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Bike Wars
americanthinker.com ^ | 5-9-2013 | Bernie Reeves

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bicycle; bicyclist; jogger
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I once taught a class to some guys who where going to be working on a large piece of federal property. Now, it was way out in the middle of nowhere and the only way to get onto this property was by auto or motorcycle. You couldn't walk in and you couldn't walk from one place to another. You had to drive and you had to be careful where you drove; you didn't joy ride out there. During class breaks people would ask me questions about the work site. What was the best way to get there, what tools to bring, what was considered contraband, stuff like that.

I'll never forget this one guy; kind of young and strange. He would ask me questions like how far is it and do they have any bike racks. I was a little confused. It soon became apparent that he road bikes. A lot. "Oh, you can't ride a bike out there," I said. "And even if you could it'll be night time and traffic on that four lane highway is crazy. There's no room for bicycle. You'd be killed if you tried it." I guess in his mind a highway full of cars and trucks going 70 mph was just going give him the right of way. He caught an attitude with me, me who's been working there for years, and tried to tell me he knew people who had ridden bikes out there. I told him I had never seen a bicycle out there, ever, and that I guaranteed him that he would NOT be riding a bicycle on that federal property. Well, he had snotty attitude for the rest of the class. (I later learned that he didn't even have a drivers license. His girlfriend(s) had to drive him everywhere.)

Months later I ran into one of the other guys in the class who had wound up working with bicycle guy. He told me, "That dude is weird, man. He was out here a couple of weeks before he understood that you CAN'T ride a bike out here because security won't allow it. When you told him he couldn't ride a bike out here he thought you were saying he wasn't man enough to ride that far. In his mind he had it all worked out. His plan was to get dropped off at the gate everyday by his chick, ride the 10 miles to his job, work construction all day and then ride the 10 miles back to gate for his girlfriend to pick him up. He's just strange, man. It's like he thinks he's better than everyone else because he doesn't drive."

Strange puppy. His body was really healthy but his mind was starved for oxygen or something.

1 posted on 05/09/2013 1:57:32 PM PDT by servo1969
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To: servo1969

A self imposed minority screaming for equality in a nation with roads ruled by the ton.


2 posted on 05/09/2013 2:02:37 PM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: servo1969

3,000 pound car vs 30 pound bike. Did we really raise such a stupid generation as this?


3 posted on 05/09/2013 2:03:32 PM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: servo1969
His body was really healthy but his mind was starved for oxygen or something.

Yeah, all of us old people are uselessly sucking up the oxygen he needs for survival. Poor twit.

4 posted on 05/09/2013 2:04:01 PM PDT by HiJinx (Just kill the bill, already...)
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To: servo1969

One of my pet peeves as a driver, are women who insist upon jogging or ‘power walking’ on residential streets, when there are perfectly good sidewalks running down both sides.

Many times, these morons are also pushing a baby carriage or child stroller, which makes what they’re doing the height of stupidity. Not only are they risking their own lives to look ‘cool’, they’re risking the lives of their innocent children.

I can’t tell you how many near misses I had with these people when I used to work in the Hollywood hills and surrounding communities.

You just have to wonder what kind of programming these people have, that would override their common sense and basic survival instincts.


5 posted on 05/09/2013 2:04:11 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: servo1969

Cyclers are not well liked anywhere.


6 posted on 05/09/2013 2:05:36 PM PDT by svcw (If you are dead when your heart stops, why aren't you alive when it starts.)
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To: CodeToad
3,000 pound car vs 30 pound bike. Did we really raise such a stupid generation as this?

So stupid as to believe that bikes weigh only 30lbs? Apparently. :-p

7 posted on 05/09/2013 2:05:58 PM PDT by South40
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To: servo1969

I ride almost daily with people from all walks of life. And I know no one who acts like this. If this really did happen it was the act of one individual, not those who ride as a whole. Attempting to lay blame on an entire group is tantamount to blaming all gun owners for the actions of a few. And I think most here are against that.


8 posted on 05/09/2013 2:08:04 PM PDT by South40
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To: servo1969
One can get an bright yellow LED vest at Walmart.

