|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#31
|
|||
|
|||
Age and Heart Rates
On 2016-12-17 21:42, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 17 Dec 2016 14:22:20 -0800, Joerg wrote: On 2016-12-17 14:05, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:51:14 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-16 09:50, wrote: [...] ... They have the luxury of getting to work rapidly and then sitting at a desk for the rest of the day. And if you eat some protein you can limit the muscle damage. Where I live is different. If I get a job in the area I want I could be commuting 50 km each way. And because of the traffic I could even be faster counting both the stop and go traffic and the more direct path I could take as a bicyclist. That's over 30mi each way. A lot. Not sure if I'd do that but if not many hills probably yes. The furthest I've commuted was a daily trip of 21 miles each way, but I know of one cyclist who commuted about double that for several years, from Dunstable to central London. We hired away a UK engineer, a very skinny guy. He had a commute somewhere north of 30mi, also near London. This guy rode a bike every day even in the driving rain. When he and his family arrived here in the US he no longer rode. Considering the absence of bike facilities this was fully understandable back then since that also caused me to stop riding. Yup. I had a machinist from Newcastle worked for me that did the same thing. When he worked in England he and all his mates rode a push bike to work and back. Then he immigrated and got a job at Pratt & Whitney and never rode a bike again..... He suddenly had enough money to buy a second hand car :-) Very different scenario here. This guy held a Ph.D. already back then and had a commensurate income. He probably rode for similar reasons you and I ride. [...] -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
Ads |
#32
|
|||
|
|||
Age and Heart Rates
On 2016-12-19 18:59, Phil Lee wrote:
Joerg considered Mon, 19 Dec 2016 13:57:12 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-17 21:12, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 12/17/2016 5:22 PM, Joerg wrote: On 2016-12-17 14:05, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:51:14 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-16 09:50, wrote: [...] ... They have the luxury of getting to work rapidly and then sitting at a desk for the rest of the day. And if you eat some protein you can limit the muscle damage. Where I live is different. If I get a job in the area I want I could be commuting 50 km each way. And because of the traffic I could even be faster counting both the stop and go traffic and the more direct path I could take as a bicyclist. That's over 30mi each way. A lot. Not sure if I'd do that but if not many hills probably yes. The furthest I've commuted was a daily trip of 21 miles each way, but I know of one cyclist who commuted about double that for several years, from Dunstable to central London. We hired away a UK engineer, a very skinny guy. He had a commute somewhere north of 30mi, also near London. This guy rode a bike every day even in the driving rain. When he and his family arrived here in the US he no longer rode. Considering the absence of bike facilities this was fully understandable back then since that also caused me to stop riding. When did you hire this guy? Where, exactly, did he ride in Britain? In 1998. I forgot the exact route. There weren't ANY in the UK that long in 1998. Zero, none, zilch, that were even half that long! As I have said before side roads, residential roads and agricultural roads with little vehicle traffic are quite acceptable in lieu of bike paths. Smart cyclists tend to find those. I'm curious how he found a 30 mile commuting route near London that had a significant proportion on bike facilities. What were they? It's too long ago and we haven't remained in contact after our company was acquired. Bike facilities were not his main concern. However, he noticed exactly the same effect that I noticed after moving here from Europe. American motorists are generally more polite than European ones but unfortunately also way less attentive to road conditions and the driving job in general. With the advent of fancier cell phones that has become much worse. On my ways down in the valley it doesn't matter to me as a cyclist because the bike paths are mostly so far segregated that I don't even hear the traffic. On the way up here, very different story. We get the same cellphones here, and as you accurately state, road manners are generally worse, not better - and lanes narrower! I would suggest that there was some other reason for his stopping cycling than the road conditions or the amount of cycling specific infrastructure. Maybe the change in climate and unsettling effects of the move broke his fitness below that necessary to make the commute, and he lost the habit. Maybe it was further or hillier (London isn't very hilly at all), or maybe it was just the low cost of cars and gas in the US. No hills down there either, only where I live and cyclists in my area simply become used to them. I merely repeated what he commented. There are plenty of possible reasons/excuses beyond safety arguments - particularly if it's being compared to a ride into or around London, which has the worst (and worst behaved) motor traffic in the UK! It wasn't to the inner city or even close. Home and workplace were outside the city. Now that bike infrastructure is gradually being put in people start riding bikes. Including myself. I guess for the auto industry that is not a good thing because my yearly car mileage is down to 1200mi. 4000mi