RidesaJapanese

Hundreds of tacks strewn on popular road for cyclists | 9news.com

I have some cyclist friends that ride armed, they see so many hate threats made online against cyclists.

molten

It be interesting if (instead) you were speaking of seeing cyclists riding in such way: because they see those "hate threats" made FROM motor-vehicles AGAINST "cyclists."
As this context be a big problem.
A problem, via the hypocrisy that most cyclists are nothing but Off-Duty-Motor-Vehicle-Drivers.
Once they don't ride their bikes: they ride those cars, and randomly choose which cyclists to get against. Like the cyclists with the high-end bike, that can't be afforded. Or whatever.

CliffordK

One never knows whether it was intentional or an accident. One finds screws and nails alongside the road all the time. If I see something particularly bothersome, I'll stop and throw it out of the road, whether it impacts bikes or cars.

The other day I was riding along and saw a box of BIG staples strewn in the road (for a staplegun, 1" long staples like for boxes or roofing). At the time, entirely in one car lane, and not in the bike lane.

Nonetheless, I stopped my bike and started throwing them off the road. Someone from the nearby tire shop then came with a broom and garbage can. A car did stop to block the lane (which was good for safety), but not a single driver got out of their car.

It only took, maybe 30 seconds to clean the road. But, as we were finishing up, one driver yelled "Will you hurry up, I've got places to go". I'm not sure if it was meant to be a joke, or some thoughtless fool. But, had we not gotten the street cleaned, he likely would have had a much greater delay in his travels.

B. Carfree

I wish such asshattery was new and confined to backwaters like Missouri, but at least one rider in the first Paris-Brest-Paris race had supporters who placed tacks in the road whenever he was in the lead.

CB HI

True, you never know when a BAG of tacks is going to tear itself open and the tacks jump out all over the area that cyclist ride.

Same with beer bottles that jump out of cars to get away from DUI motorist.

unterhausen

too bad caltrops are so expensive

CliffordK

I have to think a lot of the broken bottles have to do with archaic open container laws.

Yeah, an open container law discourages drinking while driving. But, if impairment is based on blood alcohol, and it only takes a few seconds to run a breathalyser test, then what use is it to encourage people to bust bottles on the road.

I doubt breaking glass is as much of an anti-cyclist thing as just not caring and not respecting the environment.

Tacks... Hmmm...

But people drop things all the time for unintended reasons. Impacting the road it they may scatter, or get hit once, and they're scattered.

I'm certainly not into vandalism, but I wonder how car drivers would feel if cyclists would dump a box of roofing nails on the road every time they see a glass bottle broken on the shoulder.

Chief

i agree... i suppose... or not... wait, what was the question?

deapee

Gosh...out here I get more thumbs up out riding from motorists than anything else.

jefnvk

Nearby tire shop? Wonder where they came from in the first place

Don't understand those laws either. I guess the logic could be that one could go from OK to drive to not OK while behind the wheel, but as you mentioned at the end of the day just make the law on intoxication. Then again, it is rarely just beer bottles I see on the side of the road, even in the sate with the highest bottle deposit laws, I think that particular issue is more just inconsiderate people of all walks of life thinking of themselves.


If we want to get on something that is just tossed about in the bike lanes, though, CLEAN UP YOUR CO2 CANISTERS. They are all over on Detroit streets. Hit one of those the other day and nearly went down, they are slick and slide when hit, it isn't like just running over other debris.

work4bike

One of the worst things you can do in this situation is to give it media attention. That will only give the perpetrators satisfaction, especially when a cyclist decries that their ride was ruined and they couldn't finish it.

Furthermore, it gives rise to copycats.

Bikeforumuser0019

This is more or less my neck of the woods.... or at least was when I was growing up and in high school.

And I would not be surprised if this was done by teenagers, who were bored and decided to be malicious just for fun, and had nothing whatsoever to do with relations between motorists and cyclists.

FWIW

indyfabz

+1.


BTW...This is not the first time something like this has happened. Back in 2005, Cycle Oregon went through an area that had been the subject of tack attacks. They were believed to have been the work of one or more locals who didn't like the rich, city folk coming to their area to ride. There was some concern among some participants that there could be a repeat that could result in injury during the long descent from Larch Mountain, but everything turned out fine.

indyfabz

What good is shooting the tacks going to do?

deapee

I was thinking the same thing. I can think of a few areas where 100 spilled tacks on the road way could cause severe bodily injury to a whole lot of local cyclists. I wouldn't have put this on the news...we're just asking for it now. All it takes is ONE random person that doesn't like cyclists.

rydabent

Thats one advantage of riding a trike, if I see trash like screws and nails, I can easily pick them up and throw them off the trail.

JoeyBike

School is out for summer. Whatchagonnado? Just be glad they don't have access to a nail gun.
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RandomEncounter

This has happened a few times in Seattle.
tacks | Seattle Bike Blog

If I recall correctly, someone also once soaped up the tracks at a train crossing on a MUP here on Bike to Work Day.

I always wonder how these people will feel about themselves if someone is injured or killed.

ItsJustMe

I have stopped and picked up entire boxes of nails dropped off construction trucks. I always stop and pick up any puncture hazard I see. I figure I've probably robbed tire shops of a few thousand dollars in revenue.

For this I'd go home, grab the magnetic area sweeper that I bought when doing my roof, and sweep the road with it. It shouldn't take more than 20 minutes to do the whole roadside.

CB HI

Do you believed the broken beer bottles on bike paths are just dropped by accident?

CliffordK

I see very few broken bottles on MUPs, with the possible exception of under bridges and underpasses where non-cyclists may seek refuge.

For roadside paths and shoulders, I don't know. It isn't particularly any different for roadside bike paths vs road shoulders vs road shoulders with few bicycles. So I would think that people aren't specifically targeting bikes, but rather they like breaking stuff, and either don't care about other road users, or perhaps don't know how big of a problem glass can be.

CB HI

I too often clean beer bottle glass from bike paths (in more than one state). The bottle had to be thrown down with force to shatter the way they were. A dropped bottle only breaks into a few large pieces. So feel lucky that Eugene does not have the problems with glass and tacks that so many other areas do.

Some even throw the bottle at the cyclist. So how do you explain that as not targeting cyclist?

wphamilton

If they take online babbling seriously, they've got more problems than risky cycling! I'd try to talk some sense into them.

Not that there's anything wrong with being armed, but looking for trouble ...

wphamilton

Or fishing line or nylon cord for booby traps. That's the one thing that scares me because I know, at least sometimes, I wouldn't see it.

Robert C

Dack when I was into mountain biking, the local LEO's encouraged me to ride armed. They also had no problem with my , then 14-19 year old, daughter carrying while jogging (the age range is because she jogged for several years). Of course, there the problem wasn't jerks, the concern they had was Wild dogs and Mountain Lions.