It’s spring, so it’s THAT time of year around here…
Spring is in full throttle, with summer just around the corner. Around this time, events around me inevitably trigger the same two recurring questions, like clockwork, year after year after year. And the questions are these:
- Why do these teenage girls’ parents let them leave the house dressed like NFL cheerleaders?
- Am I going to have to spend another summer weaving my car around rude bicyclists who think they own the road?
It is this second question I’m currently pondering, as I witnessed earlier in the day some poor sap driving a car, stuck behind a gaggle of inconsiderate male bicyclists (the rude ones are always men), none of whom apparently had a job they needed to get to this particular morning, opting instead to impede traffic for the adults who actually do.
Full article HERE from PJ Media.
They are starting to ‘infest’ the roads around here, all tricked out in their lycra, spandex, or whatever with ads all over them. And in gaggles of 5-10, moseying along taking up one entire lane, even though the roads have just been repaved with WIDE shoulders. And yes, they get pissy if you pass them…
Just because the Hotter Than Hell 100 is hosted here one weekend (when all of us stay home), doesn’t mean we like having our driving to the store or taking care of business to be slowed down/interrupted/have to slam on the brakes when one or more of them cyclists decided to blow through stop signs or red lights.
I will have to admit the ‘best’ blow off of bikers I ever saw was down in Adelaide, AUS back in 2012. The cyclists were everywhere, and I was headed up to RAAF Edinburgh. We didn’t have too many problems when it was four lane, as the cyclists pretty much stayed in the left lane (driving on the left, not the right like here). BUT, when it got down to two lanes, with a 60 KPH speed limit, we suddenly slowed down to about 20…
I was three or four cars back from a ‘lorry’ (Aussie 18 wheeler), and he finally laid on his horn, downshifted, and rolled coal as a squad (maybe 20) of cyclists scattered like a covey of quail!
We all sped up staying nose to tail and got by them as they cursed us, threw water bottles at us, etc. But I made my meeting… LOL
Talk to your Sheriff’s department, and have them talk to neighboring Sheriff’s departments. See if they can get some unmarked cruisers out there to observe behavior of these groups of cyclists. 4K dash cameras would be good to prove which cyclists engaged in illegal activity so charges can be brought and proven in court.
Have a couple more marked cruisers up ahead to block the road to stop the pack of problematic cyclists. Might want to have some deputies on motorcycles as well in case the cyclists decide to (very stupidly) blow through that roadblock. That’d be an eye-opener to them.
The Sheriff’s Departments could set up and run a joint educational/enforcement operation called “Share the Road Responsibly” where violations of the road (both by car/truck drivers and cyclists) would be met with charges and stiff penalties. These kinds of cyclists would assume it wouldn’t apply to them. Let them learn otherwise.
Pain is an excellent instructor. Let the stupid and arrogant feel the pain of their poor decisions. That’s how you stop this kind of nonsense.
Also: What is it with these idjit cyclists coming up on the right side of a commercial vehicle at an intersection when that vehicle is signalling to make a right, or worse yet, has begun its turn. Do you not understand you’re likely to get injured or outright killed? Are you crazy? Is that your problem?
This is the stuff of nightmares for me. I drive a commercial vehicle, and the stuff I see cyclists do around both passenger and commercial vehicles both makes me cringe, and inflames my anger.
Like in the article, some cyclists are very good and obey the rules of the road AND common sense. They are, in my observations, in the minority.
Ag- Our deputies are tasked out already, without adding this to their plates. And some counties out here are big enough that even 10 deputies ‘barely’ cover the county on a good day. Yes, law of gross tonnage (or lugnuts) always wins, even if you never ‘feel’ the bump…
The local lakeshore drive into town was 4 lane. Now 3 lane with a center lane and a bike path one each side.
So the governess could brag about the state line to state line bicycle access.
And all the cyclists ride on the wide sidewalks on each side.
Tax dollars at work.
