Dinsdale wrote:Risa wrote:Dinsdale: if you're mayor is a Critical Mass devotee, he's part of the problem, not the solution.
Actually, he's kind of bridged the gap between the parties, and people tend to be on better behavior when they're in the company of the mayor...who rides his bike to work every day and to his appointments(he's over 60-btw).
Well, good for him. Our mayor claims to ride his bike too. He also claims to ride the bus. I'll believe it when there's a better bus system than just along the money-making Route 66 corridor.
How far does your mayor do it? and how many places of employment in Portland have shower facilities for cyclists?
There has to be a better way to show solidarity among cyclists AND educate motorists
Huh? I can't think of a better way to "educate" some dumd soccermom that to put a fat bootprint in her door. While it wasn't used for the same cause as the CM folks, I've used the exact same technique to "educate" people about having respect for motorcyclists. Seems to get the point across.
Nah. I just take up an entire lane (which I am allowed to do at an intersection) and stop and do a long look back at the driver (if fools want to play the leadfoot/horn honk game, though to be fair, that was only one bitch) then go slow. Fuck these people. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna be a dumbass and start destroying property. That's never cool, man. I wouldn't want someone to destroy my property, why would I destroy theirs? And all it does is make people feel justified in engaging in roadrage on the one hand, and knocking cyclists off the road by passing as close as possible in order to 'get past them' on the other. This is New Mexico. Not only do cyclists have to watch for stupid asses throwing litter out the window, and rocks being kicked up behind the mudflaps of dick-substitute trucks, and assholes who think 'red' means 'the world has stopped for everyone but me'... now you have people intentionally antagonizing motorists? no way, man. Can't be doing that.
Off subject, I think a section on sharing the road with cyclists (both motorized and pedal power) should be a standardized part of all driving schools and driving tests. So where your maps?
i do have to ask, what are the safety measures like on those private and unofficial paths when it comes to lighting and fencing and signs, especially at night?
Huh?
What are these "fences" and "lighting" you speak of?
The fences that keep good people from flipping into the concrete arroyos when the wind picks up and the monsoon season hits, here in the desert. Some of those are some extremely long drops to the bottom, particularly along the highways.
And lighting, well, that's just being safe. Doesn't have to be garish, just letting you know what's along your path, particularly beside buildings or next to maps. Y'all have maps along your trails as well, right?
Seriously, heve you ever actually been in a forest?
Hello, I'm from Indiana.
And regardless, what is this "being in the forest at night" thing you speak of?
More like a 'need to get home from work cuz I'm working 2nd/3rd shift' thing that I speak of. Cycling isn't just for one's health. Hell, I work with someone who bikes all the way from the east mountains, past the rio grande to beyond the west valley. That's a loooooooong ass way on a bike trail, especially with just reflected lights for the residential sections.
So maybe y'all ain't got drop offs that'll break your neck and worse if you flip the guardrail, but that's forest. That's darkness if it's a tight canopy overhead (is it?), too many moving shadows. People gotta get places, get home... or get to work, if it's early in the morning come winter time and the sun doesn't bother to breach the horizon til like 6 or 7:30am.... Safety.
Bumping through urban forests at night is generally considered a pretty piss-poor idea.
And that's where safety comes in.
We may not have invented serial killers around here, but we definitely raised the bar.
I'm remembering a story Sudden Sam told, last year or so, about a trip he took along a trail on his bike, and meeting up with some Deliverance folks. That was broad daylight. You can meet death anywhere. Why make it easier to do so by not having some safety precautions for those who have to get home.
I'm the toughest, most hardcore motherfucker around (just ask me),
You're a butch lesbian marine?
and I don't go beebopping through the woods in and around the city at night...that's fucking nuts. Way too many people of questionable character living in those places.
Is that the biggest reason why those private trails you boast of aren't on any city map?
on a short leash, apparently.
