spirochete to cyclists: I HATE YOU. I hate you so much and I hate your next 15 generations

I hope your bikes melt down and your little helmets crack and and you lose a bike seat up your butt.

Do you ride on the bike path RIGHT NEXT TO THE STREET? HELL NO! You ride right in the street and hold up traffic.

Do you ride single file as traffic goes by? HELL NO! You ride in pairs while blocking traffic and we're all at your mercy driving at bicycle speed for miles on end.

Do you ride in a responsible manner? HELL NO! You cry that you have just as much right to the street as I do in my car yet you run EVERY SINGLE stop sign, turn without signaling and whatever illegal maneuvers you can think up while wearing a Doritos branded spandex team shirt.

I seriously hate cyclists so much.

Original Post by spirochete:

I hope your bikes melt down and your little helmets crack and and you lose a bike seat up your butt.

Do you ride on the bike path RIGHT NEXT TO THE STREET? HELL NO! You ride right in the street and hold up traffic.

Do you ride single file as traffic goes by? HELL NO! You ride in pairs while blocking traffic and we're all at your mercy driving at bicycle speed for miles on end.

Do you ride in a responsible manner? HELL NO! You cry that you have just as much right to the street as I do in my car yet you run EVERY SINGLE stop sign, turn without signaling and whatever illegal maneuvers you can think up while wearing a Doritos branded spandex team shirt.

I seriously hate cyclists so much.

How did you get the password to my secret journal?!!?!

But, in all seriousness, why the hell do they all run the stop signs?! I've almost hit 2 in my own neighborhood from these idiots doing that. Even tonight, while driving home, my gf and I saw one run a red light on a major street.

What, too hard to stop and then get going again? Boo hoo. Don't ride a f'ing bike.

I never do any of that.  I signal, ride on the shoulder (if there is one), obey the lights/signs/right of ways, use lights, try to stick to less congested roads. 

You know what?  I've had stuff thrown at me from people in cars, I've had SUVs and trucks swerve towards me (when I'm on foot too), I've had people cut me off to make a right turn (accelerate and then stop in front of me to turn), I had people chase me like they were a dog chasing a car. 

But I'm not going to say "I hate drivers", I just fear some of them, most of them.  Anyhow, I'm not paying nearly the same at the gas station, so there!

BTW, the two abreast is stupid.  I had a friend back home who would do that and I"d stop to make her pick front or back.  She'd get too close to me and then practically hit me or run me off the road.  We're not speaking anymore. 

To the author of the OP: I find what you wrote obnoxious and rude.

I cycle every day in London, UK. I have been cycling for nearly a year and a half now.
First of all, this is a calorie counting forum, and most people are here because of weight loss - cycling is an excellent aid to weight loss, certainly much better than driving a car. I cycle at least an hour and a half every day - I do my commuting and exercising in one. Even at slow speeds I can achieve in a crowded city, this is at least an extra 500 kcal or so a day.

To say that all cyclists jump red lights is a bit like saying all car drivers talk on mobile phones while driving, or to say all car drivers drink drive. 

Every town and city would be a better place if there were more cyclists. Less polution, less noise polution, safer for pedestrians, with healthier and fitter population.

 

 

"To say that all cyclists..."

I don't see the word "all" in Spiro's post.  Where'd you see it?

i just think it's kind of ridiculous to see a person on a bike speeding down the side of the highway in all spandex, like they're in a race or marathon or something...i mean, it's not that serious.

not that many people ride bikes around here, we're lazy. i feel awkward riding my bike where lots of cars are so i usually just stick to my neighborhood or do like a billion laps at the track nearby.

Original Post by jewelsmcblah:

Come on Split.  It doesn't bother you when a cyclist will be going along with traffic until they hit a red light, then they hop up on the sidewalk and continue on their merry way?

I invite gmule to come to Toronto to drive around downtown with all the cyclists breaking every traffic rule known to man and nearly causing accidents at every block.  He may change his tune a little.

 If I went to Toronto I would still ride a bike. Driving is only for usefull for very long distances over 50 miles

Thanks you mrsdagle and skp_here! I love to bike but I really do not appreciate the things people do to cyclists. It is harassment and if you had this happen to you while drivng you would get on here and do a rant about that too.

My mom has been pushed off her bike multiple times and guys have tried to grab her ass among other things.

I have been flicked off yelled at and cat called many times.

You are a lot more vulnerable and helpless on a bike. I know I have been on the road until my legs are about to quit, then I choose to go on the sidewalk or somewhere. It isn't exactly at whim.

*considers* My issue with cyclists basically comes to the speed limit. If you can't go somewhere near the speed limit, don't get on the road. I'd say the same thing so someone driving a car. It's dangerous and you'll cause an accident. If the only way to get from Spot A and Spot B is via a highway going 55 mph and you can bike maybe 30 mph, then please, for the love of god, find a backway where the speed limit is 30-35 mph.

Some of you will laugh at this, but it's true.. people going that much below the speed limit CAUSE accidents. At least that's my experience here in DC.

Wow...if there's actually a bike lane and people don't use it, that's sad.  I live in a rural area where some of the roads don't even have shoulders (and I don't ride on those roads,) much less bike lanes.  I'd kill for my own bike lane!

I do agree, irresponsible cyclists (1) make the responsible ones look bad and (2) get what they deserve.

p.s. (off-topic) Spirochete, thank you for recommending "The New Rules of Lifting For Women."  I bought it after you were discussing it in one of the forums here and it's helped me immensely!

