Fasteryoufool

Ok, there are a few rants here (all bike related) so stop if you're not interested.

First off, the economy - I'm not going to play the blame game, but it sucks. Especially if you're out of work, which I am. I went riding today - I bicycle everywhere - to a bunch of different temp agencies to register and try to find SOME kind of employment. Guess what? Not a single place I went to had a bike rack. Not one. Seriously?! You've paid for and are maintaining an office building and you can't put in a single bike rack?!

Then I stopped for lunch. Went to a fast food(ish) place. I don't normally eat fast food, it's generally foul and I don't feel well afterward, but I was hungry and it was there. Guess what? No effing bike rack.

Oh yeah, the food was horrible and sat in my stomach like a brick. Still is.

Prius drivers. If you're on here and a Prius driver, you're excepted until proven otherwise, simply because you probably "get" it. But Prius drivers seem to be the most smug a******s on the road except perhaps Volvo drivers. I heard one yelling at a large truck today. Something about "gas hog" and "wasting resources" or some schtuff like that. The truck was obviously a well-used work vehicle, not some road queen that was being misused as a commuter... but anyhow, I got to stop at the next light next the smug jackass in the Prius who thankfully had an open window. I sat there next to him on my recycled bicycle and said "Feeling pretty "green" are you? My $40 bicycle will conserve far more fuel than your $30,000 car." His head whipped around and took in my 25+ year old Schwinn, then he faced front and pretended to ignore me, but I could see him blush.

Thanks for listening, if you did.

[/rant]

m750rider

I did listen - great. Thanks for the story.

In fact I forwarded your rants on to my son, also living in the Bay area, also un/underemployed, no car, gets around on a bike.

Hope it turns around for both of you soon.

Chombi

+1 about Prius drivers. A lot of them seem to find it a good excuse that their vehicles use less gas so they speed like crazy on the freeways, always seeming to need to be at the head of the pack all the time. I see the same with Smart car owners. What's the point of having a "green" car if you will be a leadfoot on the roads. I would even see them as a danger to the public as these cars do not handle particularly well with their heavy batteries and small narrow section wheels and tires.

Chombi

cudak888 

Ahem - shouldn't this be in A&S?

-Kurt

Fasteryoufool

The weird thing is, it's not hybrid drivers in general, it's specifically Prius drivers. The folks I see driving a hybrid Ford Fusion or Toyota Camry seem not to be ******bags, in general.

I hadn't really noticed with the Smart Car, but I'll pay more attention to them now and see if I can confirm.

I can't say ******bag? Apparently not.

Maddox

I empathize strongly with your initial statements - about joblessness being the worst, America being way behind the global curve on the bike rack issue, and American fast food being the pits.

I also hate to join the chorus of people who have probably told you to "keep your chin up", but don't get down on yourself. I have several close, qualified friends who deserve good jobs but can't find work because of the economy. It's not their fault, just as it's likely not yours.

I only say that to encourage you to not get down on yourself, and to keep on keepin' on.

And as for your statement about self-righteous Prius owners, you're right on. Not to mention that buying a new car is always more wasteful than keeping your clunker clean and running. Half of the environmental impact of a vehicle comes from it's production and shipping/freight of the finished car. Cleaning up and riding a 20 year old bike into the ground is one of the most "sustainable" ways for someone to get from here to there.

Good on ya, mate, and I'll be praying that things improve for you on the job front.

JunkYardBike

So you're saying I shouldn't buy a Prius?

Fasteryoufool

With a name like 'JunkYardBike', you could get away with it in my book... but only if you didn't junk/sell a perfectly good car to get it. My Sister-In-Law did that. Says she did it to save money. I was like... really?! You traded in a new-ish but paid-for Subaru so you get to make $400/month payments on a new Prius and you think you're SAVING money?!

I swear, people can't do simple math. If you were paying $800/month for fuel and now you're paying $400... say if you WERE driving a Camaro and gave it up for a Prius... no wait, that doesn't work. The Camaro gets in the high 20's. More than half the mileage of the Prius. Hmmm...

Ok, if you were driving an F350 Super Duty with duallies and the 6.8L V-10, and traded it in on a Prius, and theoretically saved $400 a month in fuel (that'd still be a heck of a commute) you're STILL not being particularly environmentally friendly, as Maddox pointed out, a large part of the environmental impact of a car is the manufacturing of it.

cudak888 

How about when all those sealed motor + axle units fail on those Priuses? $15,000 a pop for a replacement.

-Kurt

esmith2039

My rant Saturday would of been Smart cars.. or not so Smart cars. Seriously they had a 100+ car parade... come on. My $500 Festiva gets about the same mileage carries and hauls twice what a smart car would. And their no faster and that's in my automatic. I guess different strokes for different folks?

Fasteryoufool

Yeah, that's one thing that makes me want to either laugh or cry... Compare the EPA fuel rating for a 1990 Geo Metro LSi to that of a new Prius. They're pretty identical. The difference is mostly in safety regulations and smog control, new cars have much more stringent laws for both. But it's kind of silly. Driving a car is inherently dangerous, as is riding a bicycle or skydiving, and cars are not the major contributor to environmental pollution, heavy industry is.

