Ready to defend bike paths (erstwhile Freeper on the lunatic fringe here)

The Eugene Red Guard ^ | Mar. 2. 2003 | MICHAEL J. McCARTHY

[Clinging Bitterly]

Ready to defend bike paths

If the Segway electric scooter, two-cycle engine-powered skateboards and other machines ridden by able-bodied people are allowed access to the bike path system, it is a step onto the slippery slope of destruction. The paths should be for human-powered travel only, unless one cannot use one's legs normally.

I have watched foolish hot-rodders weave hazardously through a heavy weekend load of bike riders and strollers. They naturally assume they are the preferred users of the paths, much in the same foolish way that those in automobiles regularly harass and bully bicycles on regular city streets. I will not suffer this invasion quietly. I will impede, block and express my disenchantment to anyone too lazy to enjoy the use of the best vehicle on the road system, the bicycle.

We need to defend our right to enjoy clean, quiet and safe travel on our hard-won paths, which are designed to be free of dangerous vehicles. If the powers that be do not listen, I invite those who do not welcome this perverse invasion of our bike paths to join me in civil disobedience to defend them. It is time to revisit monthly Critical Mass bicycle rides and to extend this effort to establish our presence on roads we have a right to and to extend the effort to keeping our precious bike path system safe for modes of transportation that rely on human power only.

MICHAEL J. McCARTHY

Eugene

[Clinging Bitterly]

I found this gem in today's local rag. It's of interest here because the author is a semi regular FR banee, first known as Ferret, then other names over the years. I've known this character for all of my adult life, and consider him a friend, but I'm not afraid to call him on his goofiness.

His worship of bicycles is fairly well known around town, but he's better known for his adventures (and a near fatal misadventure) in some of the local trees.

On the subject of Segeways and other small motorized vehicles on the town's "bike paths", I don't have a problem. The trails are numerous around here and plenty wide, and paid for by all (and especially highway funds). Sidewalks would be another matter, but on our "bike paths", I'm in disagreement with my friend Mike. I say open 'em up.

[Willie Green]

Sounds like a good issue to just let him rant.
It'll keep him occupied and away from more serious matters.

[Bob Mc]

Typical, people who want to control other people for their advantage, defending it as a their "right" to this or that. People who often call themselves conservatives.

Next he will want government to "pass a law" to protect his so called "right" to a bicycle path. No wonder the American experiment is failing. To many spoiled brats can't have it their way, so they cry to the Nanny state.

"I need a right to a smoke free restaurant", "I need a right to free healthcare", "I need a right to a living wage". I this, I that.

A real American would see this as an opportunity. If so many bicyclists are as enthusiastic as this fellow, he could easily buy up some property and charge membership to the group for exclusive bicycling rights, with legal binding contracts.

[jimtorr]

Aahhh, the precious bike paths, where it is sometimes unsafe to walk. Cyclists frequently ride at high speed, weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic, of the opinion that all other modes of transport should be banned, including feet.

I grew up in Eugene, in the far west of the city, the Bethel-Danebo area, and had never seen many bicycles on the paths. When I used to use them I was the only person on two wheels. There were more joggers than bikers, and even I did more running than biking.

Does Eugene still have the most bike-path miles of any city on the west coast? It is nice that many of the traffic bottlenecks can be bypassed on two wheels, but I would never assume that I owned the road.

[Clinging Bitterly]

This thing he refers to as "critical mass" isn't something you'd want to get caught up in. They gather a couple hundred bicycle fanatics and they pick a high traffic street at rush hour and they block it. Gets ugly, people can get killed.

Dave in Eugene

[bigfootbob]

"On the subject of Segeways and other small motorized vehicles on the town's "bike paths", I don't have a problem. The trails are numerous around here and plenty wide, and paid for by all (and especially highway funds). Sidewalks would be another matter,..."

The Segeway lobbyist was successful opening Washington States sidewalks to the Segeway. Let the gross negligence lawsuits begin.

[EggsAckley]

Ah, a Critical Mass-hole. We just LOVE them down here.

NOT!

[The Shootist]

A Segway has a "foot-print" of a standing, or walking person. It makes little or no noise. It travels slower than a healthy pre-teen's bicycle. How could it possibly pose any more hazard than another bike?

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..and consider him a friend, but I'm not afraid to call him on his goofiness...

That's exactly my attitude towards him, too!

Thanks,for your post, Dave. It's amazing, how many of you Friends Of Ferret Since Boyhood have made your way to FR, over the years. As to his letter, who wants a Segway when they could have a Go-Ped? Cheers, By.

