Coal rolling a simple cyclist on their lunchtime ride demonstrates that you, at your core, are an asshole.

Regards,
Training for my next Ironman

Gotta wonder if he's just an asshole at his core, or if he's maybe met some awesome cyclists that effected him to the point where he's just willing to shit all over all of you. I mean, it could be either or both.

I live in an area that has a lot of avid cyclists and worked with one who I wouldn't feel silly about describing as "militant." I had one fuckstick aggressively drafting me in a manner that I wouldn't accept off of anyone on wheels, with my mother, my wife, and my two year old son in the car. If I could've pushed a button that would've choked that asshole up and off my bumper, you bet your ass I would've pushed it. If I had brake-checked him, it could've killed him, he was so close, and my honking only made him pull closer. Definitely lost a lot of empathy for cyclists after that.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:
Coal rolling a simple cyclist on their lunchtime ride demonstrates that you, at your core, are an asshole.

Regards,
Training for my next Ironman

Personally, I'd edit that to be a bit more general in nature...

What brought this on to you?they usually do to protestors .

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Gotta wonder if he's just an asshole at his core, or if he's maybe met some awesome cyclists that effected him to the point where he's just willing to shit all over all of you. I mean, it could be either or both.

I hear ya and it's an age old debate. Asshole driver or asshole cyclist? I consider myself a defensive cyclist. I know with a certainty that I will lose the battle of physics with a car/truck every single time. I ride on the shoulder, I don't ride double/triple wide in groups, and I coordinate with drivers whenever possible. I have no reason whatsoever to get in a beef with a driver.

I've ridden this stretch hundreds of times. Ninety-nine percent of all drivers move over or slow down to give me a little more room. I give them a wave of thanks and acknowledge their effort.

This guy is just a d-bag.

Right on, man. Seems like we who gather on these sorts of forums actually give a thought to how we represent our interests to others.

Sorry you got coal-rolled by a douchebag and I hope you stay safe out there.

Living in Colorado has made my give o shit meter peg negatives for anyone blocking traffic with their bicycle.
Sorry you had a bad day but maybe keep your bicycle on a bike path or somewhere where you aren't disrupting folks who have shit to do and paid for a license plate to maintain the road they are trying to use.

I get it done to me all the time cause I drive a Toyota Taco. Guess my truck isn't manly enough.

It could be worse. You could live in New England. Seems like all of a sudden every democratic mayor thinks he has to turn entire traffic lanes into bike lanes...that absolutely no one uses.

quote:

Sorry you had a bad day but maybe keep your bicycle on a bike path or somewhere where you aren't disrupting folks who have shit to do and paid for a license plate to maintain the road they are trying to use.

Yeah, train for an Ironman on a bike path. That will work out well. If you have a beef with cyclists using taxpayer funded roads, take it up with your legislature, not the cyclist. Note, that the roads are open to the use of all not just registered motor vehicles, and the roads are not fully paid for, nor maintained by, fuel taxes. Which, most cyclists pay, because most have registered vehicles as well.

I find it terribly amusing that for a bunch of guys who generally stand for liberty and limited government, some want to use government, harassment, or insult to prevent others from using infrastructure that they help pay for.

Cyclists, tractors, farm equipment, house movers, horses, etc. are all allowed to use the public roads by statute. They should be ticketed if they violate the rules of the road. It really is that simple.

Without stepping on anyone’s toes, but could someone explain why bicyclists tend to run up beside stopped traffic and go to the front of the line, on the shoulder on the right thus making those same twenty cars who had to slow and creep along to go around them only a moment ago to now have to slow down and creep along to go around them yet again.
I can’t pass on the right shoulder when on my motorcycle just to get in front of people, so if cyclists have to obey the rules of the road, why do practically all cyclists do this?
And don’t even get me started on never seeing a cyclist actually stop at stop signs or blow red lights simply because they don’t want to loose momentum or slow down.

quote:

Originally posted by RaiseHal:
Without stepping on anyone’s toes, but could someone explain why bicyclists tend to run up beside stopped traffic and go to the front of the line, on the shoulder on the right thus making those same twenty cars who had to slow and creep along to go around them only a moment ago to now have to slow down and creep along to go around them yet again.
I can’t pass on the right shoulder when on my motorcycle just to get in front of people, so if cyclists have to obey the rules of the road, why do practically all cyclists do this?
And don’t even get me started on never seeing a cyclist actually stop at stop signs or blow red lights simply because they don’t want to loose momentum or slow down.

Good points Hal, I think if the cyclist passes on the shoulder - it's fair game. The mode of transportation gives the advantage and lee-way to the cyclist. They should make some attempt to slow down or stop at the stop sign. Now if there are 20 cyclist in the traffic lane and behaving like cars, then it'd be a no-no for the cyclist to take advantage of the shoulder.

Funny story - I got a ticket in July for blowing through a stop sign.....on my bike....at 5 mph in an otherwise empty four-way intersection. I was guilty and knew better. The cop wouldn't let me go with a warning. I go to court because they court wanted to charge me $237 plus a point on my DMV record. CA vehicle codes say pedestrians and cyclist do not incur DMV points from moving violations. I mentioned this to the commissioner. He couldn't fix it without going to court! So I requested a court trial with the officer (the only way to resolve the point issue, not dispute that I had ran the stop sign). Five weeks later I'm back in court, the officer gives his testimony, I respond "I complete concur with the officer's testimony." Then the commission (same guy) remembers the case and says the court is trying to resolve the issue (the computer system was coded wrong to ding cyclist a point). Anyway, charges dismissed, not penalties or points, and now I stop at all (almost all) stop signs.