on the bikes. Somehow, I don't think General Motors is going to notice. See http://www.afdc.energy.gov/data/10315 "2016 experienced the largest annual increase in VMT since tracking began in 1971." I meant my contribution to the auto industry. It is quite possible that our current vehicles which are both around 20 years old might live many more decades. Like the 1954 pickup truck my MTB buddy has. Naturally, the vast majority of our neighbors does not live like that and rides just about every mile inside a car. Sometimes even if it's just a few hundred yards. I noticed that in the US, and it mostly seemed to be pure habit. I'd use a stronger expression: Laziness. The company I used to work for with an office in Tulsa used to send me out a few times a year, and people in the building where the office was located were alarmed at my walking to work - from the hotel NEXT DOOR! Utterly ridiculous, as I actually traveled further vertically after entering the building than I did horizontally to reach it - so much so, that I used the stairs some of the time, just for the exercise. If I'd had a bicycle out there, I'd have used it for going out in the evenings, but it was easier to get hold of a car (the office manager out there used to lend me her son's z28 Camaro, in return for service advice (the suspension was best described as a project!), which got less necessary as things got fixed and he learned how to look after it. A Z28 is real fun to drive. When you can get a drivers permit at so young an age and so easily as in all the states I know about, .... It's changing. The recent generation is know for a serious lack of interest in obtaining a driver's license. They are happy in their little virtual cyber world. Sad. ... nearly all types of business have drive through facilities, and they even build big parking lots at schools, driving to school becomes a status thing (and the first personal and private space that most teenagers enjoy!), people stop using anything else, and it's hard to get them back into the habit. The topper and this was in the early 80's: We returned a long term rental car. The rental place's owner was completely stunned when we presented the invoice for changing oil and air filter. We obviously were the first to think of such stuff and he profoundly thanked us, then handed us a check. The place had no cash but he sad the bank is right across the street. However, drive-through only. We came back "Hey, can we have that car for another couple hundred yards and five minutes to cash the check?" ... of course we could. It was weird. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
#34
|
|||
|
|||
Age and Heart Rates
On 2016-12-19 18:35, Phil Lee wrote:
Joerg considered Sat, 17 Dec 2016 14:22:20 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-17 14:05, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:51:14 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-16 09:50, wrote: [...] ... They have the luxury of getting to work rapidly and then sitting at a desk for the rest of the day. And if you eat some protein you can limit the muscle damage. Where I live is different. If I get a job in the area I want I could be commuting 50 km each way. And because of the traffic I could even be faster counting both the stop and go traffic and the more direct path I could take as a bicyclist. That's over 30mi each way. A lot. Not sure if I'd do that but if not many hills probably yes. The furthest I've commuted was a daily trip of 21 miles each way, but I know of one cyclist who commuted about double that for several years, from Dunstable to central London. We hired away a UK engineer, a very skinny guy. He had a commute somewhere north of 30mi, also near London. This guy rode a bike every day even in the driving rain. When he and his family arrived here in the US he no longer rode. Considering the absence of bike facilities this was fully understandable back then since that also caused me to stop riding. Now that bike infrastructure is gradually being put in people start riding bikes. Including myself. I guess for the auto industry that is not a good thing because my yearly car mileage is down to 1200mi. 4000mi on the bikes. Almost none of that commute from Dunstable has any dedicated cycling infrastructure - it was all on roads with speed limits outside towns and villages of either 60 or 70mph. My own former 21 mile commute had precisely zero dedicated cycling infrastructure, and was almost all on single carriageway roads with 1 lane each way and a 60mph speed limit, but varying lane widths (some easily adequate for a pair of tractor trailers to pass without slowing, others which required one of them to pull over for anything bigger than a Fiat 500 - or more likely, force the oncoming car to pull over!). Your problem is that you have the cart ahead of the horse. No, this is the way the vast majority of people here think and for good reasons. When there are enough cyclists, there are also enough of them to be a significant voting block, and cycling infrastructure gets funded, particularly as it's seen as a way to speed the flow of motor traffic by getting all those pesky cyclists (for whom the roads were originally sealed and who use the roads by right) out of the way of the motorists (who only use the roads by permit and under strict conditions). In this day and age it only works if the planning guys take a leap of faith and build it. Like they did in Folsom, with resounding success. Same in Manhattan, and Portland, and ... As long as there are very few cyclists, you don't get any pressure from either the motorists (who perceive, usually wrongly, delays from having to wait to pass cyclists - it's