Yet another radio station advocates violence against cyclists.

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
I live in upstate NY and we don't really have a problem with bikes here either. Most of our roads have a bit of shoulder on them and as long as the riders don't go two abreast traffic can get around you fine. We also have a lot of twisty and curvy roads up here and I never have any problem if I come around a curve and there's a biker on the side of the road riding. As long as you aren't driving too fast you will have no problem steering around a bike. It sounds to me like in Atlanta everybody just needs to learn to have a little consideration for each other. In NYC bikes aren't really a problem either as far as I can tell. There's so much traffic in NYC that the normal traffic speed is actually slower than a fast biker, lol. At least on the cross streets, the Ave's are usually faster flowing, but there's space for bikers on the side of the road most of the time. Is Atlanta that much different?

Hotlanta traffic is a nightmare! I go through on the way to the mountains or when visiting a relative when they are there and it makes chicago look like Mayberry by comparison. I've read they are the most heavily penalized city in the nation for urban sprawl, if true, there traffic reflects that stat.

Yep, sad but true. We even have neat stuff like smog warnings now as a further indicator of our "progess" as a city. We didn't have stuff like that when I moved here in '89.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
I live in upstate NY and we don't really have a problem with bikes here either. Most of our roads have a bit of shoulder on them and as long as the riders don't go two abreast traffic can get around you fine. We also have a lot of twisty and curvy roads up here and I never have any problem if I come around a curve and there's a biker on the side of the road riding. As long as you aren't driving too fast you will have no problem steering around a bike. It sounds to me like in Atlanta everybody just needs to learn to have a little consideration for each other. In NYC bikes aren't really a problem either as far as I can tell. There's so much traffic in NYC that the normal traffic speed is actually slower than a fast biker, lol. At least on the cross streets, the Ave's are usually faster flowing, but there's space for bikers on the side of the road most of the time. Is Atlanta that much different?

Hotlanta traffic is a nightmare! I go through on the way to the mountains or when visiting a relative when they are there and it makes chicago look like Mayberry by comparison. I've read they are the most heavily penalized city in the nation for urban sprawl, if true, there traffic reflects that stat.

Yep, sad but true. We even have neat stuff like smog warnings now as a further indicator of our "progess" as a city. We didn't have stuff like that when I moved here in '89.

Not criticizing you but there is quite a bit of irony in that statment.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: imprezawrxwagon

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
I live in upstate NY and we don't really have a problem with bikes here either. Most of our roads have a bit of shoulder on them and as long as the riders don't go two abreast traffic can get around you fine. We also have a lot of twisty and curvy roads up here and I never have any problem if I come around a curve and there's a biker on the side of the road riding. As long as you aren't driving too fast you will have no problem steering around a bike. It sounds to me like in Atlanta everybody just needs to learn to have a little consideration for each other. In NYC bikes aren't really a problem either as far as I can tell. There's so much traffic in NYC that the normal traffic speed is actually slower than a fast biker, lol. At least on the cross streets, the Ave's are usually faster flowing, but there's space for bikers on the side of the road most of the time. Is Atlanta that much different?

I don't know about bikes in Atlanta much - when I am in Atlanta, I rarely encounter them, and when I do, I just pass them making the distance between us as much as possible.

Right, most people are actually pretty courteous. It's the 1%-ers that actively come after us that's the issue at hand. I take this seriously as I've had three friends die over the years when a motorist was angry, inattentive, or drunk (in chronological order of dead friends). Hence, when a DJ with an audience of thousands essentially mocks their deaths, I take issue.

But, in downtown Miami/South Beach - cyclists are the worst. It is unbelievable. Most of them will scratch your car without hesitation; some will use it as a jumping board of sorts. My wife spends much time driving around South Beach and the area and the new car looks just plain horrible from all the dents and scratches, many of which come from cyclists. So it really does not me make all warm and fuzzy when somebody mentions cyclists on the roads with cars.

I think somewhere earlier in this thread I made a distinction between "serious" cyclists and the casual asshats with zero regard for or knowledge of the rules of the road. Sounds like you have a lot of the latter in Florida.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Linflas

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
I live in upstate NY and we don't really have a problem with bikes here either. Most of our roads have a bit of shoulder on them and as long as the riders don't go two abreast traffic can get around you fine. We also have a lot of twisty and curvy roads up here and I never have any problem if I come around a curve and there's a biker on the side of the road riding. As long as you aren't driving too fast you will have no problem steering around a bike. It sounds to me like in Atlanta everybody just needs to learn to have a little consideration for each other. In NYC bikes aren't really a problem either as far as I can tell. There's so much traffic in NYC that the normal traffic speed is actually slower than a fast biker, lol. At least on the cross streets, the Ave's are usually faster flowing, but there's space for bikers on the side of the road most of the time. Is Atlanta that much different?

