raria

I've had too many close calls with too many distracted drivers. So after my chrustmas day ride up mt Hamilton im giving up riding on roads and becoming a MUPpet

Anyone else?

I know it sounds drasticbut too many children depend on me.

Leisesturm

I can't say I'm surprised. You've been working up to this ever since your trip over the hood of that car in your neighborhood. I don't know. Why wait? When you quit your job do you finish out the week? Do they let you? Prove your sincerity and swear off the road forever, right now. Not tomorrow, not Christmas. Right now. You know, FWIW, and I'm not saying this to make you feel judged or anything, but my wife depends on me to get her to work every day on our tandem because she is blind. Can you imagine being totally blind and riding on the back of a tandem in some of the gnarliest urban traffic this country has to offer? When it's raining buckets and I suggest she take the bus she just rolls her eyes and says "nice try, get your raingear". What do you think she would do if I told her I was quitting street riding because of the texting and otherwise distracted drivers? She'd kick my six from one end of the house to the other. Guaranteed, your riding conditions are not worse than mine and if my wife can deal, so can you. Oh, I'm sorry, I did say you weren't being judged ... well maybe just a little bit you are. Mmm, maybe a lot.

Myosmith

I don't know you and cannot comment on your specific situation, but I ride in areas ranging from city traffic to very rural roads and wherever I go, there always seems to be a minority of riders complaining about a constant onslaught of near misses, idiot drivers and harrowing misadventures. Yes, there are dangers in the world and you have to be vigilant and proactive to avoid them, but when specific individuals ride the same roads that I do and consistently have many times the close calls, it makes me wonder how much they are contributing to the problem.

MattTheHat 

The exact moment that I no longer feel safe riding on the street, I'll stop riding on the street. I have people in my life who depend on me, and I take that responsibility very seriously. Any can judge me as they see fit.

-Matt

raria

Actually it wasn't that. If that's the worse accident I could have, then I'd happily ride on roads. What trigerred it for me was volunteering over this Christmas at various children charities and seeing the effect of children without parents. It showed me that riding on roads when you have very young kids under five just isn't worth it. When they are teen agers I can see them not not needing me as much (apart from driving them around!) but until then.

As mentioned above, I'm quite lucky but I have gotten more grouchy lately. But in the end, to me, it's not worth it at this point in my life.

You need to better understand what a troll is and more importantly, learn to follow this community's rules on respect and harassment.

raria

I understand your point, but you see I built up a 15.x pound bike recently, see https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...ound-bike.html and I have to see how it climbs and descends. But I don't know any MUPs with thousands of feet of climbing!

I'm going to climb Mt Hamilton and then descend down Quimby road.

JoeyBike

Dude, I'm the poster child for not riding on busy roads anymore. About 2 years now. I rarely miss it. Sold all the road bikes. I stick to trails and MUPs except my work commute which is pretty easy.

Don't expect a ton of encouragement around here though. People are going to tell you that walking stairs in your house or taking a shower is dangerous too. Stuff like that.

Enjoy your Christmas ride! And hey...you can always change your mind later. No crime in that.

livedarklions

No judgment because this is a determination everyone has to make for themselves, and you know your area and can assess your risks better than some random posters on a forum.

Nonetheless, I'm sorry that you feel like you need to do this, and hope you enjoy whatever riding you do.

JoeyBike

No worries. I am a skater at heart anyway. I just shifted my free time to skates and skateboards (longboards) in parks and MUPs. Got 3000+ miles on those combined last year. This year I worked the bikes back into the picture a little and the skating dropped to 1700 miles. Mostly due to weather issues. Bikes work better in bad weather. I am very happy with my activities right now. Not missing the highway stress at all.

Cheers.

Daniel4

I'm the opposite. From where I live to where I go in downtown Toronto is 18km. I used to always take the MUPs until I would reach the network of bike lanes downtown.

Now I ride on the streets from my home to the network of downtown bike lanes. The switch saves me 15 minutes. I would be able to play leap frog with a bus about 1/3rd of the way before we depart our separate ways. Car traffic isn't that heavy and they would have to slow down or stop for the bus anyways.

JoeyBike

If I run late on my commute I get the bus leap-frog as well. Going to work, bus has no chance. Coming home...it's a lot more work staying ahead of it. Takes more time to board and get seated in the morning than to just jump off the bus at a bus stop on the way home.

Korina

Only four(ish) more years until I can get off my unpleasant highway/freeway commute. We should know by the end of the month if we've been given the money the county applied for to finish the Humboldt Bay Trail. ::crosses fingers::

To the OP, good on you for knowing your limits. Ride your own ride.

B. Carfree

I'm not convinced the "safety in numbers" hypothesis holds much water, but losing cyclists makes me sad even if it doesn't affect me. I can't really judge without being a hypocrite since I have decreased the number of roads I'm willing to ride on and the times of day that I'll be there. (I used to be like Joey of old: any road, any time, any load, though our riding styles were worlds apart.) I make my own work schedule, both for time of day and amount of time, so it doesn't change the amount I ride much to restrict my locations other than my annual "no December" rule, which is entirely based on motorist behavior. (Not that it matters much this year since I'm down with post-surgery banishment from my bikes for another ten days.)