only less time waiting in the next queue of motor traffic, after all) or from the timid or less capable road cyclists, who don't know how to ride in motor traffic safely (or those who worry on their behalf, regardless of real danger, just because of perceived danger based on their own competence level instead of that of the rider or that of the overwhelming majority of motorists). Smart cyclists know of the real danger. They know how to ride correctly and as the law demands. It does demand AFRAP here unless taking the lane is allowed. Example: I was riding a road like the one you described above every week, a "utility ride". There is one narrow bridge where I always took the lane. Until one fine day when a guy gunned it, passed me, realized opposing traffic and almost pushed me over the railing of that bridge. Since that day I use the car unless a bush road is passable via MTB (it floods a lot and I have to show up non-muddy). It's safer. Countless other examples. Some ended fatally for the cyclists, hit from behind at high speed. Sticking the head into the sand and hoping it's not going to happen to you might work. Or it might not. For those of us who have to provide for families it's not just about our lives. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
#35
|
|||
|
|||
Age and Heart Rates
On Monday, December 19, 2016 at 1:57:14 PM UTC-8, Joerg wrote:
On 2016-12-17 21:12, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 12/17/2016 5:22 PM, Joerg wrote: On 2016-12-17 14:05, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:51:14 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-16 09:50, wrote: [...] ... They have the luxury of getting to work rapidly and then sitting at a desk for the rest of the day. And if you eat some protein you can limit the muscle damage. Where I live is different. If I get a job in the area I want I could be commuting 50 km each way. And because of the traffic I could even be faster counting both the stop and go traffic and the more direct path I could take as a bicyclist. That's over 30mi each way. A lot. Not sure if I'd do that but if not many hills probably yes. The furthest I've commuted was a daily trip of 21 miles each way, but I know of one cyclist who commuted about double that for several years, from Dunstable to central London. We hired away a UK engineer, a very skinny guy. He had a commute somewhere north of 30mi, also near London. This guy rode a bike every day even in the driving rain. When he and his family arrived here in the US he no longer rode. Considering the absence of bike facilities this was fully understandable back then since that also caused me to stop riding. When did you hire this guy? Where, exactly, did he ride in Britain? In 1998. I forgot the exact route. I'm curious how he found a 30 mile commuting route near London that had a significant proportion on bike facilities. What were they? It's too long ago and we haven't remained in contact after our company was acquired. Bike facilities were not his main concern. However, he noticed exactly the same effect that I noticed after moving here from Europe. American motorists are generally more polite than European ones but unfortunately also way less attentive to road conditions and the driving job in general. With the advent of fancier cell phones that has become much worse. On my ways down in the valley it doesn't matter to me as a cyclist because the bike paths are mostly so far segregated that I don't even hear the traffic. On the way up here, very different story. Now that bike infrastructure is gradually being put in people start riding bikes. Including myself. I guess for the auto industry that is not a good thing because my yearly car mileage is down to 1200mi. 4000mi on the bikes. Somehow, I don't think General Motors is going to notice. See http://www.afdc.energy.gov/data/10315 "2016 experienced the largest annual increase in VMT since tracking began in 1971." I meant my contribution to the auto industry. It is quite possible that our current vehicles which are both around 20 years old might live many more decades. Like the 1954 pickup truck my MTB buddy has. Naturally, the vast majority of our neighbors does not live like that and rides just about every mile inside a car. Sometimes even if it's just a few hundred yards. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ Well, It isn't as if I think that Asian women are "bad" driver but in your sense very inattentive. |
#36
|
|||
|
|||
Age and Heart Rates
On 12/20/2016 4:27 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2016-12-19 18:59, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Mon, 19 Dec 2016 13:57:12 -0800 the perfect time to write: Naturally, the vast majority of our neighbors does not live like that and rides just about every mile inside a car. Sometimes even if it's just a few hundred yards. I noticed that in the US, and it mostly seemed to be pure habit. I'd use a stronger expression: Laziness. Yes, you can certainly describe it that way. But please note, laziness will not be significantly reduced by installation of some bike paths. That's why the U.S. is never going to have even 3% of its utility transport happen by bikes (barring some total economic collapse), no matter how many segregated bike facilities you build. -- - Frank Krygowski |
#37
|
|||
|
|||
Age and Heart Rates