Hotlanta traffic is a nightmare! I go through on the way to the mountains or when visiting a relative when they are there and it makes chicago look like Mayberry by comparison. I've read they are the most heavily penalized city in the nation for urban sprawl, if true, there traffic reflects that stat.

Yep, sad but true. We even have neat stuff like smog warnings now as a further indicator of our "progess" as a city. We didn't have stuff like that when I moved here in '89.

Not criticizing you but there is quite a bit of irony in that statment.

True, I'm part of the "new" population, but I'm not generally part of the smog/traffic issue since I'm on my bike most of the time.

The real point is that Atlanta's huge growth has been very badly managed in terms of sprawl and transportation issues. They allowed people to build whatever, whereever and thought adding more lanes to the interstate would fix the traffic thing. The resultant mess is going to take forever to undo.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: Linflas

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
I live in upstate NY and we don't really have a problem with bikes here either. Most of our roads have a bit of shoulder on them and as long as the riders don't go two abreast traffic can get around you fine. We also have a lot of twisty and curvy roads up here and I never have any problem if I come around a curve and there's a biker on the side of the road riding. As long as you aren't driving too fast you will have no problem steering around a bike. It sounds to me like in Atlanta everybody just needs to learn to have a little consideration for each other. In NYC bikes aren't really a problem either as far as I can tell. There's so much traffic in NYC that the normal traffic speed is actually slower than a fast biker, lol. At least on the cross streets, the Ave's are usually faster flowing, but there's space for bikers on the side of the road most of the time. Is Atlanta that much different?

Hotlanta traffic is a nightmare! I go through on the way to the mountains or when visiting a relative when they are there and it makes chicago look like Mayberry by comparison. I've read they are the most heavily penalized city in the nation for urban sprawl, if true, there traffic reflects that stat.

Yep, sad but true. We even have neat stuff like smog warnings now as a further indicator of our "progess" as a city. We didn't have stuff like that when I moved here in '89.

Not criticizing you but there is quite a bit of irony in that statment.

True, I'm part of the "new" population, but I'm not generally part of the smog/traffic issue since I'm on my bike most of the time.

The real point is that Atlanta's huge growth has been very badly managed in terms of sprawl and transportation issues. They allowed people to build whatever, whereever and thought adding more lanes to the interstate would fix the traffic thing. The resultant mess is going to take forever to undo.

We have a similar problem here in Northern Virginia. Everyone loves the benefits of a dynamic growing economy but almost every newcomer arrives with a "now that I am here roll up the sidewalks and halt all development" mindset. I expect that Atlanta and Northern Virginia are very similar in their development patterns as both once were southern, rural areas that experienced explosive growth starting in the 1970's. The focus here has been on moving people between downtown Washington DC and the suburbs. The plain fact is that only 25% of the population works in the core city so Metro and other mass transit solutions will only go so far towards solving the problem. Roads must be built to accomodate development and development must be planned based on available infrastructure and planned future infrastructure improvements. What we have instead is a bunch of little special interest groups with narrow agendas that are getting us nowhere fast. NIMBYs successfully stop almost every planned highway improvement and local governments are blind to doing even minimal low tech improvements that could drastically help the situation. Every good idea is met with a standard list of reasons why they cannot be done along with the notion that before doing anything a long, expensive study would need to be conducted. The whole mess is enough to make a natives like me that remember what it used to be like throw up our hands and head for the hills.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Oh yeah! many asshats here in Florida indeed! :disgust: Between the elitest roadies who won't even nod back when you ride by them, to the idiots on the trails who don't know or take the time to learn etiquette and ride the wrong direction, or fail to yield the trail for larger groups it's no wonder at all that there is negativity towards the cycling community elsewhere.

