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Drivers, bicyclists clash on road sharing
CNN ^ | May 11, 2010 | Steve Almasy

Posted on 05/11/2010 10:41:01 AM PDT by End Times Sentinel

Professor Peter Furth has ridden his bicycle to work at Northeastern University each day for the past six years. The two-mile trip through the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts, is usually without incident.

Furth's journey is worlds apart from his former Boston commute, which for 13 years was a battle with drivers who wanted him on the sidewalk.

"I've had motorists that drive a couple of inches from my elbow, trying to scare me," he said.

Furth would catch up with drivers at stoplights and ask them whether they knew how close they'd come to hitting him. Invariably, they would say, "Yes, move over."

It's a cultural thing, he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bicycle; criticalmass; gasolinetaxes; getofftheroad; greenieweenies; hippie; roads
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To: Hodar
Sorry Hodar - if the cul-de-sac has been dedicated (named)by the town/borough/township (meaning the controlling authority has direct responsibility for the maintanance, snow removal, and repair)it is, indeed, a public road. The Dept.of Transportation deems a public road to be any place a motor vehicle can access and operate unimpeded(church parking lot, industrial park, ect). Unless the facility is secured or has physically restricted access(gates or fences) it is considered a public road.
121 posted on 05/11/2010 3:12:17 PM PDT by big truck
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To: Hodar
Congratulations ... your kids survived your foolishness.

I usually try to be polite here. But you sir or ma'am are a jackass. To dredge up some meaningless statistic about pedestrian deaths and explicitly state that due to that statistic, I'm a fool, because I let my kids ride bikes, shows your are dumb as hell. You have no clue whatsoever about evaluating the risks and rewards of life, and lack decency.

122 posted on 05/11/2010 3:14:33 PM PDT by Minn (Here is a realistic picture of the prophet: ----> ([: {()
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To: Hodar
Sorry again, Hodar - Amish people posess no state issued ID, and buggies do not have state issued plates. Some of them do have reflective triangles, but even there the Amish can refuse to put one on the buggy and most states will be OK with it. They pay no user fees of any kind(inspection, registration, insurance). What's more, young Jonny or Sarah Yoder can take the horse and buggy into town at whatever age the parents decide they can handle the responsibility - no licensing or testing needed.
123 posted on 05/11/2010 3:19:22 PM PDT by big truck
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To: Melas
I'm helpless against tons of fast moving steel,

Yes you are and it don't matter if you had the right of way or not.............

124 posted on 05/11/2010 3:22:38 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Peanut butter was just peanut butter until I found Free Republic.........)
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To: babble-on

“And bicyclists hate recumbents”

I’ve been cycling seriously for 50 years, and those things just don’t look natural.


125 posted on 05/11/2010 3:24:16 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: Let's Roll
And the only people I see running a red light when “there’s nothing coming” are bicylists. I mean run, not stop and look both ways and then go, which is still illegal.

So is jaywalking. But of course, I'm sure you never do that.

I once got a guided tour of a campus by the Big Cheese himself, a college prez. Running diagonally across one rather pretty qrass quadrangle was a bare dirt footpath. The Prez moaned about students' disrespect for the lawn and said they had made announcements, posted signs, and generally appealed to the better angels of their nature, all to no avail.

I managed to keep a straight face while observing that people who are moving under muscle power observe a logic appropriate to their situation. The only ways to protect such a quadrangle from students would be to fence it, or plant a study barrier, preferably a thorny one, or work a landscaped path into the design.

Bicyclists run lights when no one is coming for the same reason that pedestrians jaywalk and students ignore the signs and cut across lawns. You could send out policemen to ticket such miscreants, but as a practical matter, since there is approximately zero chance of injuring someone else, the coppers let it go. Cars are policed because cars kill a lot of people.

126 posted on 05/11/2010 3:36:17 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: Minn

The bicycle couriers in NYC must be certifiable then lol


127 posted on 05/11/2010 3:41:30 PM PDT by visualops (Freepin' on my Pre!)
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To: Hot Tabasco
Yes you are and it don't matter if you had the right of way or not

So the solution is? Please don't tell me it's to give up bicycling, because that's neither reasonable nor apt to happen.