As I mentioned before, I try to play nice with drivers. And I don't get those jurisdictions that remove traffic lanes and convert them to bike lanes.

Without stepping back, I'll give you my answer.

I did it for safety. If I coast to the front of the line at a red light, but still to the side / curb / breakdown lane, etc., and specifically NOT blocking anyone from taking a right on red, I am able to see traffic in both directions at the cross when the light changes, which I am unable to do if I am going forward with the line of the traffic. I am able to accelerate almost as fast as the first car coming off the line, which means I am getting up to speed, and thus far more stable before the cars passing me are flying relative to my speed. Finally, intersections are "dirty" with gravel, broken glass, pieces of metal, and other debris on the roads which makes them more dangerous. I am better able to manage the crossing if I can look at the road from the front before I actually have to cross.

I am a courteous cyclist. I don't crowd cars, I don't ride double, I don't blow stop signs or red lights. I respect both the physics, and opinions of drivers, because, mirabile dictu, I'm one too. All I expect is to get the same courtesy from the cars. If I need to take a left, I will give the hand signal, and look over my shoulder in the hope that someone will let me out into the lane to get to the center line so I can safely make the turn. If I have to avoid a pothole, because it will cause me to crash, I hope and expect that the drivers behind me will give me a second's break, and then pass.

This isn't hard. I haven't ridden in years since I moved due to my local roads which I don't trust, but there are a bunch of cyclists here, a bunch of cycling clubs, and the local roads are often used for events or races. I don't think I have ever been late to anything because of cyclists on the road, and while I can understand some level of irritation with those who don't follow the rules, I don't get the sense of abject hatred that some drivers have for cyclists.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:
Coal rolling a simple cyclist on their lunchtime ride demonstrates that you, at your core, are an asshole.

Regards,
Training for my next Ironman

OP, you will appreciate this tale. My wife and I were coming back into town (Logan, Utah) after working our local ski resort. A caravan of snow mobilers in their diesel trucks passed us. There's a large hill, next to Utah State University and I noticed one of the trucks intentionally "coal roll" a bicyclist. The cyclist had the downhill advantage and caught up to the truck BEHIND the yeast infected menstrual clot. That truck was stopped at a red light. We were too far behind to see what happened but the cyclist apparently pounded on the hood of the truck at the intersection. When the light turned green (we were waiting to make a left) and traffic didn't budge, I happened to look down and saw feet scuffling. I got out (snow boots and liftie uniform and all), to see if I could help or stop the altercation. Being the Founder and Grand Poohbah of the Church of Devout Cowardice, I was relegated to tugging on the shirt of the truck owner, who was clearly whooping on the cyclist. Folks were calling the cops and finally, the truck owner backed off - which I immediately did, with my hands up. He muttered something to the effect of "O.K., I'm done". I then started getting license numbers and the YIMC took notice. He asked me if I wanted his name and I said sure. He then raised his friendly finger and said "Here's my name!" Shortly thereafter, the police showed up and started taking statements. I made mine, giving the nice man's name to them and that was that. I heard/read that all of them were charged with something like disturbing the peace...

To the OP:

Call me simple, “simple...but “dooooshbag” in a thread title probably violates this here particular rule:

Please refrain from putting profanity in your thread titles

I think the rolling coal people are idiots and do it to anyone they can.

That being said, I see LOTS of stupid cyclists that deserve it (not all). The thru street in my neighborhood has an extra wide sidewalk (8' wide I think) and then the street has two lanes but a landscaped median in the middle. There are very few places one can pass a cyclist in a car if they're on the road. Of course, everyday you see someone on a bicycle doing 10 mph down the entire street and won't even pull into a driveway to let people pass.

Also, I had 1 episode where if I had a diesel truck I would have for sure rolled coal on them for the one time in my life IF I had a diesel truck. A1A is 2 lanes with a bike path on both sides of the shoulder, marked, labelled etc. You can drive 30 mph right past people that are in the bike lane because there's plenty of room. Well NO, this jerkoff cycling club with about 100 riders was riding 5+ bikes across taking up the entire bike lane and car lane, they were doing about 15 mph. Well, when there was no oncoming cars they fanned out and took up the oncoming lane as well (the entire street) so you couldn't pass them. This went on for 10 miles. It was about the rudest thing I have EVER seen. Meanwhile I was the third car and there must've been 500 cars stacked up behind us until they turned off onto a street.

Here in the Yoop it amazes me to see the spandex cycling enthusiasts pedaling furiously along, in close proximity to logging, mining and limestone tandem semis.
It is quite legal, no doubt. But it looks stupid risky.
We have a rail trail with a lot of varied terrain that runs from Marquette to Republic. Would seem to be a safer alternative to the semis.
www.ironoreheritage.com

quote:

Here in the Yoop it amazes me to see the spandex cycling enthusiasts pedaling furiously along, in close proximity to logging, mining and limestone tandem semis.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not to mention how cold it is in the UP. Do you see this in the winter?? I would think there would be some let up for about the seven months of winter you have there. They are probably tourists from out of state???

Here in the South we have the Natchez trace parkway, a national scenic roadway with a pretty low speed limit. Bikes in groups are almost always single file to the far right of the road. I think both cyclists and operators of motor vehicles need to have respect for one another. It is as simple as that.

Not much cycling going on right now. But the snow bikes are growing in popularity and are being seen everywhere in growing numbers. The trail is used mostly by snowmobilers this time of year.

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin1069:
To the OP:

Call me simple, “simple...but “dooooshbag” in a thread title probably violates this here particular rule:

Please refrain from putting profanity in your thread titles

Doooooooshbag is a dirty word? Since when?