I don't know if it's possible, but perhaps a bit of contact with your local roads department (traffic engineers, transportation planners) or even elected officials who have expressed an understanding of the need to get cars off the road could help improve conditions over time. Often, these people have no idea that the way they are doing things is putting people back into cars.

Maelochs

I don’t think it has anything to do with what others expect or how people "depend” on a person—death could come at any time anyway.

Simply, if cycling on the street feels unsafe, it is stupid to do. If it a source of stress and fear, it is stupid to do. Just like there are obstacles only some folks can ride—some folks can launch off a mountain 2000 feet up, sail sixty feet, land on a 3-foot-by ten-foot tabletop and sail off the edge to drop another 30 feet to a fully exposed two-foot-wide ridge-top trail … and do that stuff all day long. The Pacific Northwest MTB riders (some of them) think nothing of riding 2x6 planks 20 feet in the air

I simply Could Not do that stuff. Too scary, and I know the fear would lower my performance threshold and make failure even More likely.

No different for someone who rolls into traffic and hears that voice in the head (or that clench in the gut) say, “This is not worth the risk.” No judgment for real—except to say that unless you are an adrenaline junky, deliberately doing things you find to be too dangerous to justify based on the enjoyment or other feedback is, literally, crazy.

Doing it to please others or to ”prove” something to others is crazy and immature.

If the road is no longer rewarding, why ride it?

Maybe if your wife could See the stuff you were dragging her through she’d kick your six from one end of the house to the other.

Anyway, your wife is exceedingly unusual. I am sure you realize how blessed you are to be with someone with that kind of will … and beside, she makes sure you ride every day. You are a very lucky man (and she is lucky to be with you.)

That all has Zero to do with some other person’s situation. Each of us has to live each of our lives and trying to live another person’s life is futile and stupid.

Judging another person for being smart enough to be honest is pretty much you being wrong twice—ridiculing a person for those actions is the hat trick, the trifecta—and the third strike. You win at losing.

@Leisesturm, you might be willing to face traffic—as am I—but we both draw a line at some level of daredevil, death-defying stunt—there is some stuff we just won’t do, no matter who else might. You have your limits, I have mine. A wise many recognizes his limitations—not as an acknowledgement of weakness, but as an application of reason. The wise man then puts his energy into profitable, rewarding directions.

You, and I, and everyone here reading this … we all know all this. It is just that it is easy to play one-up on the internet. It is easy to subtly demean a person for making what, if we were honest and if we framed the question fairly, we would call a wise choice.

You admit that you are “judging” @raria a lot. What you mean is that you are criticizing him a lot. But what you are criticizing him for—is Not Being You.

It makes as much sense to criticize you for not being Raria, or for me to criticize both of us for not being me.

And so far as the “big balls” person in this story—your own wife shames you. You admit you would wimp out but for your fear of her.

Anyway—once we get out of high school—or college for the frat boys—we are supposed to get past that "quién es más macho" thing and start thinking with our big heads.

@raria: I do not second your choice, but I know riders—good people, strong people—who do.

My only questions is about your choice of holidays.

I cannot say that “chrustmas” sounds like something I would want to celebrate.


Oh, and @Leisesturm .... thank you very much for sharing the story about you and your blind wife on the tandem. That image is going to bring me joy for quite a while, I do believe. Tell her some mouthy jerk on the internet thinks she is fantastic and phenomenal.

mr_bill

Leisesturm

I wonder how the Chrustmas Day ride turned out. Wow, you must really have been into the Bailey's Irish Cream last night. I felt at turns praised and braised. Today I am wearing stripes. You did not leave a single existential stone unturned in that outpouring, and if you are correct about anything it is about the fact that feeling indispensable or valuable is a luxury no human being can afford. That is really what I was judging Raria for. Becoming a MUPpet in order to remain a presence in your children's lives only to throw a clot a week later ... it seemed unkind to remind someone of their indisputable human frailty so close to Christmas so I leaned on the also (IMO) relevant angle about how the very same dangers that appear so threatening to one person are simply speed bumps to be tolerated, by someone else.

Maelochs

I don't have time to read this/watch this now, but I think this is @raria's last road ride. https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...h-me-luck.html

I-Like-To-Bike

Extract from that post by the fellow oh so concerned about his safety and "the children" .
"I hope to hit 50+ mph just to see what it feels like."

mcours2006

lol. I thought that was odd as well when I read that thread...I wonder if he'll be doing it on his 16-lb sub $700 build.

Rollfast

More likely to have a coronary huffing and puffing going up the hill after that. When you lose the battle with inertia from zooming down it's murder.

CliffordK

No kids here, but I'm at a point in my life where I'm at greater risk to die from a heart attack or diabetes from not getting enough exercise rather than getting hit on the road.

I put on a lot of miles this year so far. A few close passes. Perhaps too many. But, I wouldn't get anywhere without riding on roads and road shoulders.

Lots of courteous drivers too.

Arthur Peabody

I live in the most-dangerous for bicycles city in the US, Albuquerque, and feel safe on the roads because I stay off busy roads, cross where there's a light when there's traffic, and keep an eye out for motorists. It's not always the shortest route but it is the most pleasant.

Rollfast