128 posted on 05/11/2010 3:46:56 PM PDT by Melas
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To: Hodar
I sincerely hope you remember this conversation, when the inevitable happens. if you are lucky, you will have the priviledge of being a first responder. You were warned in simple terms, I pity your children - for they don't know better, and they will bear the cost of your neglicence.

Children shouldn't ride bikes? Ok -- but then they probably shouldn't go to swimming pools, be allowed on stairs, or take baths either. Life is just too hazardous to be lived nowadays.

Yea, verily, indeed and forsooth: cars should probably be banned as well. They kill more people than all the above combined.

Yes, some roads are too dangerous for non-motorized folk to even attempt to use. That, however, is poor road design. Roads should be built with adequate shoulders and sidewalks, and while I don't think every road needs a bike lane or an adjacent bike path, I do think that these should be much more frequent than they are. This isn't something to be done overnight. It's something that needs to be incorporated into basic design standards and developed over time as the infrastructure is built and rebuilt.

129 posted on 05/11/2010 3:48:35 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: chris_bdba

Laws vary by locality.

DON’T BE SO ANGRY.


130 posted on 05/11/2010 3:50:01 PM PDT by Skenderbej (No muhammadan practices his religion peacefully.)
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To: Blueflag

You are absolutely right! This is what bugs me to no end about cyclists. Hey, I love riding bikes too, but I don’t expect the freaking world to bow down for me. I can stop on a dime, a car can’t! I see bikers dressed like they’re in Olymic training flying down the middle of the highway or road throughout the city demanding every car yield to them, all while they break every traffic law there is!


131 posted on 05/11/2010 3:54:29 PM PDT by freemike (John Adams-Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker)
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To: Owl_Eagle

Bike riders aren’t paying their fair share of highway taxes! I think it’s time they be taxed more! They never buy gas so they get to enjoy the highway tax free! So, yeah, time to tax them for refusing to buy gas! LOL!


132 posted on 05/11/2010 3:56:40 PM PDT by freemike (John Adams-Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker)
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To: Melas
So the solution is?

Widen the roads to allow cycling.......Roads were created for vehicles, not cyclists.........until that happens expect the collisions and the driver vs. cyclist confrontations........If you can't deal with it then stay on the sidewalks...........

133 posted on 05/11/2010 5:28:21 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Peanut butter was just peanut butter until I found Free Republic.........)
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To: Owl_Eagle

“Furth would catch up with drivers at stoplights and ask them”

So he passes a line of cars on their right side and expects cortousy in return.......

Okay.

Got it.


134 posted on 05/11/2010 5:30:32 PM PDT by MontaniSemperLiberi
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To: Hot Tabasco

the large but people pushed bicycles into the streets due to the big city phenomenon of bike couriers riding like maniacs across town.

There has to be a reasonable solution.

There is a case in FL going/gone to the FLSC which has a city with RECIEVED money for a bike path but the rich people refused to allow it to be built by widening the roads to take out their landscaping. so no bike path. the real reason is they view the area as their personal private area and do not want people driving by their beach homes.


135 posted on 05/11/2010 5:31:41 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: sphinx
This jay walker stops and looks both ways. And there was someone coming when I observed bicyclists running reds - me. Although not close enough for me to slam on my brakes, I always had to brake at least some while they of course seemed totally unconcerned.

All the campuses I've been on have one or more of those bare dirt foot paths - I always wondered why they didn't just pave those and stop worrying about their "Keep off the Grass" signs.

136 posted on 05/11/2010 6:40:40 PM PDT by Let's Roll (Stop paying ACORN to destroy America! Cut off their federal funding!)
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To: Skenderbej
I’ve always wondered, why waste the money and materials for sidewalks that are never used.

To spend taxpayer money - Immaterial what government is spending it on as long as they spray those stolen dollars around like water from a fire hose.

137 posted on 05/12/2010 4:00:38 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government,)
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