I only get annoyed with cyclists that get in the lane.  There was this one guy on a four-lane road with at-grade intersections and a 55 mph speed limit that insisted on riding in the middle of the right lane despite there being a six-foot+ shoulder.  Talk about frustrating and dangerous.

There was also an idiot that was in the exact middle of a country road (no painted middle stripe) coasting downhill because he thought he was going faster than he was going.  He was oblivious to cars around him.  He was probably thinking he was hitting the speed limit when he wasn't even close.  He was just getting the way out of that ridiculous idea that since cycles are to be treated "the same as a car" that they can drive the same way cars do.

At one time, I was an avid cyclist that biked around 30 miles a day.  I never felt the need to actually get in the lane and respected the fact that, although the law was on my side if I got hit, I needed to share the road.  I just love how some cyclists think sharing the road only goes one-way (i.e. cars must put up with me).

I also think the idea that since there are bad car drivers out there that you shouldn't point the finger at bad cyclists is absurd.  I have issues with bad drivers as well...the two aren't exclusive.

</rant>

Original Post by skp_here82:

To the author of the OP: I find what you wrote obnoxious and rude.

 

Too bad. I hate cyclists and their rude, selfish behavior on the streets. You want the same rights as a car? Drive like a car. Stop at the stop signs, drive at the speed limit and generally stop being a menace on the road.

If I ever saw a cyclist stop at a stop sign I'd fall over dead. DEAD.

Ugh!  I am in total agreement with the OP. 

We have a damn cycling organization in our side of town.  There are bike lanes everywhere, but they don't stay in them.  They practically race on the main thoroughfares in heavy traffic.  It's so ridiculous.  There are times when the police have to be called to direct them and the motorists so as not to cause complete gridlock. 

If you are in a big group of cyclists, why can't you find some place to ride that doesn't involve open driving lanes.  We have rails to trails paths all over!  I guess maybe it isn't as much fun without the endorphin rush brought on by the cars passing at 55mph.

I'm in oxford university and most student's cycle about. There are bikes everywhere. I AM a cyclist but other cyclists still do my head in. It's true very few stop at red lights and I get really annoyed by it. That and all the other flauting of road rules. I'm proud to say I am one of the rare few who tries to follow them!

I ride my bicycle alot and there's heaps of traffic in my neighborhood. But as a driver I can relate to what spirochete says, and I definitely agree with everyone that cyclists usually run red lights... I do it and I see lots of others doing it.

Personally those packs of cyclists that take up the road really bug the crap out of me. Also if there's a bike path available what's up with not using it? It's usually the spandex, road bike crowd that get in the way of cars. (Sorry to offend anyone.)

IMO no one wants to run over a cyclist. That gives us a certain advantage over cars. Cars will usually give way to cyclists at stop signs. If you're riding a bike and you run a red, you'd better be sure there's no one coming through on the green light. Sometimes the light never changes unless there's a car around. Sometimes it never changes period. I think it's so funny when people sit and sit waiting for a defective light to give them the green. Hee hee hee, that's society for you.

Some cyclists do this, yes, but not all. I think this is a bit of an unfair generalization. Some don't follow the rules of the road, but a lot do. So please don't hate ALL CYCLISTS just because of a few bad apples.

I have several cyclists in my family, including one of my brothers who is a competitor. He obeys the rules. He lives in Austin, TX, where there are lots of cyclists and there is a lot of road rage geared toward cyclists as well. He has been hit twice by SUVs (both times they were Suburbans) and both times he was seriously injured, once very seriously. They were just a**holes who were not paying attention.

My family members obey the rules of the road. Please don't hate on them just because some other cyclists don't.

The thread makes me sick at the stomack.  I'm just glad that the drivers that I share the roads with are not of like mind as most of you here.  Yes I see you occationally but by and large the motorist I encounter are as considerate as am I when I use the roads which in my state I have the same right to as well as the same resonsiblities as motorists.

tr, and my guess is that you aren't one of those cyclists who take their lives into their own hands every time they get on the road. I would say 90% of the cyclists that are on the road are not the ones of which they all talk. It's just the rest of them that give you guys a bad name.

Original Post by trhawley:

The thread makes me sick at the stomack.  I'm just glad that the drivers that I share the roads with are not of like mind as most of you here.  Yes I see you occationally but by and large the motorist I encounter are as considerate as am I when I use the roads which in my state I have the same right to as well as the same resonsiblities as motorists.

 Just because I hate cyclists more than I hate let's say ebola doesn't mean I am not courteous to them on the road.

I highlighed the key part for you. Everyday on the way to the train station I pass the same pack of about 40 (no joke) cyclists. They ride two and three across and hold up traffic at stop signs like a [insert really bad adjective here] funeral procession.

I'm not talking about the casual bicycle rider that bops around the neighborhood with their kids. Those are the ones that ride responsibly. I don't know if the others think they are riding the Tour de France around Illinois but they cycle around here like they are and it pisses me the hell off because:

1. I am obeying the traffic laws which include minimum speed limits, lights, stop signs, signaling and not illegally passing cars at stop signs
2. I do not want to hit you with my car. I would feel bad and it would cost me a lot of money
3. I'm not driving along side my buddy's car and talking to them while holding up traffic

Original Post by spirochete:

 Just because I hate cyclists more than I hate let's say ebola...

 You should thank every cyclist that you see on the road.  They're keeping your gas prices down and making the air your kids and you breath cleaner.

They are riding for sport, not to get from point A to point B. That would make as much sense as thanking all the guys in the squat racks and all the people doing yoga.