On 12/20/2016 4:39 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2016-12-19 18:35, Phil Lee wrote: When there are enough cyclists, there are also enough of them to be a significant voting block, and cycling infrastructure gets funded, particularly as it's seen as a way to speed the flow of motor traffic by getting all those pesky cyclists (for whom the roads were originally sealed and who use the roads by right) out of the way of the motorists (who only use the roads by permit and under strict conditions). In this day and age it only works if the planning guys take a leap of faith and build it. Like they did in Folsom, with resounding success. If you can call 1% "resounding success"! -- - Frank Krygowski |
#38
|
|||
|
|||
Age and Heart Rates
On 2016-12-21 13:11, Phil Lee wrote:
Joerg considered Tue, 20 Dec 2016 13:27:04 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-19 18:59, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Mon, 19 Dec 2016 13:57:12 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-17 21:12, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 12/17/2016 5:22 PM, Joerg wrote: On 2016-12-17 14:05, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:51:14 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-16 09:50, wrote: [...] ... They have the luxury of getting to work rapidly and then sitting at a desk for the rest of the day. And if you eat some protein you can limit the muscle damage. Where I live is different. If I get a job in the area I want I could be commuting 50 km each way. And because of the traffic I could even be faster counting both the stop and go traffic and the more direct path I could take as a bicyclist. That's over 30mi each way. A lot. Not sure if I'd do that but if not many hills probably yes. The furthest I've commuted was a daily trip of 21 miles each way, but I know of one cyclist who commuted about double that for several years, from Dunstable to central London. We hired away a UK engineer, a very skinny guy. He had a commute somewhere north of 30mi, also near London. This guy rode a bike every day even in the driving rain. When he and his family arrived here in the US he no longer rode. Considering the absence of bike facilities this was fully understandable back then since that also caused me to stop riding. When did you hire this guy? Where, exactly, did he ride in Britain? In 1998. I forgot the exact route. There weren't ANY in the UK that long in 1998. Zero, none, zilch, that were even half that long! As I have said before side roads, residential roads and agricultural roads with little vehicle traffic are quite acceptable in lieu of bike paths. Smart cyclists tend to find those. Anywhere which would be regarded in the UK as "near London" would include negotiating barriers like major trunk roads and motorways, which only provide crossings for other major roads, forcing you to use them. The same is true for natural barriers like rivers, of course. Same here. Crossing them is not a problem. Riding on them for more than a few miles is a problem for most people. Or at least so uncomfortable that they won't do it. [...] Now that bike infrastructure is gradually being put in people start riding bikes. Including myself. I guess for the auto industry that is not a good thing because my yearly car mileage is down to 1200mi. 4000mi on the bikes. Somehow, I don't think General Motors is going to notice. See http://www.afdc.energy.gov/data/10315 "2016 experienced the largest annual increase in VMT since tracking began in 1971." I meant my contribution to the auto industry. It is quite possible that our current vehicles which are both around 20 years old might live many more decades. Like the 1954 pickup truck my MTB buddy has. Naturally, the vast majority of our neighbors does not live like that and rides just about every mile inside a car. Sometimes even if it's just a few hundred yards. I noticed that in the US, and it mostly seemed to be pure habit. I'd use a stronger expression: Laziness. The problem with using that word is that it's an instant turn-off for anyone you are hoping to convert. You don't win converts by antagonising them. What makes you think that I use that in front of people I want to convince? In this NG there will hardly be any lazy people since nearly all are already experienced cyclists. Doctors discuss a dire prognosis very openly among colleagues but, of course, not necessarily in front of a sensitive patient. The company I used to work for with an office in Tulsa used to send me out a few times a year, and people in the building where the office was located were alarmed at my walking to work - from the hotel NEXT DOOR! Utterly ridiculous, as I actually traveled further vertically after entering the building than I did horizontally to reach it - so much so, that I used the stairs some of the time, just for the exercise. If I'd had a bicycle out there, I'd have used it for going out in the evenings, but it was easier to get hold of a car (the office manager out there used to lend me her son's z28 Camaro, in return for service advice (the suspension was best described as a project!), which got less necessary as things got fixed and he learned how to look after it. A Z28 is real fun to drive. It is when it's properly maintained. Initially, it was almost unbeatable in a straight line and undrivable anywhere else! And even maintaining that straight line was challenging, with poor tracking and all the suspension joints loose giving bump-steering, torque steering, and all the other ills that afflict vehicles on which maintenance has been neglected over a long period - particularly powerful high performance ones. By my last visit, it was a pleasure to drive. By then, almost every joint and pivot in the suspension and steering had been replaced and fully re-aligned. That is a problem with many American passenger cars. Stuff does not last. Very different with many pickup trucks which seem to last forever. Bicycles have similar problems :-) When you