Post 10,000 coming soon

[DaVoiceMaster]

Bring it on! I got me one of those little mirror thingy's stickin' off my helmet so I see you too! Here in Oregon though, people like to run over bicyclists so WATCH OUT!!!

[breaker91]

the real rivalry is in 'most bicycle-friendly city in the US'

Portland is #1, Minneapolis is #2, but we got them in our sights

That's a good rivalry, but until Minneapolis gets a crazy anti-bike blogger you'll be a distant second.

http://bikefreeportland.blogspot.com/

[Devilzsidewalk]

the real rivalry is in 'most bicycle-friendly city in the US'

Portland is #1, Minneapolis is #2, but we got them in our sights

That's a good rivalry, but until Minneapolis gets a crazy anti-bike blogger you'll be a distant second.

http://bikefreeportland.blogspot.com/

but in Minneapolis police run over bicyclists then pepper spray them

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2007 ... ce_adm.php

your move

[breaker91]

Pepper spray @ a critical mass ride is child's play.

The PoPo will tackle and taser cyclists for riding around without a working headlight.

http://bikeportland.org/2008/06/11/man- ... nd-police/

Back to you.

[Basti]

hey devilz, thx for putting me into your sig

btw: minny vs portland 1:0 in the bike department. you can't beat a mass macing.

[Devilzsidewalk]

Pepper spray @ a critical mass ride is child's play.

The PoPo will tackle and taser cyclists for riding around without a working headlight.

http://bikeportland.org/2008/06/11/man- ... nd-police/

Back to you.

http://greencycles.blogspot.com/2007/06/overview.html

this guy was tased by Mpls police AND they broke his sweet bike helmet, but he didn't take the law into his own hands, oh no sir, he took them to COURT! He even has court documents, police records, and evidence online for your amusement.

[breaker91]

Well we've covered police brutality. How about cyclists fighting back.

Several weeks ago a drunken cyclist literally threw it down against a driver who chided him for running a stop sign. The best part is that the driver is a bike mechanic.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews ... on_th.html

[Devilzsidewalk]

I like the comments in the story,

The worst thing I saw was at the intersection of Greeley and Interstate, where the flowers and ghost bicycle was still there from the recent fatal accident. The turn lane was closed.

On three mornings out of five, I watched bikes blow through the intersection without paying any attention to oncoming traffic. I just shook my head and tried not to kill anyone.

I can understand the irritation with bicyclists to a degree, a lot of bicyclists try to make a point in traffic that they have the same rights as cars and drive around in the middle of the road unnecessarily, but then again the bicycle infrastructure is still insufficient for comfortable bicycling - even in supposedly bicycle-friendly cities.

I usually bike as far away from cars as possible and I don't like to bike into the car lanes, legal or not, because I don't have any faith in drivers.

[theGreatRC]

I picked retirement, but since you have over 10000+ posts now, I am wishing I could change it to trolling the Blazer board.

[Devilzsidewalk]

how come you wanted me to retire, is it because my shtick is tiresome and you think I'm totally lame and stupid? that's why isn't it

[shrink]

I like the comments in the story,

The worst thing I saw was at the intersection of Greeley and Interstate, where the flowers and ghost bicycle was still there from the recent fatal accident. The turn lane was closed.

On three mornings out of five, I watched bikes blow through the intersection without paying any attention to oncoming traffic. I just shook my head and tried not to kill anyone.

I can understand the irritation with bicyclists to a degree, a lot of bicyclists try to make a point in traffic that they have the same rights as cars and drive around in the middle of the road unnecessarily, but then again the bicycle infrastructure is still insufficient for comfortable bicycling - even in supposedly bicycle-friendly cities.

I usually bike as far away from cars as possible and I don't like to bike into the car lanes, legal or not, because I don't have any faith in drivers.

I agree. I used to try to pick bikepaths on my roadbike until I was almost killed last year.

I was riding a bike approaching a highway overpass and preparing to go through the intersection in the bikepath/pedestrian crosswalk with a big "Walk" sign flashing. A driver in a big pick-up truck coming off the highway had slowed as he cruised up the off-ramp, and was ready to make a right on red. His attention was fully on looking over his left shoulder, and he started into the crosswalk. I dumped the bike hard, splattering out in front of his truck and into the first lane of traffic. If that wasn't bad enough, he still didn't notice me, and would have run me over if a car hadn't come across the bridge at just the right moment to make him pause on continueing his right. I rolled off the road, the oncoming car saw me and pulled into the other lane .. and then the guy continued his turn, as I threw my bike out of the way with my trailing hand. He missed my bike by a foot .. twice .. and the guy never even turned around.

Bikepaths along city streets and highways are also dangerous because pedestrians, animals and children are using them too, and because people backing out of their driveways rarely check the bikepaths and are focused on the street. Now I ride on the sides of roads, and even when I'm way over, I get yelled at (I even have had things thrown at me) for not using bikepaths. I agree bikers should do their best to try to stay out of the way of drivers, but it wasn't until I started biking myself that I realized that driver's behavior often forces cyclists onto the roads.

[breaker91]

I've been a bike commuter for about 15 years now and when I started I realized a lot of the near misses I had was because cars didn't really see\notice me. After rolling up to the close cutters at the next intersection and seeing their surprised reaction when I started yelling at them it kind of clicked.

Its kind of funny that when I was kid growing up I was taught by my teachers, parents and even the police to make sure drivers could see me and now the overwhelming lesson is to be to the far right and as unnoticeable as possible.

I can see where you are guys are coming from when I lived in N Va and commuted into DC I tried to avoid the roads as much as possible.

In spite some of the crazy incidents here, one of the things I like so much about Portland is that there are enough of us out there (the latest surveys say about 5-6% of people commute to work by bike) that cars pretty much expect to encounter us on their commute. I find as long as you are noticeable, predictible and stick to moderate traffic streets drivers will give you plenty of space when they pass.

[theGreatRC]

how come you wanted me to retire, is it because my shtick is tiresome and you think I'm totally lame and stupid? that's why isn't it

You're cool in my book.

I just wanted a legend to go out with a bang.

[deeney0]

Madison has bike paths in the MIDDLE of the road. Univeristy Ave. is a one way that runs East to West through campus. Starting from the left, it has three lanes of car traffic, and bike lane, and then ANOTHER lane of traffic for buses and turning. I've had two people I know clipped by cars. No amount of prodding could get my to bike in that lane - the only semester I lived an appreciable distance from campus I walked the 25 minutes rather than bike.

[SoSick]

I voted for "share a good haiku" but i don't know what a haiku is

[Basti]

I voted for "share a good haiku" but i don't know what a haiku is

IIRC it is a specific form of a poem

yeah wiki apprives my thought
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku

[SoSick]

^ That's just a joke

Please troll the bazers boards lols

[Devilzsidewalk]

Madison has bike paths in the MIDDLE of the road. Univeristy Ave. is a one way that runs East to West through campus. Starting from the left, it has three lanes of car traffic, and bike lane, and then ANOTHER lane of traffic for buses and turning. I've had two people I know clipped by cars. No amount of prodding could get my to bike in that lane - the only semester I lived an appreciable distance from campus I walked the 25 minutes rather than bike.

somewhat similar to downtown Minneapolis: you have car lane traveling one direction on one side, bus lane traveling in the other direction on the opposite side, and a bike lane in between. Today I heard they're starting construction thats supposed to make the sidewalks bigger and give another lane for the buses, so I wonder if they're going to phase out the bike lanes?