MrSaigon wrote:You guys will be fascinated to know that the new downtown Portland punk bicycle culture is riding toddlers' bikes.
I have a friend there who commented that stuff like ^ makes Portland awesome. I said No, Portland is great despite that crap.
The 'We're so whacky it's awesome!' culture can definitely get a little tiresome, and it's pretty funny how a lot of it lacks individuality. Lots of those people are like goth teens at the mall just trying to be looked at.
But to be honest, I kind of enjoy the ambiance it provides when I go downtown,
MrSaigon wrote:
The 'We're so whacky it's awesome!' culture can definitely get a little tiresome, and it's pretty funny how a lot of it lacks individuality.
I have this ex friend (turns his back on me when I broke up with ex) who quit lawyering to be a nurse. Rides his bike a fair bit, as do I, but mocks anybody who has a cycling garb which I do. Yes, got himself a fixie.
Anyway, someone mentioned something about us both riding bikes and he quickly pointed out that we do it for different reasons. True, he does it to be hipster cool and I do it because I like it.
On my way to work this morning, I am at the stoplight behind 2 other cars, I am turning right - there is no right turn lane. The light turns green, the two cars in front of me go, when a guy on a bike on my right headed through the intersection, luckily for him and me, I knew he was there, so I didn't make my turn right away and kill him. My question to you bike riders out there, I know you have the right of way there, the crosswalk light was on walk too, but If someone had not been paying attention, and run you over as you crossed the intersection and killed you, would you die happy knowing you had the right of way? The bike rider didn't even slow down or pause or attempt to make eye contact to see if I saw him, (I was watching him the whole way in my side mirror and could see what he was doing.) I understand the rules of the road, but sometimes the rules of self preservation should take precedence, or should they?
Right. It's what I always tell my wife who relies on the rules of the road when she's a pedestrian to 'protect' her. Yeah, you have the laws of the state on your side, but they have the laws of physics on theirs.
The only time cyclists get on my nerves is when they go for a rush hour ride on a very busy road (141 most often, in my case) and traffic backs up for a mile or more behind them.
wart57 wrote:On my way to work this morning, I am at the stoplight behind 2 other cars, I am turning right - there is no right turn lane. The light turns green, the two cars in front of me go, when a guy on a bike on my right headed through the intersection, luckily for him and me, I knew he was there, so I didn't make my turn right away and kill him. My question to you bike riders out there, I know you have the right of way there, the crosswalk light was on walk too, but If someone had not been paying attention, and run you over as you crossed the intersection and killed you, would you die happy knowing you had the right of way? The bike rider didn't even slow down or pause or attempt to make eye contact to see if I saw him, (I was watching him the whole way in my side mirror and could see what he was doing.) I understand the rules of the road, but sometimes the rules of self preservation should take precedence, or should they?
I don't bike as much as I used to, but I always understood I was going to lose that battle and tried to make sure I was seen. Granted, that probably developed after being made to feel very vulnerable after close calls that were sometimes my fault and sometimes the driver's fault.
I was running in a race at Forest Park couple weekends back. It's on the park roads which are still open for traffic. I was on the left side of the road running against traffic, just a couple yards from the curb and a jackass bicyclist flew right at me (and the person next to me). If I hadn't get out of the way, we'd have collided.
He didn't slow down at all. It appeared he didn't like having to share the road with runners and went angry mercenary. Bit ironic.
Side note - when I run at Forest Park, I always stick to the (chat gravel mostly) pedestrian path. The path is great.
I'm aware of the feud between bikers and pedestrians on the paved bike path - I guess some pedestrians/runners insist on using pavement (not sure why). And some bikers insist on going like it's a time trial there. Regardless of it being a designated bike path, it's not a place a biker should expect to make good unabated time -especially during busy parts of weekends. there's lots of families with kids out there, they should be able to use the park without knowing the etiquette.