StepDown

Cell phones, distracted drivers, increase in road rage directed at cyclist, old folks like my dad who refuse to give up driving, old ladies who “only drive to church on Sunday morning” (saw one of those lady’s smash a Verizon FIOS pedestal right in found of me one Sunday morning, I stopped to check on her she said she was 81, when the police arrived she said “I only drive once a week to church”, 5 second earlier she would have smashed me), got tired of caring a DNR (do not resuscitate) card with me on every ride, shall I continue………

Be safe out there,

steppy

10 Wheels

Wear some ID around your neck.

obed7

i did not stop riding in traffic in general, but there are specific roads I will not ride on.

10 Wheels

What traffic?

Machka 

This ^^

10 Wheels

When you ride your bike on a road you are Traffic.

TenSpeedV2

I never stopped. I have ridden country roads with no traffic and I have ridden downtown roads in Chicago and everything in between. I don't plan on stopping either.

Northwestrider

I haven't stopped . BTW in my area it seems to me that road rage against cyclists is actually less today than it was 50 years ago .

prj71

I stay off major highways and stick to county roads. Too many people texting and swerving. Did a 70 mile ride a few weeks ago and only saw 6 cars the whole ride.

Jim from Boston

Why did you stop riding on roads with traffic

Quote:

Originally Posted by StepDown

Cellphones, distracted drivers, increase in road rage directed at cyclist, old folks like my dad who refuse to give up driving, old ladies who “only drive to church on Sunday morning” (saw one of those lady’s smash a Verizon FIOS pedestalright in found of me one Sunday morning, I stopped to check on her she said shewas 81, when the police arrived she said “I only drive once a week to church”,5 second earlier she would have smashed me), got tired of caring a DNR (do notresuscitate) card with me on every ride, shall I continue………

Be safe out there,

steppy

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10Wheels

Wear some ID around your neck.

Quote:

Originally Posted by obed7

I did not stop riding in traffic in general, but there are specific roads I willnot ride on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Machka

This^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenSpeedV2

I never stopped. I have ridden country roads with no traffic and I have riddendowntown roads in Chicago and everything in between. I don't plan on stoppingeither.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10Wheels

When you ride your bike on a road you are Traffic

Quote:

Originally Posted by Northwestrider

I haven't stopped . BTW in my area it seems to me that road rage against cyclistsis actually less today than it was 50 years ago .

You're new around here, huh, @steppy? (posts=7)

Phil_gretz

...um...


I ride wherever I want to ride. I decide whether the risks are acceptable or not for the benefit of using roads for which I have already paid. Admittedly, I choose roads that are inherently safer when I can. But not always...

StepDown

New around here yes, new to road cycling well you judge.
1982- March enter monastery
1982-14234 miles
1983-16744 miles
1984-18221 miles
1985-13234 miles
1986-12167 miles
1987-18111 miles
1988-17900 miles
1989-16981 miles
1990-15934 miles
1991-12789 miles
1992- 9345 miles
1993- 8765 miles
1993- December left the monastery
1994-2014 return to normal 9-5 job, less than 5K per year

Kind regards to all always and from an innocent, I like that.

viva le tour…………

and viva le France on Bastille Day !!!!!

steppy

Seattle Forrest

Can't stop, won't stop ...

I got hit (hard) by a car last fall. Really lucky to have come out of it as well as I did. Suffered a lot, but it could have been much worse. I think the worst of it was being house-bound while I was injured. I need to be outdoors, and I need to exercise.

TKJava

I've been away from it for years only riding on bike trails. Fortunately near me there's enough of them to keep you riding and not getting too bored. There was a man hit last summer and killed near me and I was surprised and disturbed how much the support the car driver got on a local community Facebook page. One commenter actually said the driver of the car deserved a medal for hitting the cyclist. I find too many people who probably never ride a bike cannot and will not give an inch or slow down for 20 seconds in their car to give you a break. If you think about the entire time your in a car in a given year and what percentage of time out of all that total time your inconvenienced by a bicycle it probably is about 0.0001% of the time. Think about it, if you have to slow down to 20 or 12 MPH for 1 minute, pass the bike safely and then curl your big toe to make up the time you cannot measure your time spent being.... well nice. Sure there's the group of cyclists that take up the road yada yada but even there out of the course of a year or a month what's the percentage of inconvenience.

All that being said I've started to go back to riding on streets but out among some farmland and areas where there's only large expensive properties, basically places where the only drivers on the road are going to be pretty much the residents. I would love to commute to work but I really think the risk is much bigger than the reward.

TKJava

70 miles and 6 cars? Where's this I'm moving

work4bike

I'm a die-hard roadie/commuter. It's the bike paths I stopped riding on.

bikecrate

I've seen some pretty bad crashes on MUPs by cyclist. I've gotten my worst injury on a bike path due to another careless cyclist. There is a local cyclist that was killed on a popular path due to a downed power line yesterday. Nowhere is absolutely safe.

prj71

Northern WI. Lots of County Hwy. roads to choose from that see little to no traffic.

loneviking61

Why? Well, go over to the road cycling forum and read about the latest cyclists killed riding up in Idaho. I work in a trauma unit, and I'm seeing way too many badly injured cyclists coming in.

Quiet roads, forestry roads, single or double tracks I'll ride but I'm done dueling with busy traffic.

anx

I'm sick of the aggravation of city road cycling, planning an out of state roadtrip to ME with some friends and relatives to do some coastal route driving and hoping the drivers in ME are more considerate than those in MA.

caloso

I'll stop riding on roads with traffic as soon as they build a velodrome and a dedicated bike path between my house and my office.

Nachoman

My car was in the shop so I pedaled through some sick traffic yesterday after work.
You do what you gotta do.

Juan Foote

I stopped riding on the roads outside BIG social groups for all that. And then I got bored with all the local places I can ride without being on the road and started getting fat. I just took my road bike back out, cleaned her up and have been riding almost every day...on the road, with traffic.

Trueblood

The MUPs in urban areas can be tricky. I prefer the street, but not in a group.

Earlier thread on MUPs - https://www.bikeforums.net/general-cy...-all-mups.html

GeneO 

Because of all of the texting, dialing, reading magazines, grooming, eating off of a plate, and other dumb **** I see people doing as they drift of the road.


I am lucky their are a lot of trails (prairie path) where I am and I can commute completely on trails the 15 mi to my worksite (only having to cross roads). I do ride on the road on the site where I work, which is a big site, has low car traffic, and many bikers. I will take a shorter route partly on the road if I am running late (12 mi one-way route). For pleasure it is either on my work site or the trails.