nel e nel

It’s always been a pejorative for uneducated rural folks. Union coal miners adopted it for a very short period of time because they wore red neckerchiefs. Uninformed conservatives like to try and use it as a gotcha against liberals to try and paint them as anti-union.

Phil_gretz

Imagine that. The OP gives a trolling rant about harassment, lumps the perps into a group for easy targeting, and then spurs us to argue with one another about who the boogie man really is. How'd that work out?

Next time, don't take the bait. We've met the bad guy, and he is us.

pdlamb

Knee jerk: No I'm not!

After a moment's thought: good summary.

GBK233

Trolling rant??? I posted because of a couple idiots being idiots while I was riding.

I have never ridden the roads on a bicycle, so was just curious to see if others have been bothered while riding....or I’ve just had a spate of bad luck.

tomato coupe

What happens when you encounter another cyclist riding in the opposite direction? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Troul 

bout to mount me one of these bad mammajammas! Get ready world, I'm soon to be prepared for getting loud back!

cjenrick

yesterday a cyclist was coming my way in the bike lane near a tent city, i don't blame him for ignoring bike laws, least of his worries, so i checked the lane next to me to see if i could borrow it for a while as he passed. the lane was clear, i went out for a while, an SUV swerved from the lane next to me and came about a foot from me, obviously saying that he did not like cyclists hogging the road, even if he did have his own lane.

i caught him at the light and did nothing. he is spiritually sick, there is probably a reason for this, so i said a prayer for the poor sob and moved on. incident over, i have no resentment, i can enjoy my ride without guilt of hassling someone, without a physical confrontation, jail time, a law suit, bad karma, broken knuckles, a hospital bill,

don't let something freeze you in time .. my mind is occupied. no vacancy for outside BS.

got an unfair traffic ticket one time. made a court appointment. fought the case and won. but for 2 months, all that was on my mind was that stupid cop who tried to frame me. i could have been thinking about a million other nice things, but i choose to let myself be occupied with negative energy. i will never get those two months back, they are gone forever.

so our motto? cease fighting anyone or anything. that includes myself.

i remember once, after being tailgated real close, that i was gonna train every driver in the bay area with a brake check if they tailgate. let's see, how many drivers are there in the bay area, about 8 million? at 3 brake checks a day that will only take me 7,326 years. but i have to prove my point, what will my ego think of me?

Mark Dominck

I agree with rydabent find a more bike friendly place to ride. I have a nice place close to home but I drive my car 30 minutes with my bike in the back to a much more suitable place it's much more enjoyable for me and definitely safer. make it easier on yourself.

cbrstar

Same thing when super fast cyclists come up on really slow cyclists traveling in the same direction. One pulls over and lets the other pass. Except on a Highway you will see them coming from miles away so there will be no surprises.

tomato coupe

Who in the heck does that?

rsbob 

your wife was more right. Better to give a little extra room than too little. Besides the yellow line is not made of gold. Now tell her she has ally on the board.

rsbob 

Get a bike rack and drive your bike to a nice safe place to ride. A minor inconvenience for your sanity and possibly avoiding a prison sentence for assault.

downhillmaster

So cringeworthy

downhillmaster

We get it OP.
You know nothing about riding on the road

rydabent

Still funny how some people have prostituted the word for their own use.

Trek6500

I've been slapped in the ass once, run off the road and hit once with a hospital stay. Since then, I hardly ride. But when I do, I am hugging the curb and always share the road. That said, where I live, I find that the Senior Citizen Tour de' Bergen County peloton riders to be the most hoggish, "I'm not sharing the road" riders I've ever seen. I've come across them entirely blocking 2 lanes on a 4 lane road. I think both cyclists and motor vehicles need to learn to share the road and be courteous towards one another.

AlanO

My friend was killed by being struck by a truck mirror. Don’t mess around.

Phil_gretz

^ was this negligence, or vehicular assault? Were charges filed? This is the worst possible scenario...

Ed333

You mentioned a bicycle painted on the roadway...is that a sharrow, meaning bikes may take the full lane? Do you have that in NY? Also , we have a state law in Maine, motor vehicles passing a cyclist or pedestrian must give them minimum 3' clearance, and it is ok to cross center line to do so. If unable to cross center line because of oncoming motor vehicles, the motorist is supposed to slow and wait until it is safe to do so. Do you have such a law? If so, the mirror incident should be reported to police. I never got a helmet camera, but I can see the utility in having one.

mirfi

Life in Baltimore, Maryland

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/teen-...case/20088958#

Robert Ponsi was murdered, two teens were "sentenced" to a total of eight years. Currently all are back on the streets.

To hear that one of my cyclist friends has been beaten and robbed is getting almost commonplace.

AlanO

The driver, an ex cop driving a large truck, was charged with negligent homicide but acquitted by a jury. His attorney argued that my friend could have veered into him despite witnesses to the contrary. He was the safest cyclist I’ve known as well as an all-around decent human being.

gios

I ignore the mouth breathing four wheelers. Ne need to feed the road rage.

drsmoooth

I was in a group ride and we were on the bike trail about 18ft from the road. A car drives by and throws a water bottle at us. There are some very unhappy people out there.

RidesaCarlton

The city I live in has some peculiar ideas about bike lanes. In the centre of downtown, there is a road, that has also been labled as a bus or bicycle only road. OK, I rode it a few times. There is only room of one bus, or one bike. They can't pass without going into the opposite direction lane. A bus decided to be ignorant. Two can do that, and I just moved into the centre of the lane, and continued at 8 MPH (Mountain bike). He followed me about 6 inches from my back tire for about 3 blocks. I decided I didn't care. Being ignorant is no fun, even when I'm in the right. I now avoid that road because regular traffic is safer.

drlogik 

Quite frankly, we have it good today. When I started riding back in 1975, us riders frequently had bottles, cans and other trash thrown at us. Not out of malice but just thinking it's funny. We got pushed off the road and one time for me, I got run off a bridge and fell 10 feet down into a creek. I road home soaking wet when it was in the 40's. No cell phone to call home and no payphone to make a call in the countryside.

There were no bikes lanes, at least not in any place I lived in back then. There wasn't the proliferation of riders either. So a motorist seeing a cyclist out on a country road was a rarity, at least where I lived.

My opinion on the situation today centers around one main issue: We are our own problem.

There are a few riders that ride my same route who routinely run red lights, stop signs, fail to yield and take up an entire lane at rush hour. Who does this?

There are a lot of advocate riders out there that do amazing things to increase awareness of cyclists and roads. Those efforts are thwarted by riders that intentionally provoke motorists.

Many will disagree with me and some will attack what I am saying. That's your right. BUT, don't complain if a motorist acts like a jackass to you and you're one of the riders that run red lights, stop signs and take up an entire lane during rush hour. You're part of the problem, not part of the solution....if this applies to you.

To minimize bad encounters with motorists, I ride routes that have a bike lane, wide shoulder or a dedicate center lane for turning. I stop at stop lights. If there is no traffic at all, I'll cautiously proceed. If it's a stop sign, same deal. I don't cruise through one unless there is no traffic.

I commuted to work for about three years in Phoenix Arizona and never had a problem abiding by those few rules. If I got off work late and hit peak traffic, heck I'd ride a different route or ride the sidewalk. I only once had an encounter with a motorist but he truly didn't see me and apologized.



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