My pet peeve on the trails is when riders don't stop to help a n00b ill equipped to deal with a mechanical :frown: Heaven forbid they should part with that $2 tube, a patch, or have to use the chain tool that came on their alien :roll:

The true issue is that the weekend warriors and punks have a hurray for me! Fvck You! attitude that always seems to be what non-cyclist and n00bs encounter shortly into their riding experience and it disenchants many, or flat out turns to resentment or other negative feelings towards the community because of them. I helped some guy riding a POS Wal-Mart special with a flat a few weeks back and used one of the 2 spare tubes I always carry and he was :shocked: Wanted to mail me the money for the tube, I told him to just make certain he started carying tools and trail maintainance equip. like a multi-tool, pump, and self stick patches so he doesn't get stuck walking his bike a couple miles out to the trail head, and that he should return the favor by helping someone in his position someday so the good karma is circulated </babbling >

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Linflas

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: Linflas

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
I live in upstate NY and we don't really have a problem with bikes here either. Most of our roads have a bit of shoulder on them and as long as the riders don't go two abreast traffic can get around you fine. We also have a lot of twisty and curvy roads up here and I never have any problem if I come around a curve and there's a biker on the side of the road riding. As long as you aren't driving too fast you will have no problem steering around a bike. It sounds to me like in Atlanta everybody just needs to learn to have a little consideration for each other. In NYC bikes aren't really a problem either as far as I can tell. There's so much traffic in NYC that the normal traffic speed is actually slower than a fast biker, lol. At least on the cross streets, the Ave's are usually faster flowing, but there's space for bikers on the side of the road most of the time. Is Atlanta that much different?

Hotlanta traffic is a nightmare! I go through on the way to the mountains or when visiting a relative when they are there and it makes chicago look like Mayberry by comparison. I've read they are the most heavily penalized city in the nation for urban sprawl, if true, there traffic reflects that stat.

Yep, sad but true. We even have neat stuff like smog warnings now as a further indicator of our "progess" as a city. We didn't have stuff like that when I moved here in '89.

Not criticizing you but there is quite a bit of irony in that statment.

True, I'm part of the "new" population, but I'm not generally part of the smog/traffic issue since I'm on my bike most of the time.

The real point is that Atlanta's huge growth has been very badly managed in terms of sprawl and transportation issues. They allowed people to build whatever, whereever and thought adding more lanes to the interstate would fix the traffic thing. The resultant mess is going to take forever to undo.

We have a similar problem here in Northern Virginia. Everyone loves the benefits of a dynamic growing economy but almost every newcomer arrives with a "now that I am here roll up the sidewalks and halt all development" mindset. I expect that Atlanta and Northern Virginia are very similar in their development patterns as both once were mostly southern, rural areas that experienced explosive growth starting in the 1970's. The focus here has been on moving people between downtown Washington DC and the suburbs. The plain fact is that only 25% of the population works in the core city so Metro and other mass transit solutions will only go so far towards solving the problem. Roads must be built to accomodate development and development must be planned based on available infrastructure and planned future infrastructure improvements. What we have instead is a bunch of little special interest groups with narrow agendas that are getting us nowhere fast. NIMBYs successfully stop almost every planned highway improvement and local governments are blind to doing even minimal low tech improvements that could drastically help the situation. Every good idea is met with a standard list of reasons why they cannot be done along with the notion that before doing anything a long, expensive study would need to be conducted. The whole mess is enough to make a natives like me that remember what it used to be like throw up our hands and head for the hills.

That sounds very similar to Atlanta. Lots of people work downtown, but few of them live there. They live in the surrounding areas and freak out whenever anything is proposed that might slightly affect them. There has been a light-rail proposal floating around for years to move people in and around the Emory-Decatur area (very heavy daily traffic on small roads) but it keeps getting blocked for the reasons you mentioned. So basically, everyone bitches, no one actually does anything about it and the problem just keeps getting worse. Eventually it's going to start driving our larger coporations elsewhere as the quality of life here drops.

 

[igowerf]

When I'm driving, I'm terrified of cyclists. They seem so delicate. I always give them a pretty good amount of clearance.

 

[DrPizza]

Glad to hear of the update. I just wonder how long until the novelty of "shock jocks" wears off and people will come to their senses and listen to something intelligent on the radio.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Glad to hear of the update. I just wonder how long until the novelty of "shock jocks" wears off and people will come to their senses and listen to something intelligent on the radio.

What's sad is that the 99x morning crew actually used to be funny and somewhat clever. Then one of the hosts left and the station went to an "appeal to the lowest common denominator" format. It's just total crap now.

 

[sxr7171]

While the FCC goes ape sh!t about relatively harmless stuff like Howard Stern, it is alright to encourage people to violently harm people on the radio. Just great.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: sxr7171
While the FCC goes ape sh!t about relatively harmless stuff like Howard Stern, it is alright to encourage people to violently harm people. Just great.

