Posted on 05/09/2013 1:57:32 PM PDT by servo1969
Driving along at 35 MPH on a 2-lane avenue around 10 PM, a single headlight appeared in my car's path. I swerved onto a side street, shaken and uncomprehending. Leering down at me, astride a high tech bike, I could see in the light of the street lamp the person responsible for the near-miss. I rolled down the window and said -- remaining surprisingly noncombative -- "Hey man, I barely missed hitting you. You could have been killed."
Expecting a thank you or an apology, instead I was the victim of an insane tirade, to the effect: "Hey buddy, you couldn't kill me. You don't know my strength." Taken aback, I realized he had been "playing chicken" by pointing his bike at my car in my lane on purpose. My dander was up. "Are you crazy?" I asked.
He replied: "You old people in your gas-guzzlers need to die."
A week later, I narrowly missed a jogger, once again in my lane, heading right into me on a curve. I swerved and looked back. The runner had stopped 30 yards behind me, hands on hips, defiantly gesticulating, as if to say I was at fault for the near-miss. I opened the car door and asked, just what did he think he was doing running right into me? "I could have killed you," I explained.
(Get ready:) He said," You old people need to die." He pulled on his bright green T-shirt. "Can't you see this?", as if he had done all he should do by donning a loud item of clothing. So it was my fault he said, although he was running into me. I fired back an expletive. He began walking my way, screaming: "You want some of me, buddy?"
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I don’t have a problem with bikes, just don’t expect them to be treated equally to cars. I must have ridden 40 or 50 miles per day till I got a drivers license and we didn’t have bike trails then. I had to ride on the roads and stay out of the way of cars.
“My first concern is always for my safety, second concern is to be courteous to other road users.”
You can’t be from Boulder, Co. then.
I road raced for years. It’s an addiction and it makes you do strange things.
Some guys choose their bikes over their families and jobs.
ROFL! “That HURT doood!”
ping
This article was written by some “old fart”. ;-)
Dude! Live and let live.
“I had to ride on the roads and stay out of the way of cars.”
I guess people in cars are tired of people on bikes thinking it should be the other way around.
In my town it is illegal to skateboard on the street; when we were younger the cops would literally take your skateboard away. I thought it was stupid until I started driving; now I “get it”.
I lived in Santa Cruz mountains for years and the bikers were hideously rude and obnoxious....even had a friend get arrested because some guy complained.....the jury awarded the biker one dollar in punitive damages, and he had to replace the bike. (An brawl on a twisty road)
In Santa Barbara where I live now there are about 500 miles of bike paths and they still go right down the middle of the street.
Oh, well. If they behave in SD, you are lucky.
My friend, I drove a cab for 10 years. Day and night, rain and shine. The next bike rider I see paying any attention to traffic or traffic laws, will be the first. It’s not just a few. If gun owners behaved like bike riders, the liberals might just have a case for gun control.
It’s pretty obvious that for a significant minority of bikers riding a bike is some kind of moralistic get-even-with-the-world trip. They remind me of wacked out liberals whose moral zeal has become mischanneled into things like radical environmentalism. It’s a similar sort of mindset. They’ve found a way to annoy the car-riding bourgeoisie and they will milk it to the max.
After a near miss on a bicyclist in his exotic insect suit i said, "hey you should watch out, when you shoot out of an alley that way you could get killed!" "But it't be YOUR fault, dude, get off the damn road! I got the right-of-way!"
That's a pretty worthless cause to martyr oneself for. Liberalism is truly a mental disorder.
2. On the other side of this issue, a college friend of mine was killed when a car hit his bike. He was not at all arrogant.
Bikers on The Natchez Trace Parkway want cars to be illegal. They insist it was made for bikers only. Several have been killed recently because drivers can not see them on that crooked road. I was between Tupelo and Cherokee, AL when 4 cars passed me. I saw they were really speeding so I tried to get close to them just to see how fast they were going. Well, when my speedometer reached 75, I really slowed down. They were still miles in front of me. They were just crazy driving that fast on that 2 lane road. Guess they were in a hurry to go to one of their funerals. I always try to drive the 50 speed limit but my Honda likes to go 60. : ). It is a beautiful drive in the spring and fall.
I see ~15% of cyclist riding like complete fools in my North County treks. When I get around the Oceanside Harbor, it jumps to 50-50.
I’m still waiting to see a biker stop at a stop sign.
I noticed this stating a few years ago from the left, "old people" know too much, remember too much, were educated too well in history and American history and liberalism and Capitalism, etc.
I have seen the frustration of the left and how they just want the old knowledge to die out, for the old wisdom to die off, for the memory of past america to become totally erased so that conversations don't get interrupted with a knowledgeable voice from one who knows truths.
I asked some jogger ladies one time in Mission Veijo why they jogged on the street and not the 4’ sidewalk? They said the pavement is softer on our feet hence we jog in the street!
I said well you might wanna try single file instead of 4 abreast to oncoming traffic at 45 miles an hour! All I got was a dirty look!
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