Dear Boston Motorists,
Lets make one thing crystal clear. Cyclists are not slowing you down. You read that correctly, cyclists are not the reason you are not going as fast as you want to go.
“But what about when they ride in the street!!!!!11(sic)!!!”
No, stop it. Listen.
C Y C L I S T S A R E N O T T H E O N E S S L O W I N G Y O U D O W N.
This is not a matter of opinion, this is a simple math problem. I can prove this with a piece of paper and a pencil. I can tell by the look on your face that you don’t believe me. You think I am just another smug cyclists using your road and slowing you down.
Read on here.
Bostonians aka Massholes aren’t harrassing cyclists right now. They’re too busy fighting each other over PAHKING spaces.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1314687&srvc=home&position=comment
“Hey peckahead, It’s not for nothin I shovelled out this pahking space an I put a quahtuh in the metuh too. Didn’t you see trash bucket I put in the space? That means it’s mine until next yeah. I hate the wintuh.”
Like.
Here in Washington State, they’ve instituted a $100/year fee to license an electric car, “because they don’t pay for gas.” This is exactly the same sort of numb-nut, drooling, imbecile thinking that millions of sheeple drowning in gasoline-dependent nightmares of their own making spew at cyclists.
You heard it here first: oil at 120/bbl this summer. Keep schlurping that cock, solo SUV commuters.
N.B. people of Atlanta.
ABANDON YOUR CAR
I’m almost 60. I can beat the bus down the 8 miles of (H)El Camino Real from work to home. It is fun to pass up the cars that just had to get in front of me at the next light or even the one after that. I even beat cars on my 5 mile run up Foothill, posted 45, after work if I leave work on time. Some times I pass them and they never catch up because they hit the same traffic light twice….. How sweet is that one?
Riding in 2 days per week saves me nearly $70/month fuel costs alone. Just that alone means 2 beers per days ride not spent on gas and I’ve burned most of the calories…..
Skunk – I like that blog too. Word up.
If you think I’m obnoxious on this forum, you should see me when some dickwad cager wants to fight me for riding my bike on “his” road, with the honking and the yelling and the crowding. It ain’t nothin’ but a miracle I haven’t killed one of ’em with my bare hands. But I figure every mile I ride in this podunk shithole raises cycling awareness, at least among those who still got half a brain.
JTE, you are a fucking trip. I gotta tell you, when I was in AZ, one of the guys we rode with actually brought you up in conversation, asking me what my thoughts were – LOL. cracked me up.
Dear, was his name Francis or Jellyjar or somesuch?
jte, no, not him. i wanted to go to tucson and find his box truck tho…
Well if you ever see him, tell him Joe says “hey”. Be safe, kid. Rubber side down an’at, a’ight?
I miss Boston. I miss Dali’s and The Garment District and The Middle East… the drivers? Not so much…
The only thing I miss about Boston is watching the Bruins games at the Garden, back when Bobby Hull was playing. Even then it was Hell to ride a bicycle there, but not as bad as it is now according to the guys that stayed there.
I love Boston. A great city that made a huge impression on me in my 17th summer. I try to go back for a visit every year or two.
I was lucky enough to be on a Duck Tour when we got behind an impromptu lunch-hour Critical Mass type of ride. The driver was very supportive, kept his distance, threw them waves and thumbs-ups. We enjoyed the slower pace the tour took, on that fine, sunny afternoon.
Boston, I hope, is not seeing the turmoil that NYC is enduring in motorist/cyclist relations. See BikeSnobNYC for more on that.
Don’t ever change, Joe. Ever.
Never have. Never will.
I love it when a car honks or tries to push me off the road only to be stuck at the next light with me caught up i usually set my foot down smirk at them and make it to the next light before them. I know it is kinda a bikers road rage, but when they think they own the road they need a litlle humility. One time i got carried away because of a jerk that I taunted them through like 6 blocks until they got off that road only meet me with my bike parked and locked up 2 miles away at a restaraunt. hillarity
charlyfox, “smirk”? So you’re sayin’ you don’t carry a u-lock?
Drivers create the hell that they complain about.
A well seasoned messenger (and crazy good CX racer) friend of mine, whom I lovingly refer to as Bike Yoda, wrote some of the best advice I’ve ever heard regarding motorist antics: “If you get all bent out of shape about what just happened, you’re not going to be focusing on what might happen next and it’s the things in your very near future that may cause you harm, not the things that happened 10 seconds ago.” While it may not be applicable to all situations, but his reminder of needing to ride with “teflon skin” has kept me out of eventual handcuffs on a few occasions when reacting to motorists’ behavior. http://www.flyingpigcourier.com/bike/
That’s all well and good, dear, but look at the aerobic workout you get if you’re mad enough to try and catch the petrol-burning swine at the next light.
Legs, you in Boston? I just flew in a few days ago, here til Sunday.