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Biker radicals




I've been reading a bit in the rec.bicycles.soc group for a bit now and
you won't believe what some of those guys (and it's all guys, women have
too much common sense) seem to believe.  Look I love bikes, I support
bike paths, and I sometimes go out biking.  When I ride I use a bike
path or the sidewalk when ever I can and when I do use the road I know
well enough that I should stay out of the way of cars.  I mean it's just
common sense and, I thought, the law (the cops never hassle me about
it).

Anyway, these guys in rec.bicycles.soc seem to think that they should be
treated just like a car and boy do they get pissed-off when you point
out the obvious fact that they aren't.  Unfortunately, it seems that
these radical bikers have got the law changed from what it used to be.
I know when I was a kid the cops used to tell you to ride on the
sidewalk and if you had to use the road to ride on the left side so that
you could get off the road if you saw a car coming.  If there had been
bike paths I know they would have told you to ride there.  Now it seems
that bikes don't have to ride on the sidewalk (they aren't even supposed
to!) or the bike path and they are not even supposed to ride on the
left.  Hell, it even seems to be legal for them to make a left turn from
the left lane (go figure)!

What's really wacky about this is that I know some real car hating
eco-freaks and they agree with me about these guys, they're nuts.  They
know that cars and bikes don't mix and that's why they're big on bike
paths.  These radical bikers seem to hate bike paths and say that they
are more dangerous than mixing it with cars (well I guess they might be
more dangerous if you're going to wear those stirrup things and ride
like Greg LaMode).  What's a real hoot is that these radical bikers get
as pissed-off with the car hating eco-freaks as they do with drivers.
When I ask my car hating eco-freak friends why should the government
spend my tax money on bike paths if bikers don't even have to use them,
all they can do is shrug their shoulders.  I mean what's the point to
bike paths if they don't get bikes off the road?!

I spent a week in Holland and I'll tell you they don't put up with any
of that crap there.  Bikes have their paths and the law says that they
have to use them and you sure as hell don't see any bikes on the roads
(at least the main ones).  If you could have American roads (Dutch ones
are too crowded) and Dutch bike paths and Dutch bike laws it would be
great.  Of course you'll never see that here with the sort of egghead
politicians we get and with every minority group whining about their
rights.

So what do we do about it?  Well if they want to be treated like drivers
then we treat them like drivers, by the book.  Nothing illegal but no
slack either, treat them just like you'd treat any car.  No more letting
them pass you on the right when you are making a right turn.  No more
yielding to them when they're in the cross walk or on the sidewalk, if
they aren't supposed to be there you don't yield to them.  If they ride
at night without lights you don't see them and they're not there.  If
they want to make a left turn they can just wait till there's a gap, I'm
not giving it to them.  And if they have a stop or yield sign I'm just
going to assume that they are going to stop, no more waving them
through.  If they're riding on the wrong side of the road, fuck em, I'm
not moving over.  Let's see how they really like it when we all stop
being Mr. Niceguy.  Let them see that the real world of driving isn't as
nice as they seem to think it is.

One other thing, I had always thought that if you hit a biker you were
always at fault, like hitting a pedestrian, but according to a cop I was
talking to it's not so.  If a biker runs a stop light and you hit him
he's at fault, in fact if your car is damaged you can sue him.  Gee,
some of the those changes in the law aren't so bad!


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