It's spring: Time to play dodge the cyclist!

[supernova]

:rant:

I live on a very small, two-lane rural highway. Some say it's quite picturesque, with long stretches of meadows and pines and hardwood trees. Wildflowers dot the lanscape. Houses are set back way off the road, often not visible from the street. There is even the occassional cow and buffalo. Yes, I said buffalo.

Anyway, all this bucolic scenery is very popular this time of year, not only with those of use who live here, but with cyclists too. So popular in fact, that my little highway becomes a one-laner that tries to accomodate cyclists AND cars.

I'm not talking about seeing the occasional cyclist. Oh no. I'm talking my church is about 7 miles away from my home and on the way there this morning, I dodged 12 cyclists.

On race days, I've seen as many as 30 go by my house. Yes, I've counted.

Hey, I don't have a thing against cycling. It's a fine activity. And we all try to be courteous to each other. Cyclists line up single file at the road edge when they hear you come up behind. And I give them a wide berth as I pass.

But my little road is getting increasingly smaller as it tries to accomodate more and more cyclists and more and more cars. I'm just getting really nervous that someday, fender will meet cyclemeat. :hurts:

:rant:

It might be nice if we investigated a bike path. There, just had to get that off my chest. :-)

[aeolian]

1. I'm probably one of the cyclists you've dodged...

...greetings, WNY-er! :hi: :toast:

[supernova]

4. Hi aeolian!

Wow! The only time I've used that word is Coleridge's Aeolian Harp.

Glad you are trying to stay away from the cars. :-)

I guess there are lots of places to ride upstate too?

[aeolian]

8. That's more or less where the name comes from

It's a musical term: the "aeolian mode" is now more commonly known as the natural minor scale.

I'm actually in the city of Buffalo, but I like to get out on the rural roads now and then for a long ride. I mostly cruise around the parks in town, though, so I get to dodge cars, roller-bladers, runners, walkers, power-walkers, and fat people walking three abreast.

EDIT: I misread your original post, I thought you meant that you were in or around Buffalo, NY. :) Oops! Damn lysdexia!

...very few buffalo in Buffalo, oddly enough...

But :hi: and :toast: all the same!

[mark414]

2. you should try riding a bike in the big city...

then it becomes dodge the cars

it's kind of fun actually...it can be a rush!

[supernova]

3. Eeek! One of the reasons I'm not a city girl

:-) When I lived in DC, I used to watch the bycicle messengers whip around traffic.

[phusion]

17. Check out this guy...

If you have highspeed:

http://www.digave.com/videos/

Drag Race NYC is crazy!

[hfojvt]

5. i am guessing you are exurban rather than rural

I used to be able to bike 30 miles to church in rural Wisconsin and see maybe six cars on the way. Why 30 miles? It is my great-grandparents church and I went there once or twice a year. If the road is not rural enough I like a road with a wide shoulder.

Since your church is so close, you might consider cycling there. :evilgrin:

[supernova]

6. No, I'm not exurban. I'm originally rural

born in the country. Experimented with city life for a while in my 20s and early 30s and returned to the country about 10 years ago. :-)

Yes, I could cycle there. :D ;-) Clever.

Wide shoulders are a nice idea, exactly what we don't have now.

[Jade Fox]

7. I got angrily yelled at yesterday....

by a cyclist who apparently thought I didn't see him as I was passing
another car.

I dunno, if you insist on riding a non-moterized, un-armored vehicle
on a edifice designed for fast, hi-powered, moterized and amored
vehicles, you're in denial if you don't think you will be on the losing
end of the inevitable trouble.

Flame on.

[aeolian]

9. No, I'm with you. I ride, and I drive,

so I try to be aware of what drivers are thinking when I'm riding, and vice-versa.

People who think they own the road act the same weather there on a bike or in a Hummer.

[ComerPerro]

10. Yeah, that's the thing I really don't understand

Pedestrians and cyclists both. They will just dart out in front of you sometimes. I don't care if they have the right of way or not, sometimes its hard to stop a car in time. And I think some of them need to realize that I am surrounded by metal, so a 30mph impact wont hardly affect me at all. But, they have nothing protecting them.

Maybe its just because I am in a college town, so there are more people on foot and on bikes. But when I am walking or riding my bike, I watch the hell out for cars, because I know that a car will really mess me up, no matter who is in the right.

My biggest problem with bikes and motorcycles comes when riders want to be treated like another car, but don't follow traffic laws.

I can't tell you how many times I have had to slam on the breaks because a bike rider blew a stop sign.

[Telly Savalas]

21. My wife likes the art in your sig....

is it Etruscan?

[Jade Fox]

22. Minoan n/t

[RevolutionaryActs]

11. I feel for you!

This time of year, they're all over! The thing pisses me off the most, is that on one of the main roads that comes in and out of my town, there is a huge shoulder, on both sides. Yet every damn cyclist, rides right in the white line! :wtf:

There is PLENTY of room for them to ride off to the side of the road more, yet they don't. Do they not realize that I have a big 3,000 pound(or whatever it weighs) car, and they only have padded bike shorts? What?

[DS1]

13. If we don't ride out more, people think it's okay to squeeze us off the

side while passing a car that's making a left turn in front of them. I've done it both ways, it's been much safer making people like you wait an extra 10 seconds to pass :eyes:

[RevolutionaryActs]

14. I have never done that.

It's illegal to pass a car by driving on the shoulder here.


I'm fine with waiting, it's just sometimes they get in my lane and it scares me. I don't understand why some of them, not all, feel it's ok to ride on the white or get in the car lane, when the shoulder is like 5 feet wide. There is plenty of room for all.

[DS1]

15. 5 feet is a legitimate complaint, we have nothing like that around here

and most of the 'bike' lane just collects rocks, broken glass, other assorted crap you don't want to be riding on.

[RevolutionaryActs]

16. Yeah, see I understand that, you don't want to ride on rocks or class.

Here the whole shoulder is nice and clean. Maybe a few rocks, but just pebbles.

They just scare me so much sometimes. This time of year there are often cars coming in and out of town, or else I would just get over and pass the people in the bikes. But I can't, or else I'll get in a head-on. :scared::
So I stop and wait. :shrug:

[aeolian]

18. My bike shorts are made of a titanium-aliminum alloy,

and could stop a mack truck.

:)

[RevolutionaryActs]

19. LOL! Dang.

I try to be good, they do have the right of way, but I think it's only fair that they be courteous of me. :shrug:

I mean it's not fair that I have to stop and wait for them, when they have a five foot wide shoulder, but they insist on riding the white line or drifting into my lane.

[DS1]

12. When in doubt, slow down, that's all we ask

I've had people almost run me off a cliff in their haste to get by on some of the narrower roads, when my hand comes whacking down on their windshield they get the idea - and the Marine-honed level of obscenities hurled in their direction seems to help a bit too.

Sure, bikes will lose in arguments with cars, that's why we're supposed to have the right of way AT ALL TIMES, if the rest of the idiots in this country could remember that, it wouldn't be an issue.

On the flip side of the coin, I passed a guy on the wrong side of the road flying around a blind corner almost causing an accident just a few minutes ago, I wanted to run him over myself for giving the rest of us a bad name.

[Abelman]

20. No worries from me

I used to always use the bike path! yay for bike paths!

It will be harder this summer, as I'll be in an area without a bike path but it has a fairly wide shoulder so I should be okay.