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To: pjd

True story about a bicyclists from about two weeks ago.

Driving along on a divided main road. Two very wide lanes in either direction, concrete island dividing traffic, exceptionally wide berm - about 2-3 feet of asphalt, plus a nice margin of fine gravel. Enough berm that you could park a car or truck on the side of the road and not impede traffic.

It’s morning rush hour, so traffic is heavy. Come up on a cyclist in his full regalia, but the important items is he has a helmet-mounted mirror (so he is aware of the backup of traffic he is causing) and a suprisingly loud horn.

He’s riding a couple feet to the left of the white line, essentially forcing cars to pass him as if he were a car. He’s so far left that cars could actually pass him on the right without leaving the asphalt.

We get to a stop light and I’m about 2 cars behind him. Sure enough, he shoots to the right side of the white line and starts passing cars in the right median.

Light changes, he slips his way into traffic. All the people that so carefully and thoughtfully passed him are now trapped behind him again, and have to pass him again.

The next light is far enough away that I get a chance to get around him. We stop at a light, I look in the mirror - same behavior. A lady in a car pulls into the road from the side street before the light changes. She’s now in the front of the “pack” of cars, but has no idea about Zippy that’s going to come up behind her.

Next light is the entrance to a freeway. The lady wants to make a legal right turn on red, and is waiting for oncoming traffic from the other side that has a green arrow to make a left.

She has no idea Zippy is flying along in the median coming up on her right, nor really should she have to consider that.

She gets a break in traffic and starts to make her turn when Zippy gets to her with his (surprisingly loud) horn. Luckily for Zippy, it’s a nice day and she has her window down. She, of course, stops, trying to figure out what’s going on, but not before her car has nudged out to the right, blocking Zippy.

More horn from Zippy as he cuts her off, memorializing the moment with an obscene gesture as he cuts over to the crosswalk (now he’s apparently a pedestrian), runs through the red light, gets across the street and again jumps into the road, a few feet to the right of the white line. So everyone who passed him and isn’t getting on the freeway must pass this douchebag again.

I have yet to see a driver of a vehicle act with such reckless disregard for traffic laws and safety. You couldn’t do half that in a car without being reported to, and then chased and aprehended by police.


81 posted on 08/18/2012 4:42:18 AM PDT by chrisser (Starve the Monkeys!)
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To: chrisser
I have yet to see a driver of a vehicle act with such reckless disregard for traffic laws and safety. You couldn’t do half that in a car without being reported to, and then chased and aprehended by police.

I agree. As a cyclist, I would enjoy testifying against one of these turkeys. Same for the pedestrians who do stupid things. Capitol Hill is heavily gentrified but we do have a residual underclass presence. Some of the behavior is patently passive aggressive: the guys riding their bikes the wrong way down the middle of a one way street, or casually strolling diagonally across a busy intersection just as the light changes, or the guys in motorized wheelchairs who drive around in the street. Where's an 18 wheeler when you need it?

I don't trust anyone in Spandex either.

83 posted on 08/18/2012 5:31:53 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: chrisser

I thought it was only Liberals that take a couple of anecdotal incidents and uses them to stereotype and vilify an entire population of otherwise innocent people.

I could tell you a lot of stories about a person carrying a handgun, who went into a rage and killed a bunch of people. Is everyone with a handgun nuts!? Does everyone with a handgun have no regard for the law?

This is the kind of ‘logic’ you are using. You belong on DU, not here.


84 posted on 08/18/2012 7:01:08 AM PDT by pjd
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