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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    8,548

    want to have some fun?

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    You might have seen the article I posted this morning about bicycle safety
    in Seattle.
    The article has attached to it a public forum.
    I say want to have some fun, but it is as serious as life and death. here
    is an opportunity to COMMUNICATE with furious drivers who think bikes do not belong on the road.
    thanks for your intelligent, thoughtful responses in advance.
    Mimi aka ms probity

    http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/soundo...ticleID=283134
    Mimi Team TE BIANCHISTA
    for six tanks of gas you could have bought a bike.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    WA State
    Posts
    4,364
    wow - it never ceases to amaze me how defensive drivers can get about their very car centric lifestyles and what they perceive as their absolute right to get where they are going as fast as possible no matter who they have to hurt....
    "Sharing the road means getting along, not getting ahead" - 1994 Washington State Driver's Guide

    visit my flickr stream http://flic.kr/ps/MMu5N

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    8,548
    no kidding.
    there's a reason i'm not in politics. i am never prepared for just how nasty people can be... even when we're talking about things that can KILL people.
    Mimi Team TE BIANCHISTA
    for six tanks of gas you could have bought a bike.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Hillsboro, OR
    Posts
    5,023
    I'm stunned by some of the nastiness and closemindedness over there!

    I will say that I cringe when I see bikers in our area breaking the law. It's people like that who make it bad for those of us who do try to ride courteously!

    Is the biker vs car-driver debate always so heated in Seattle? I really don't think it's like that here...granted, we are still a small town in comparison.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    8,548
    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.
    Mimi Team TE BIANCHISTA
    for six tanks of gas you could have bought a bike.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Posts
    29
    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.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    WA, Australia
    Posts
    3,292
    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.
    The most effective way to do it, is to do it.
    Amelia Earhart

    2005 Trek 5000 road/Avocet 02 40W
    2006 Colnago C50 road/SSM Atola
    2005 SC Juliana SL mtb/WTB Laser V

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    252
    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.
    Aperte mala cm est mulier, tum demum est bona. -- Syrus, Maxims
    (When a woman is openly bad, she is at last good.)

    Edepol nunc nos tempus est malas peioris fieri. -- Plautus, Miles Gloriosus
    (Now is the time for bad girls to become worse still.)

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Pacific Northwest
    Posts
    3,436
    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.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    8,548
    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!!
    Mimi Team TE BIANCHISTA
    for six tanks of gas you could have bought a bike.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Posts
    467
    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!
    Last edited by Cassandra_Cain; 08-31-2006 at 02:03 PM.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    WA State
    Posts
    4,364
    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.
    "Sharing the road means getting along, not getting ahead" - 1994 Washington State Driver's Guide

    visit my flickr stream http://flic.kr/ps/MMu5N

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    I'm the only one allowed to whine
    Posts
    10,557
    Dang, after reading this thread I'm afraid to go over there and see what the car drivers are saying!
    "If Americans want to live the American Dream, they should go to Denmark." - Richard Wilkinson

 

 

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