It's a brave new world ain't it?

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Oh yeah! many asshats here in Florida indeed! :disgust: Between the elitest roadies who won't even nod back when you ride by them, to the idiots on the trails who don't know or take the time to learn etiquette and ride the wrong direction, or fail to yield the trail for larger groups it's no wonder at all that there is negativity towards the cycling community elsewhere.

My pet peeve on the trails is when riders don't stop to help a n00b ill equipped to deal with a mechanical :frown: Heaven forbid they should part with that $2 tube, a patch, or have to use the chain tool that came on their alien :roll:

The true issue is that the weekend warriors and punks have a hurray for me! Fvck You! attitude that always seems to be what non-cyclist and n00bs encounter shortly into their riding experience and it disenchants many, or flat out turns to resentment or other negative feelings towards the community because of them. I helped some guy riding a POS Wal-Mart special with a flat a few weeks back and used one of the 2 spare tubes I always carry and he was :shocked: Wanted to mail me the money for the tube, I told him to just make certain he started carying tools and trail maintainance equip. like a multi-tool, pump, and self stick patches so he doesn't get stuck walking his bike a couple miles out to the trail head, and that he should return the favor by helping someone in his position someday so the good karma is circulated </babbling >

Agreed. I always at least slow down to make sure the guy on the side of the road/trail has all tools and such they might need. I'll usually at least wave to anyone I pass if they're on a bike. No need to be a tit just because they're not riding a Colnago.

 

[IHYLN]

I don't have much to say about cyclists other than they are usually peices of crap. Why? I've read a few stories about cyclists intentionally running into cars and filing lawsuits against the drivers. If I see a cyclist I stay the hell away.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: IHYLN
I don't have much to say about cyclists other than they are usually peices of crap. Why? I've read a few stories about cyclists intentionally running into cars and filing lawsuits against the drivers. If I see a cyclist I stay the hell away.

Usually pieces of crap? yet you have read a few stories? STFU till you have the slightest clue what you are talking about I bet for every one of those I can find one where the motorist hit the cyclist and fled the scene.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

No need to be a tit just because they're not riding a Colnago

Hahahahaha! In my case not even a road bike!

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: IHYLN
I don't have much to say about cyclists other than they are usually peices of crap. Why? I've read a few stories about cyclists intentionally running into cars and filing lawsuits against the drivers. If I see a cyclist I stay the hell away.

Wow. You're a bright one eh? A few scam artists out there using bikes and suddenly most cyclists are "crap"? :roll:

It's funny, I know pretty much the whole Atlanta cycling community on some level and I've yet to meet someone who did this. I think you're confusing criminals on bikes with Joe Average Fitness Dude on a bike. Big difference.

 

[silverpig]

Someone with a big rig should run his car off a cliff.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: silverpig
Someone with a big rig should run his car off a cliff.

Hey! Don't go getting all "touchy feely" on us

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: silverpig
Someone with a big rig should run his car off a cliff.

Hey! Don't go getting all "touchy feely" on us

We do know where one of the jocks lives....maybe we'll all go stake out his house in our finest thongs.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: silverpig
Someone with a big rig should run his car off a cliff.

Hey! Don't go getting all "touchy feely" on us

We do know where one of the jocks lives....maybe we'll all go stake out his house in our finest thongs.

Ewwww, do that and I'll run your dental flossed ass over myself :evil:

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: silverpig
Someone with a big rig should run his car off a cliff.

Hey! Don't go getting all "touchy feely" on us

We do know where one of the jocks lives....maybe we'll all go stake out his house in our finest thongs.

Ewwww, do that and I'll run your dental flossed ass over myself :evil:

"Honestly officer.....the glare from his pasty-white ass blinded me! I'm lucky I didn't run off the road!"

 

[minendo]

Bikers make driving more fun. They are like targets that have the ability to think.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: minendo
Bikers make driving more fun. They are like targets that have the ability to think.

I'd be all pissy if it weren't you typing that.

 

[freegeeks]

I never understood that behavior against cyclists in the US

where I live we have a law that says that the weakest traffic user is always in his right, no questions asked

The law: One of the most impressive ways that Belgians recognize the importance of cycling is a recently passed traffic law. In the case of an accident between parties of different transportation modes, the more dominant, i.e., dangerous, mode is considered at fault. A car hits a cyclist, the motorist is to blame, no questions asked. A cyclist hits a pedestrian and the cyclist is responsible.

good read how it can be better for everyone