been killed.


Another THREE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED ( 3,100 ) bicyclists have been injured.


I had absolutely no idea that the slaughter was that bad. It is horrifying; it is terrifying.


Automobile drivers scare the shit out of me when I drive my car. There are too many goddamned idiots driving cars. I assume they are all distracted morons yapping on cellphones and have the attention span of a two-year old.


The dimwits scare the absolute bejesus out of me when I'm on my bicycle. They are completely and utterly clueless. The fat dimwitted slobs have never been on a bicycle and have no idea whatsoever what it's like to have TWO TONS of steel and alumin(i)um whooshing by you at sixty or more miles per hour.


I have given up completely. You are idiots and I really don't want to die at the hands of a feeble-minded murderer given a license by the state.

"idiots" ride a bicycle to a car fight, and whine when nature happens.

 

[Hard_Rom]

If everyone rode bicycles there wouldn't be a problem! Gees so simple!

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

Also, there are a lot of auto free bike trails now.
But for some reason, the cyclists seem to prefer riding on busy roads that were made for autos.
I think they like to show off their little pants.

The roads were made for bicycles too.

 

[warrior queen]

The roads were made for bicycles too.

Yes they were..... and during the 30's and 40's they worked.
Now, with such a huge number of vehicles and such a massive disparity in speeds, not so much.

 

[warrior queen]

Just want to add... I cycle too.
But I have a rule. As a cyclist, I am responsible for making sure I don't die.
Not the car driver.

 

[Ramone45]

Cyclists simply do not run red lights at speed. I'm sure it has happened at some point. I'm sure the result was not good for the cyclist. Cyclists have the opposite of a death wish. Think for a second. Why would a cyclist expose herself to more risk by running a red light? It doesn't happen nearly as much as motorists tell you it does. In both my motoring and my cycling, I've never seen it happen. You know what I have seen? Many, many, many cars running red lights, and that scares me far more that the myth of the red light running cyclist.

 

[Rachel_X]

When I'm driving, I tend to be singing songs from the Frozen soundtrack so I pay little attention to all the bumps, screams and snaps I hear. I guess some could be cyclists.

 

[Saint Peter]

Fucking people in wheelchairs. I have things to do. I cannot be waiting all day for you to get your lame chair across the street. Go to the gym. Build those spindly arms up.

A green light is a green light. Anybody inside the crosswalk when my light turns is fair game.



Jerks.

 

[warrior queen]

Cyclists simply do not run red lights at speed. I'm sure it has happened at some point. I'm sure the result was not good for the cyclist. Cyclists have the opposite of a death wish. Think for a second. Why would a cyclist expose herself to more risk by running a red light? It doesn't happen nearly as much as motorists tell you it does. In both my motoring and my cycling, I've never seen it happen. You know what I have seen? Many, many, many cars running red lights, and that scares me far more that the myth of the red light running cyclist.

Just recently there was a segment on tv here in Oz, where they investigated cyclists running lights in Sydney. Over 8 hours recording, the reporter filmed 4 out of 5 cyclists riding through a red light at one single major intersection! 80%!!!
The program had cameras set up at 15 major intersections and the numbers were similar across the city.
This investigation has led directly to calls for harsher penalties, lisencing for all bikes, and mandatory road rule education.

 

[Ramone45]

Just want to add... I cycle too.
But I have a rule. As a cyclist, I am responsible for making sure I don't die.
Not the car driver.

This a great attitude that greatly stacks the odds in your favor. It's analogous to my technique of riding as though you're invisible.
However, I disagree with the implication that the motorist has a somehow diminished responsibility. The motorist is the apex predator by virtue of the size, power and capacity for damage of his vehicle. I believe that comes with extraordinary reponsibility. There will always be alternate users of the road. Pedestrians, mom's with strollers, bicyclists. There's no doubt they have a right to use these roads, at least in my country. By virtue of the damage he can cause to these vulnerable alternate users, it is the absolute responsibilty of the motorist to yield.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Less cars, more bicycles, less healthcare costs, less roads, lower taxes (in theory anyway)

 

[Rachel_X]

Less cars, more bicycles, less healthcare costs, less roads, lower taxes (in theory anyway)

The only problem being it would take me 4 days to bike to the nearest airport instead of an hours drive.
Also I'd be wet and cold. My arse would hurt and I'd likely kill the first person I saw out of sheer frustration.

 

[Saint Peter]

And baby strollers. Those damn things are filled with future cyclists. Super easy to take out. The lady just had a baby. How fast can she really run away from a car or truck?

The road belongs to us. We paid for them. Babies do not pay a fucking dime for the roads they ride on. Neither do the little humans in the strollers.

 

[LIVINRFANTASIES]

I have the opposite problem.
My city is supposedly cycle-friendly, with dedicated bike lanes springing up everywhere.
Which SHOULD work well...... if it weren't for suicidal bike riders darting out into traffic every 10 seconds. Not to mention cyclists who hang onto cars to get a free tow. Or cyclists who blow through red lights because they think stoplights don't apply to bikes. Or cyclists who ride just outside the bike lane in 80km/hr traffic because they want to have a conversation with the other 3 cyclists they're riding abreast of. Or......
You get the picture.
My dashcam is filled with footage of near-misses, not one of which is my fault as a car driver!

I agree with warrior queen. We live near a famous college town with lots of bike lanes on city streets.
Along the major 4-lane highway a mile from our house there is also a bike trail 1/4 mile from the highway with many signs letting cylists know the bike trail is there and connects several small towns. It's wide, paved, mostly shady with benches along the way.

The bikers would rather ride down the side of the highway often two abreast so they can talk. Most ignore all traffic laws and cross roads whenever they want.
I don't like to see anyone hurt but like the stupid Rice Rocket motorcyclists they ride like crazy people making their own laws.

Add to that the older people who can't see an 18 wheeler in front of them and someone's gonna get hurt.
Don't forget young drivers on cell phones and girls applying make up, people eating, kids jumping around not seat belted in, the family dog trying to drive and the list goes on.
Ride safely or suffer.

 

[gypsyTX]

http://www.mikecooper.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bikeshoot.jpg

 

[pensivepoet]

The only problem being it would take me 4 days to bike to the nearest airport instead of an hours drive.
Also I'd be wet and cold. My arse would hurt and I'd likely kill the first person I saw out of sheer frustration.

Rickshaw-the new uber.

 

[LIVINRFANTASIES]

http://www.mikecooper.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bikeshoot.jpg

At least he's not riding slow in the middle of a highway.

 

[pensivepoet]

Yes they were..... and during the 30's and 40's they worked.
Now, with such a huge number of vehicles and such a massive disparity in speeds, not so much.

Why, just the other day I was tooling through Nashville just minding my own business, and people were honking, flipping me off, and tossing beer cans at me.
Scared my team of oxen half to death!

 

[Hard_Rom]

The only problem being it would take me 4 days to bike to the nearest airport instead of an hours drive.
Also I'd be wet and cold. My arse would hurt and I'd likely kill the first person I saw out of sheer frustration.

It would take you 4 hrs and if you wore a proper jacket you would be sweating no matter the weather. And your arse gets used to it. And the person you killed would be a car driver. One less car driver in the world is a good thing. Win/win!