want to have some fun?

[mimitabby]

It got really bad about 2 years ago because some radio talk show hosts stirred up the flames. I've noticed a serious trend downwards since then.

[freshsushi]

I read the first 4 posts and then it just got way too ugly. I was starting to take some of those posts way too personally, then I realized the posters were starting to attack each other, so it had become rather personal. But some of the people had very interesting points on taxes and such. Fascinating.

[Trekhawk]

OMG - Im always amazed that with the state of our planet people still dont get that we need to make changes. Beth2000 should be pleased a lot of people in China cant afford cars or she would have the inconvenience of needing to turn her car's aircon up a notch to combat the increase in global warming.

The world sure is full of angry people.

[HipGnosis6]

People talk about obeying traffic laws... I see plenty of cyclists who don't, but I think the percentage is probably about the same for drivers who don't. And you don't notice the cyclists who DO comply.

The roads are just pavement - but the laws are definitely geared towards cars. Bikes make their operators much more directly connected to you know, physics - stopping and starting and et cetera is just as inefficient in a car but as a driver you don't feel it the same way. Most drivers don't know this, having never tried using anything other than an automobile. There's no safe way to have different laws to govern cycles on the road, though.

[salsabike]

I think that Soundoff is not necessarily the most representative sampling of public views, for the obvious reason.

I also think that Seattle-area motorists are much more accepting of cyclists than lots of other places. I've spent the last month in my hometown of Albany NY, and the attitudes here towards cyclists are really, REALLY scary----far less cycle-friendly than Seattle is.

I think we need to do lots of education with non-cyclists. I liked Quillfred's bumper sticker that said "Start seeing bicycles" because I think that really is what such education is all about. I wasn't nearly as aware before I started riding, either.

And I do see some local cyclists who do really appalling, arrogant, and law-breaking maneuvers, like the two roadies on W. Lake Sammamish Parkway who were too important to stop at a light, but instead rode around the stopped bikes and cars in the left turn lane, and turned left in front of all of them, against a red light. Not helpful.

So...I personally am in favor of pursuing the "a little less heat, a little more light" approach to all this.

[mimitabby]

geez, I've been threatened twice now on that soundoff thread!!

THese people give me the creeps!!
ugh!!
I'd love to track that one guy down and spray the inside of his car with cat urine!!

[Cassandra_Cain]

Wow - talk about a hostile wazoo load of nonsense by and large! On that board I mean!

I notice that the car drivers keep going on about cyclists breaking rules or causing traffic. Well of course, every population has its share of idiots. The answer is obviously education, enforcement, and training.

What they always overlook is that their is absolutely no basis, none whatsoever, for comparing the mass destruction that automobiles and the car industry have caused, continue to cause, and will cause in the future versus bikes over this entire planet? Wars, environmental destruction, urban sprawl, the destruction of communities, alientation, waste, etc etc etc. We are talking about the very real fact of destroying our habitat, our planet and only home - this isn't just somebody speeding or being annoying.

How does this fact escape someone? Well quite easily if they are absolutely narrow minded obviously!

[Eden]

What really gets me is that for many motorists safe for a cyclists = not in my way. It's painfully obvious that they have never ridden a bicycle with traffic if they really think that traveling in a bicycle lane or shoulder that is full of trash/glass/sewer grates, comes and goes without warning or reason or is mashed up against parked cars is safe.