I had to through Site-to-Store.

But you can set it so the LEDs on all the time or in a flashing mode.

I have used on a bicycle as well as a Motor Bike. I do not want to be run over.

They could have had some sort of very visible thing like this.

9 posted on 05/09/2013 2:08:47 PM PDT by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- which have been proven over time.)
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To: servo1969

I commute 5 miles to work every day on a road bicycle and also ride recreationally on the weekends for exercise.

My first concern is always for my safety, second concern is to be courteous to other road users. For example, while waiting at long stoplights, to avoid blocking right turning cars, I’ll move to the left so they can get past.

Drivers in this area are pretty courteous and mindful of cyclists, probably because there are many of them. I have found that there are some rude, arrogant and dangerous cyclists and rude, arrogant and dangerous car drivers as well.


10 posted on 05/09/2013 2:09:11 PM PDT by barefoot_hiker
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To: svcw

San Diego is a haven for bikers. Most don’t ride this way.


11 posted on 05/09/2013 2:09:17 PM PDT by South40
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To: servo1969
Concord MA, with the national park there and all attracts tons of bikers and joggers. The attitude these people have is astounding. The bikers will oftern ride 3-abreast on the road at 8 miles an hour, elaborately ignoring the car revving behind them. Laying on the horn often doesn't faze them.

A couple years ago a biker shot into an intersection from behind a line of cars at a red light and got obliterated.

12 posted on 05/09/2013 2:10:07 PM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Gone Galt, 11/07/12----No king but Christ! Don't tread on me!)
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To: barefoot_hiker
I commute also, but I bikepool.


13 posted on 05/09/2013 2:11:29 PM PDT by South40
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To: South40

I don’t know about bikers but the nerds riding bicycles, are very annoying in San Diego.


14 posted on 05/09/2013 2:13:26 PM PDT by ansel12 (Sodom and Gomorrah, flush with libertarians and liberals, short on social conservatives.)
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To: topher
No reason for them not to have an LED safety vest...

Link to Walmart product:

LED Safety Vest

Picture below:


15 posted on 05/09/2013 2:13:59 PM PDT by topher (Traditional values -- especially family values -- which have been proven over time.)
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To: servo1969
"Hey buddy, you couldn't kill me. You don't know my strength."

They (bicyclists) all wear super-hero outfits, and I am guessing that the spandex serves to cut off the oxygen to their brains. We have big groups of them who ride on the major thoroughfares around here on weekend mornings. What a bunch of preening prima-donnas!

16 posted on 05/09/2013 2:14:51 PM PDT by tpmintx (Gun free zones are hunting preserves for unarmed people.)
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To: ansel12
I don’t know about bikers but the nerds riding bicycles, are very annoying in San Diego.

lol! There's certainly no shortage of nerds. Then there's the group with the rainbow shirts and flags. I always make a point to not get near them so as to avoid being confused for being one of them.

17 posted on 05/09/2013 2:15:23 PM PDT by South40
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To: cripplecreek; servo1969

They’re always whining about being banned from hiking trails along the NY/NJ border; there are a small number of trails available for them, but I guess the environmentalists have a bigger voice (citing damage to foliage as the reason why they shouldn’t be riding on them). I admire people with the motivation to get/keep themselves healthy with biking, but to think they’ll ever be sharing highways with cars is absurd.


18 posted on 05/09/2013 2:15:27 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd

“The bikers will oftern ride 3-abreast on the road at 8 miles an hour, elaborately ignoring the car revving behind them. Laying on the horn often doesn’t faze them.”

I’ve seen this along some of the highways passing through state parks; the bikers really are foolish, because the car that will hit them will be driven by a drunk illegal that will not stop.


19 posted on 05/09/2013 2:18:47 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: servo1969

I ride recreational all the time. Got hit by a truck 2 yrs ago and can still feel where it hit me. Bikers are generally obnoxious and sanctimonious who ride any way they want.

Pray for America to Wake Up


20 posted on 05/09/2013 2:19:49 PM PDT by bray (Surviving to spite Obama)
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