can get a drivers permit at so young an age and so easily as in all the states I know about, .... It's changing. The recent generation is know for a serious lack of interest in obtaining a driver's license. They are happy in their little virtual cyber world. Sad. Maybe - but if their lack of interest in travel leads to fewer of them gaining driving permits, they are more likely to cycle when they do need to travel, particularly for local trips. Not at all. They generally do not even own a bicycle and don't want one. They simply do not travel. Until some day ... oh dang ... they can't get a job. Many of them look like a blimp by the time they are past 20. ... nearly all types of business have drive through facilities, and they even build big parking lots at schools, driving to school becomes a status thing (and the first personal and private space that most teenagers enjoy!), people stop using anything else, and it's hard to get them back into the habit. The topper and this was in the early 80's: We returned a long term rental car. The rental place's owner was completely stunned when we presented the invoice for changing oil and air filter. We obviously were the first to think of such stuff and he profoundly thanked us, then handed us a check. The place had no cash but he sad the bank is right across the street. However, drive-through only. We came back "Hey, can we have that car for another couple hundred yards and five minutes to cash the check?" ... of course we could. It was weird. LMAO - that's a classic example of how non-motorists are marginalised when "everyone drives". Yup :-( -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
#39
|
|||
|
|||
Age and Heart Rates
On 2016-12-21 14:07, Phil Lee wrote:
Joerg considered Tue, 20 Dec 2016 13:39:12 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-19 18:35, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Sat, 17 Dec 2016 14:22:20 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-17 14:05, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:51:14 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-16 09:50, wrote: [...] ... They have the luxury of getting to work rapidly and then sitting at a desk for the rest of the day. And if you eat some protein you can limit the muscle damage. Where I live is different. If I get a job in the area I want I could be commuting 50 km each way. And because of the traffic I could even be faster counting both the stop and go traffic and the more direct path I could take as a bicyclist. That's over 30mi each way. A lot. Not sure if I'd do that but if not many hills probably yes. The furthest I've commuted was a daily trip of 21 miles each way, but I know of one cyclist who commuted about double that for several years, from Dunstable to central London. We hired away a UK engineer, a very skinny guy. He had a commute somewhere north of 30mi, also near London. This guy rode a bike every day even in the driving rain. When he and his family arrived here in the US he no longer rode. Considering the absence of bike facilities this was fully understandable back then since that also caused me to stop riding. Now that bike infrastructure is gradually being put in people start riding bikes. Including myself. I guess for the auto industry that is not a good thing because my yearly car mileage is down to 1200mi. 4000mi on the bikes. Almost none of that commute from Dunstable has any dedicated cycling infrastructure - it was all on roads with speed limits outside towns and villages of either 60 or 70mph. My own former 21 mile commute had precisely zero dedicated cycling infrastructure, and was almost all on single carriageway roads with 1 lane each way and a 60mph speed limit, but varying lane widths (some easily adequate for a pair of tractor trailers to pass without slowing, others which required one of them to pull over for anything bigger than a Fiat 500 - or more likely, force the oncoming car to pull over!). Your problem is that you have the cart ahead of the horse. No, this is the way the vast majority of people here think and for good reasons. They may think that way, but the reasoning is faulty. It is not. When there are enough cyclists, there are also enough of them to be a significant voting block, and cycling infrastructure gets funded, particularly as it's seen as a way to speed the flow of motor traffic by getting all those pesky cyclists (for whom the roads were originally sealed and who use the roads by right) out of the way of the motorists (who only use the roads by permit and under strict conditions). In this day and age it only works if the planning guys take a leap of faith and build it. Like they did in Folsom, with resounding success. Same in Manhattan, and Portland, and ... Stevenage, and Milton Keynes, and Telford, and Basingstoke - none of which had 1/10th the cycling levels of Oxford, never mind Cambridge, neither of which had any dedicated cycling infrastructure at all. Where on earth do you think that "leap of faith" came from, if it wasn't demand? From lots of examples where demand was not being voiced. One example of many is the city of Folsom. They just built the bike infrastructure. They were smart. Magical thinking is not rational, and city planners who attempt to waste money by building facilities (never mind the constant maintenance of such facilities while waiting for the users to actually arrive and start reporting things like vegetation overgrowth, cracked surfacing, etc.) where they can't show a demand find themselves looking for other employment. The maintenance issue is a very real one - if facilities aren't used, they DO disappear through things like encroachment of