[dalereed]

"and consider him a friend, but I'm not afraid to call him on his goofiness..."

I miss Ferret also but not as a friend, I used to enjoy harassing the tree hugging wierdo.

[Clinging Bitterly]

>> I grew up in Eugene, in the far west of the city, the Bethel-Danebo area...

How long ago? That's the area I'm in, about a block off of Echo Hollow Road. I bought my place in '87, and this was about the edge of town then. It has built up a lot since then, Echo Hollow has way too much traffic (I'm glad I'm a block back, and my front door is set back from my street 120 feet). There's a real interchange at Beltline & Barger, and Beltline now overpasses Royal with no access. A second shopping center has been built on the North side of Barger at Echo Hollow & Barger, and a new shopping center has been built at Royal & Danebo.

And exactly zero new miles of bike paths that I would say actually serve this neighborhood.

But yeah, Eugene bike paths remain legendary, even though there has been no useful expansion in 20 years (there is a nice new section about a mile south of me - runs along the Amazon channel from near West 11th, & Bertelsen, going west to the middle of nowhere).

Dave in Eugene

[Khurkris]

Spandex wearing bike riders should have a bounty on their a**. I live on Pacific Coast Highway and they are a meanace. Bastards!

[BlazingArizona]

His worship of bicycles is fairly well known around town, but he's better known for his adventures (and a near fatal misadventure) in some of the local trees.

"They came for the Segway riders but I did nothing, because I don't have a Segway..."

However, I am a skater. There have been cyclists who have tried to keep us off "their" trails, too.

[Clinging Bitterly]

>> It's amazing, how many of you Friends Of Ferret Since Boyhood have made your way to FR...

How many are there? I first met him through a mutual friend, when I was 18. There are no others, that I know of, from the crowd we hung out with back then of FR (except for my twin sister).

Go-Ped, heard about them, do you have one?
I have a fairly short commute, but longer than I want to walk or bike. Being one of those real Americans, I wouldn't be caught dead driving to work on something that didn't have it's own motor.

Dave in Eugene

[dhuffman@awod.com]

They can't stop as well as they can go, for one thing. For another, I believe that they weigh more than a bike. They're a solution in search of a problem and a product in search of a market. Ride a bike.

[Freedom4US]

much in the same foolish way that those in automobiles regularly harass and bully bicycles on regular city streets.

Look, I like bikes as much as the next guy, but let's face reality. The roads are designed and set-up for motorized traffic and a bike/car collision generally leaves the biker on the deficit side of the equation.

[Clinging Bitterly]

>> I am a skater

We get some of that around here too, but the blacktop portions of the "bike paths" get a bit rough for the small wheels, so you see 'em mostly on the concrete surfaces within the developed parks. Yeah, I've seen them collide with one another, but what's more fun is when some stoner or bluehair mistakes the bike paths for streets (even though they have to drive around some sort of a barricade) and drives their car on them. Tends to clear everybody elso out real good.

Dave in Eugene

[jimtorr]

Wow!! What a coincidence! I lived off of Echo Hollow Road, on Avalon Ave., for fifteen years! My parents sold their house in 1978 and moved to a 'mobile' home in the Candlewood Old Folks Park, up the street from Danebo E.M. I enlisted in the USAF in 1981, and have spent little time in Eugene since.

I haven't been back to West Eugene, except to drive thru to see the old neighborhoods since my mother sold the 'trailer' in 1999. She lives in Yapoa Terrace now.

There were few useful bike paths in W. Eugene the last time I used any in 1981. The one you mention, and the one along the Roosevelt Expressway were both built since 1981, but those are the only new one's I'm aware of.

There is another freeper living on Fifth Avenue, near Willamette St., with a view of Yapoah Terrace when he steps around the corner of his house. I don't recall his handle, but he was very helpful when that freak wind passed thru Eugene a few years ago. I wonder if that was "the freeper who was once named ferret" under one of his other handles?

I respect the man for his consistency and reported advocacy of non-violence, but he was part of the crowd who made Eugene the political and cultural sink-hole that it is today.

[Clinging Bitterly]

>>...a bike/car collision generally leaves the biker on the deficit side of the equation.

Yup.
But McCarthy is one of those kind of bike riders that will purposely ride in the middle of the traffic lane, even where an adequate shoulder bike lane exists. Dumb. It's got him clobbered a couple of times that I know of.

Dave in Eugene

[uncbob]

I am an avid bike rider but far too many of them are snob elite types who think they are somebody special