JohnV

Why are we all so hostile. Listen, I am an ex-smoker, and cycling was the reason I quit. Could'nt climb at all, no wind and I smoked only 5 cigarettes a day. I hate smoking, but as I get older, I am learning more about being civil to my fellow humans and trying to be a little tollerant even though it does get to me sometimes. I don't know what I would have done. Touching the guys discarded but would not have been among the choices that I pondered. Too squimish. I would not smash the guy in the teeth with my bike chain and lock either. Maybe vomiting on the guys hood? That would have made an impression.
I have a friend who is into magic. He has this illusion that gives him the ability to shoot flames out of his finger tips. He rides to work ready to shoot these flames at any time. He's done it a few times in lue of shooting someone the bird. He is a cartoonist in South Africa and he tells me it is quite effective.

michaelnel

Isn't it great to have someone to gang up on?

I smoke. I know it's dumb.

However, I do try to be considerate about it. I don't smoke around other people. I don't throw butts on the ground.

OK, you folks can all hate *me* now. I don't care.

budster

Hey, now! I'm a former smoker myself, and I don't consider myself a "smoka hata."

Throwing the butt out the window was the offensive thing. Not only was it littering, but do you want to get hit with a smoldering cigarette butt while cycling? Not I, thanks. One additional reason cig butt littering is offensive is that it causes fires, probably responsible for more man-made fires than arson.

I guess I am a litta hata and a jerk hata!

And JohnV -- if your friend teaches you the flame-shooting trick, do share, OK? That sounds seriously cool.

Camel

Nicely done!

-From a 2ppd smoker, who doesn't litter...

Hiker16

Smoking a cigarette while riding a bike is kind of like living next to a nuclear power plant. You get cancer and treatment all at the same time.

FLBandit

Ditto, that would be COOL!

michaelnel

I want to be able to do what that kid in Star Trek could do. Just be able to make people "go away".

cabaray

Gosh I'm just not that impressed either. Did he intentionally throw the butt at you to elicit such a strong reaction? Or is it because he's a leper and by golly we are going to treat him like one. I mean if he threw out a gum wrapper would you have done the same thing? No one can defend smoking or littering nowadays but that's not the point. We as cyclists are constantly made to feel like second class citizens and we rally against it. You made your point though, he's a smoker and therefore you can reprimand for that, right?. I just wonder how many drivers out there have absolutely no compassion for us, but that doesn't make it right. Choose your battles well.

EXCALIBUR

It's amazing that smokers think nothing about flicking cigarette butts out of their cars onto the roadways.

ellenDSD

I'm a smoker who doesn't smoke right now. I kind of look at the habit as a choice one makes because they enjoy it so I won't go into all the 'why-you-shouldn'ts' - all things in moderation is my motto (barring, of course, illegal drug use). That being said, I hate people who don't dispose of their cigarretts appropriately. People who shamelessly litter like that just don't deserve my respect (so you see, smoking has nothing with it. It's the conduct!). So, I think I'd have been enjoying a good laugh at the "butt under the windshield wipers" incident myself. Probably would have fallen off my bicycle from laughing so hard

Ashen

Misinformation like that is why we still burn coal in so much of the country. Hope you lack black lungs.

ItsJustMe

Ditto. I'd rather have 10 nuke plants within 20 miles than one coal plant 100 miles away. Coal plants are ecological disasters. Nuke plants only generate waste because our government is too timid to license them to run properly.

I grew up with 2 nuke plants within 20 miles.

mike

If you indeed do not smoke around other people and you don't throw butts on the ground or out your car window, you are a very unusual smoker.

Almost without exception, smokers are filthy and inconsiderate with their addiction and the refuse they produce.

CHUM

Easy there turbo...that's a fairly harsh assesment I have to respectfully disagree.

Both smokers & non-smokers can be equally filthy & inconsiderate (albeit the act of smoking can be deemed "filthy"). To lump a large (but shrinking) chunk of our population as above stated "filthy & inconsiderate" IMO is irresposible banter at best and shows the limits of your personal tolerance.

I'll bet that you have had friends/family in the past/present who were/are smokers

Just my .02

Gusboh

Sounds like whole countries to me.

But that wouldn't go down well would it...

unkchunk

One thing that suprised me after quiting smoking was to find out how many of the people who hasseled me about my smoking were closet smokers themselves. I never knew it when I smoked 1 1/2 packs a day. After I quit, I can tell if a person smokes when the walk in the room. Anyways, add another person to the list of people who quit by cycling. Actually I think I never quit, just swapped smokes for a bike.

recursive

There is one other thing that matters. Doing something about littering smokers. That and the smug part.

Cyclaholic

I have a 30 a day habit.....

30 miles, that is


I'm amazed that something so incredibly unhealthy, polluting, and expensive, with absolutely *NO* benefit to the individual or society is even legal considering how addictive it is. Smoking should be banned.

mike

Well, you are correct that I am intolerant of smoking. And YES, I do have friends/family in my past and present who were/are smokers. They were/are filthy and inconsiderate with their smoking. The filthy practices of smokers have not changed in the past twenty years and today's young smokers are no more considerate than the old smokers they are replacing.

I don't have to be politically correct or tolerant and "all accepting" of people who choose to smoke. Without prejudice to race, sex, age, or religion, smokers STINK! Smokers weren't born with the addiction. They choose the addiction despite all the coughing, rejection, and protest their bodies scream at them when they start smoking.

I don't like being in a room or car when a smoker walks in from just smoking outside. They still stink horribly and gag the people around them. I don't like walking through a gauntlet of smokers who stand outside entrances to buildings and smoke.

Smokers throw their cigarette butts all over the streets, park lawns, beaches, etcetera as if butts were THE acceptable litter. How often do you see a smoker carry their own cigarette trash until there is an available trash can? Maybe a few rare individuals do, but most toss their trash right where they stand.

So, YES, I am intolerant of smokers and I stand firmly unapologetic.

tmcb86

I agree that smoking should be illegal. Don't give me the token Bill of Rights crap either.

CommuterRun

Almost without exception, people are filthy and inconsiderate with the refuse they produce, is equally correct.

marmot

Wow, what a delightful festival of sanctimony. Greenbreezer, you expect me to believe you actually bent over and picked up somebody's saliva-laden butt? Just to make the guy feel bad? Yuck. I think I'd rather hold my nose and hang out with the smoker. He seems a pretty tolerant chap, compared to you.

waterboy

I would agree- its not the smoking so much, but the littering, and disregard for the world around them so many smokers seem to show the irks me/

Lately I have started saying, in a helpful tone "excuse me, you dropped your cigarette" when i am near someone who does the typical but drop on the sidewalk or street. So far I have just gotten a wonderful array of bemuzed looks. priceless.

Gusboh

I think guns should be illegal because they are dangerous to others and kill lots of people.

Don't give *me* that bill of rights crap...

Sweeping statements over yet people?

KrisPistofferson

Yeesh.