Drivers and others

[dryheat]

We have a road that runs from the outskirts of town(where I live) to the lake. I guess fifteen miles. They have gone to the trouble to widen the road and put in nice six foot wide bike lanes on the sides. The bike riders still want to ride in tandem so one guy is on the left edge and will be the one who gets hit(I don't know how this is decided). Then when the road gets to the winding part and the bike lane ends some of them insist on riding the shoulder for another fifteen miles. All while there are big trucks towing big boats up over hills with no visibility around curves. I cross the center line for no one. In fact I won't go near the lake on Sat and Sundays in my car(people drinking and being foolish in vehicles) but these guys and gals who could just turn around and do fifteen safe miles want to risk death on the edge of the road. They rarely get hit.

[togor]

I share CH's impatience to a degree but ultimately Vernon is correct in pointing out that the road belongs to other atypical users including bicyclists, horse-drawn carts and buggies, ag equipment. Just gotta be patient.

[lyman]

How do you safely pass a long line of them on a winding road with no shoulder & plenty of oncoming traffic?

You don't -- you show courtesy and wait until it's safe to pass.

What is it at your destination that's so important that you're willing to kill people to get there a few minutes earlier?

yep,

just slow and wait,

nothing you can do, and the groups in this area are pretty decent, they will stretch themselves out to single file and let the traffic go by, (not that there is a lot of traffic, since it is a back road, semi rural area)


of course, it's no worse than getting behind a farm truck going slow overloaded with hay, or a tractor that is screaming along at 20mph

part of being out in the woods

[Vern Humphrey]

yep,

just slow and wait,

nothing you can do, and the groups in this area are pretty decent, they will stretch themselves out to single file and let the traffic go by, (not that there is a lot of traffic, since it is a back road, semi rural area)


of course, it's no worse than getting behind a farm truck going slow overloaded with hay, or a tractor that is screaming along at 20mph

part of being out in the woods

Exactly right -- the logger, the cement truck, the farmer and the cyclist all have a right to use the road, and we should respect that.

Did you notice that tractors are not registered, and not required to carry liability insurance?

[lyman]

Exactly right -- the logger, the cement truck, the farmer and the cyclist all have a right to use the road, and we should respect that.

Did you notice that tractors are not registered, and not required to carry liability insurance?

here in VA they are required to have a slow moving reflector on the back,

[clintonhater]

Exactly right -- the logger, the cement truck, the farmer and the cyclist all have a right to use the road, and we should respect that.

Comparing people who can't avoid creating traffic problems because it's their WORK, essential to their own livelihood as well as commerce, with those doing it for FUN is preposterous. If the farmer could "wish" his machinery wherever it has to go, without obstructing traffic, OF COURSE he'd do it! If the Amish buggy driver wasn't constrained by crazy religious superstitions, he'd use motorized vehicles as he uses motorized eqpt on his farm. (Or puppy-mill--Amish are the most notorious operators of puppy-mills in the NE.) I'm quite tolerant of the inconveniences caused by people who have no other choice, like the logging trucks I frequently get stuck behind, but don't tell me that's the same thing as doing it for your personal amusement!

Respect people (most of them, by the way, yuppie Dems with Bernie stickers on their Audis or BMWs) who cause a far larger number of motorists this grief so they can have FUN? Where's THEIR "social responsibility"? Where's their moral concern for the accidents caused by motorists trying to get around them? I say your FUN ends where my nose begins.

[Vern Humphrey]

here in VA they are required to have a slow moving reflector on the back,

Same in every state, so far as I know. Mine has the reflector, lights and blinkers too.

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Comparing people who can't avoid creating traffic problems because it's their WORK, essential to their own livelihood as well as commerce, with those doing it for FUN is preposterous.

I point out that many motorists drive for fun, too. Tourism by automobile is quite common.

So how come motorists have a right to use the road for pleasure, but other people don't?

[lyman]

I had a Mini Cooper S for 8 yrs,

every drive was fun,



meanwhile,

I have no issues, as mentioned, with carriages, cyclist, joggers , tractors etc etc,



what chaps my backside it the folks that, regardless of what motor vehicle they are driving, refuse to go the speed limit,


I realize 45mph may be the limit, and there is no stated minimum, but damn,

long straight road thru a park, no traffic, nothing but trees on either side, and due to some small hills, no passing, and getting stuck behind someone (age does not matter, they all do it) running 30mph for miles is frustrating

[Vern Humphrey]

I had a Mini Cooper S for 8 yrs,

every drive was fun,



meanwhile,

I have no issues, as mentioned, with carriages, cyclist, joggers , tractors etc etc,



what chaps my backside it the folks that, regardless of what motor vehicle they are driving, refuse to go the speed limit,


I realize 45mph may be the limit, and there is no stated minimum, but damn,

long straight road thru a park, no traffic, nothing but trees on either side, and due to some small hills, no passing, and getting stuck behind someone (age does not matter, they all do it) running 30mph for miles is frustrating

You should visit Texas. You'll be driving down a winding back road, with an old farmer in a pickup in front of you, and he'll pull over so you can pass.

[clintonhater]

I point out that many motorists drive for fun, too. Tourism by automobile is quite common.

So how come motorists have a right to use the road for pleasure, but other people don't?

For the OBVIOUS reason that they aren't creating a traffic obstruction, & with the potential for causing an accident! Now bring up some other absurd comparison, though that one scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

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I had a Mini Cooper S for 8 yrs,

every drive was fun,

Were you driving it at 10 mph, with maybe a long stream of traffic trying to get past? Certainly not!

[Vern Humphrey]

For the OBVIOUS reason that they aren't creating a traffic obstruction, & with the potential for causing an accident!

If YOU run into THEM, it's YOU who caused the accident, not THEM.

[lyman]

For the OBVIOUS reason that they aren't creating a traffic obstruction, & with the potential for causing an accident! Now bring up some other absurd comparison, though that one scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

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Were you driving it at 10 mph, with maybe a long stream of traffic trying to get past? Certainly not!

I usually drove it at least 10mph,, over the limit,