From: robertb@tarski.mit.edu (Robert Becker)
Subject: Re: Ignorant Cyclists (was: Hints on commuting by bike?)
Organization: MIT Department of Mathematics, Cambridge, MA
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 14:33:59 GMT

In article <q4j-YD=@engin.umich.edu> blagdon@engin.umich.edu (Kenneth James Clark ) writes:
>"Wrong side of the street" sounds pretty benign to me.  I would usually
>say something a bit more caustic, like "Wrong side of the street you idiot!".
>And "What are you trying to do, get both of us killed?".  And maybe "Why 
>don't you try learning to ride that thing?".  
>
>I suppose I'm from the 'shame and derision work' school of motivation at 
>times.  Which is more obnoxious, them riding on the wrong side of the street,
>or you hurting their feelings?

There I was riding to work (about 25 mph: I was in a rush) and in front of me
about 100 yards was this cyclist.  He was zigzagging in a regular pattern,
a zig or zag about every 20 yards, and he was covering the entire area 
free for cyclists.  We were riding on a one-direction two-lane road with
traffic going anywhere from 30-45 mph.  In order to avoid him, I had to
pull into traffic (after checking, thank goodness it was clear) and,
while blasting by, said "Don't you know how to ride a straight line?"
He looked 40ish, so I was really surprised.  Had panniers, mirror on the
helmet, and looked like he knew what he was doing, except he didn't.

Anyway, he caught me at the next light and said, just as the light
turned green "I've been riding for 20 years and nobody's ever said that
to me."  I replied "It's about time someone did!" and rode off.

Then there was the guy doing donuts in front of stopped traffic at a light.
He was wearing headphones and couldn't hear me screaming at him.  Sigh.

Of course, riding a bicycle in a city environment weeds out all the stupid
people, like the guy I saw get killed while crossing a lane of traffic
at right angles.  He didn't check to see if anybody was coming.

And then there's the little kids who, in an effort to look cool, squeeze
their way through traffic at right angles as if they had the mobility of
pedestrians jaywalking.  They did OK in that case, but the kids behind
them were trying to follow and nearly got killed.  They were maybe 12.
Cars were braking hard (sound effects, please) all over the place.  I
figured yelling at them wouldn't help (they knew they'd come close), so
I told them to check traffic before crossing or they WOULD get killed
next time.

Common untruth held by many parents, who then pass it to their kids:
bicycles should ride against traffic.  Why?  Because they can see the
cars coming.  Of course, nobody thinks of things like closing speed.

I ran into a cyclist who, literally, weaved the bike about 3 feet in
either direction each time a foot went down.  He rode no hands.  When
I told him he was scaring the traffic (and me) and asked him to ride
with his hands on the bars, it got worse (!).  I told him to ride
no hands and try to go in a straight line.  He was a student from the former
USSR.

The stories are never-ending.  Personally, I favor mandatory bicycle
education:  not just in the rules of the road, but also how to ride the
damn things.  The training would be age 8, and again when the kids get
out of 6th grade.  Their hormones are really kicking in by then and who
-- 

---------------
Robert Becker, Secretary, 2-332      Dept. of Mathematics, MIT
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307            (617)253-1797