I read this article yesterday. There are jerks on bicycles out there. As they say one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel and there are enough of such bicyclists that you assume (ass-u-me) the worst for all. I have seen quite a few considerate bicyclists. Here where I live in the Texas Hill Country, I have only encountered a very few jerks on bicycles.
To give some perspective, I have done a bunch of bicycle riding on the roads. While I was in the AF, it was my major aerobic workout because my knees hated running. I rode the shoulders of the roads, if there were shoulders as some roads didn’t have any.
I have had my encounter with jerks in motor vehicles. Back in the early 1980s, I was on a extended TDY at Pope AFB. I brought my bike along for exercise. I would go out and ride about a 20 mile loop through the country side. Coming back into the base one evening, a morbidly obese woman rolled down her land yacht window and told me to get my “toy” off of the road. I didn’t signal to her her IQ or number of legitimate parents. Another time some years later while on a shoulderless back road south of Arlington, Texas, I had some redneck passenger in a pickup truck scream something at me and throw a nearly full can of beer at me. I couldn’t get the trucks license number because of the mud caking it. I would have liked to file attempted assault charges but couldn’t. Should I judge all people in vehicles by them.
I had an acquaintance in the Arlington Bicycle Club nearly killed by an enraged driver. The cyclist was out on an extended solo training ride when he was run off into the ditch. This guy stopped the car and jumped out. He was screaming and yelling at this one guy because of a group of cycling jerks he had encountered earlier in the day somewhere else in the DFW area. The driver demanded that his wife give him the gun out of the glove compartment so he could shoot the cyclist. Fortunately, she kept a cool head and didn’t give him the gun. Again, should I judge all drivers on this.
Oh, there is a reason for those tight shorts cyclists wear. I learned the hard way. When on rotation at Mildenhall AB in England, I and some friends rode 25 miles out and back to Cambridge on a day off. This was when I had just started my cycling. I wore shorts and briefs. I wore holes in the skin in my crotch. Try to fly comfortably that way! I bought me some cycling shorts right after that.
Rant over.
I agree with the dash cam recommendations. Cyclists are the quintessential assholes….and if you hit one you damn well better be able to prove it was their fault or your hosed. Sadly most law enforcement simply ignore the gross dangers cyclists create. More revenue to be had by targeting motorists.
I bought a tuned set of train horns to clear traffic in the very situations you outlined. They’re exceptionally loud. I had them for about two years, and a guy I know offered me twice what I paid for them, so I returned to stock. I regret the decision now.
Before I moved to Arizona, the Mooselims built a mosque down the road from where I lived. They didn’t have a dedicated parking lot at the mosque and parked in the public park lot across the street. They’d walk across the street and stop when they saw people coming so that the drivers would have to stop while they were mad-dogged by the pig-f’ers. They knew my rig. I always accelerated as I came to the gaggle. They cleared a path because I never braked. It seems as though they didn’t want those 72 virgins as much as they thought they did.
It’s not a bicycle story, but it has a kernel of universal truth. Most people don’t want to be crushed under metal and dragged and left cripples. I ride a Ducati and I ride a 10 speed bike so I’m not anti-two wheels. But mutual respect is called for.
I know this isn’t what you want to hear but it’s possible (I haven’t studied Texas laws) that you’re the asshole and not the people riding bicycles. Do you get irrationally upset about tractors towing farm implements too? In my world it’s not cool to joke about vehicular assault but perhaps I’m too “woke” for your taste.
Cyclists occupying the entire lane when safe passing without changing lanes isn’t possible is legal in many states. Riding on the shoulder often presents hazards that may not be obvious to you. Some states even permit “Idaho Stops” which allows people riding bicycles to treat stop signs as yield signs and stop lights as stop signs which also mitigates some hazards to the cyclists who’re generally well motivated to avoid collisions.
FYI: there’s an acronym for everything. MAMIL= Middle Aged Men In Lycra (pronounced like the kingdom of warm blooded, lactating, animals who give live birth to their offspring). Their one of many types of people who ride bicycles for fun but other people ride because it’s their only means of transportation and being a jerk while driving in their proximity is even less cool regardless about how you feel about the people doing it for fun.