I-Like-To-Bike

Why? Nothing here about safety or advocacy. It is what the OP claims - Ranting and Raving.

Since the OP claims to be car free he may find a higher percentage of sympathetic comrades then P&R or Foo which is probably where this mindless drivel really belongs.

travelmama

I am nearly about to piss my pants at this thread because it is not only funny but dead on. There are three cars between my father and I yet we share one. The other two are older and run but we don't need to drive them so they are sitting around because they are not worth selling. I tend to ride my bike because I like to not because I have to. It does bother me when I go out to run errands and there are no bike parking racks. Home Depot is a perfect example. I go in for one small item and have to park my bike in the shopping cart drop off zone with the hope that no one will ram a cart into it. Oddly enough, if I am there buying something large enough that I can carry on my utility bike, I get a lot of cheers from men in big trucks.
Supermarkets are just as bad. Around here, the bike racks are on the side of the store where there is little or no lighting. Shouldn't bikes get handicap priority parking too?
Long Beach is becoming more and more bike friendly but people in cars are not getting it because they don't have to. I have yet to be run off the road but people still honk at me if they are too chicken to go around me. I have seen more and more bike racks but still few are riding because there is little or no education behind street riding. People don't feel safe or confident enough to take the road. Slowly but surely things will change.

Fasteryoufool

I am car-free, but my family is not. My girlfriend has and uses her car, despite my entreaties to do without. *shrug* I'm not trying to change the world, just make my corner of it a little better than it was.

Roody

I'll give you a little counter-rant, Faster. (Or should I call you Mr. Fool?) I don't hate Priuses more than any other car, but we don't have many of them here in Michigan. I do know what you mean about self-righteous greenies and sometimes they get my goat too. (Of course one poster here has called me that many times, and usually tacks on something about my high horse.) I wish more places had bike racks, but I've learned to get by without them. As for fast food, I like it. For me, eating it only once a month keeps it tasting good, and an hour long bike ride helps to lighten the heavy feeling that you were talking about.

Unemployment has been bad here too. I hope they keep on giving the extensions until the rate has dropped a lot. You're lucky to be carfree. A lot of people are having trouble keeping the repo man away when they lose their job.

Welcome to the carfree forum. You have a cool Will Rogers style about you.

Fasteryoufool

Most people (on other forums) call me Faster or FYF.

I didn't consciously stop eating fast food, I just sort of drifted away from it. I prefer to eat at home. After a while, I was in a pinch, ate at one of the major national chains, and felt horrible for hours afterward.

Pretty much the same thing happened with soda. I just sort of... fell out of the habit of drinking it. Tried a Coke a couple of weeks ago, it just tasted weird.

But I still love my coffee and beer.

Thanks for the welcome.

bragi

I've had more conflicts with Prius drivers than with any other type of car, including SUVs and pickups.

Roody

That's weird. Do you think it's becaus you can't hear them coming from behind you?

bragi

No, I think it's because some Prius drivers are smug, entitled rich, wanna-be "liberal/green" *******s who, when push comes to shove, are actually just entitled rich *******s who get pissed off when a bicyclist, or anyone else, gets in their way.

Fasteryoufool

I-Like-To-Bike

Another possibility is that some cycling ascetics are smug, "liberal/green" *******s who do not feel they get enough credit for their world saving accomplishments and resent anyone else trying to wear a green halo.

Bike-a-Boo

I'll jump in as a Smartcar owner. My family is carlite and we wanted to make sure that when we drive a car, it's the best choice (that we can afford). We walk, ride our bikes, take transit, and husband even rollerskates for errands. When we drive the car, we're obviously aware of and courteous to users of other modes of travel. I haven't had any unpleasant encounters with Smart or Prius drivers, no matter how I happen to be travelling.

rhm

I'm not a big fan of hybrids, just because, well, it's still a car, y'know? It seems to me that more fuel can be saved by driving less, than by driving a different car.

That said, I can't say I've noticed Prius drivers being any different from others. Where I live, every third car is a Volvo station wagon anyway, so it's hard to tell any difference for adding a few Prii to the mix .

Hmm, Prii doesn't look right. Anyone here know enough pseudo-Latin to tell me the plural of Prius?

Ekdog

"Prius" is not a verb but a Latin comparative adjective or adverb, the neuter nominative singular form of the adjective whose corresponding masculine and feminine nominative singular forms are prior[89] (see also Latin declension - Irregular adverbs and their comparative and superlative forms) with meanings "ahead, in front, leading; previous, earlier, preceding, prior; former; basic".[90]
A Toyota spokesperson stated that "Toyota chose this name because the Prius vehicle is the predecessor of cars to come."[91]
Some enthusiasts enjoy using "Prii" as the plural, which would be correct if "prius" were a regular second declension Latin noun. The actual Latin plural of the adjective is "priora" (Reference [91] is slightly in error here). All of these forms are nominative case and there are several other forms for the other cases. As for the plural of "Prius" in English, Toyota has said that it is simply "Prius" and also that owners are welcome to use whatever they like.[92]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius

rhm

Ekdog, thank you! That is very informative. I will haughtily use Priora in future references to these vehicles, and if anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about, @#$% 'em. Since nouns used in English don't decline, the nominative form will do nicely.