vegetation, become crime ridden places where litter and even large-scale duping takes place, drug users hang out to get stoned/high and dealers congregate. Example: The El Dorado Trail which I use a lot. Maintained completely by volunteers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHU4zg_V3LY Now that traffic picks up in some areas they are paving another long section. I am not in favor of that because the money could be better used to a commuter bike path in the busier western parts. You need an existing pent-up demand to make sure that facilities start being used from day one, or they very quickly become places where even those who might want to use them (at least for their intended purpose) daren't! As long as there are very few cyclists, you don't get any pressure from either the motorists (who perceive, usually wrongly, delays from having to wait to pass cyclists - it's only less time waiting in the next queue of motor traffic, after all) or from the timid or less capable road cyclists, who don't know how to ride in motor traffic safely (or those who worry on their behalf, regardless of real danger, just because of perceived danger based on their own competence level instead of that of the rider or that of the overwhelming majority of motorists). Smart cyclists know of the real danger. They know how to ride correctly and as the law demands. It does demand AFRAP here unless taking the lane is allowed. Which it is in every example that has been quoted in this group - sometimes explicitly, sometimes just by use of the word "practicable". What you need to learn is the difference between practicable and possible. The law says so. It may be possible to share a 13' lane with an 11'6" semi, as long as you are prepared to overhang the road edge and duck as the door mirror skims your head, but it is certainly not practicable, which many states seem to directly address in the legislation as an example case of where it is not practicable. Others seem to make the assumption (apparently wrongly) that people are intelligent enough to figure that out for themselves. Example: I was riding a road like the one you described above every week, a "utility ride". There is one narrow bridge where I always took the lane. Until one fine day when a guy gunned it, passed me, realized opposing traffic and almost pushed me over the railing of that bridge. Since that day I use the car unless a bush road is passable via MTB (it floods a lot and I have to show up non-muddy). It's safer. What action did you take against the dangerous driver? Let me guess - none. Has it ever occurred to you that someone struggling to avoid a crash cannot at the same time keep a 2nd pair of eyes on a license plate because humans only have one pair? Besides, as most of the people here know the police will do ... nothing. Did you even make any obvious signal that it was unsafe for him to pass you? Like what? A fist in the air, with a loudly screamed expletive? Or throw a ballpeen hammer? ... If so, could he even see it past your daytime driver blinding lights? If you had read carefully you'd know that he saw me full well. Then he blew a mental gaskets because he was inconvenienced and floored it. Countless other examples. Some ended fatally for the cyclists, hit from behind at high speed. Sticking the head into the sand and hoping it's not going to happen to you might work. Or it might not. For those of us who have to provide for families it's not just about our lives. Yeah - becoming a stroke victim or diabetic helps your family far more than staying fit and healthy - NOT! It's actually far more likely (between 12 and 30 times more, according to which to studies you accept, although they all agree that it's highly significant) that you will suffer that or a similar fate (one causing death or permanent disability) through lack of exercise than from a cycling injury. Cycling (even on roads!) is that many times safer than not doing so. Just check on life insurance rates - do you think that the companies just make them up on a whim? There is a whole profession (actuaries) that is dedicated to quantifying those risks, and insurance companies depend on the accuracy of their data for their very survival. It's far less expensive to insure your life if you are fit and exercising regularly than if you are an obese and diabetic couch-potato, and cycling related physical trauma is so far down their radar that they don't generally even ask about utility cycling (although I'm sure they'd be interested in your constant string of near-death experiences). If the danger was really as bad in your area as you suggest, it would stand out in statistical studies and actuarial data as a glaring anomaly, yet somehow it doesn't. Except in your head, of course. Read the Sacramento Bee, then you know. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
#40
|
|||
|
|||
Age and Heart Rates
On 2016-12-23 10:24, Phil Lee wrote:
Joerg considered Wed, 21 Dec 2016 14:19:25 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-21 13:11, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Tue, 20 Dec 2016 13:27:04 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-19 18:59, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Mon, 19 Dec 2016 13:57:12 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-17 21:12, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 12/17/2016 5:22 PM, Joerg wrote: On 2016-12-17 14:05, Phil Lee wrote: Joerg considered Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:51:14 -0800 the perfect time to write: On 2016-12-16 09:50, wrote: [...] ... They have the luxury of getting to work rapidly and then sitting at a desk for the rest of the day. And if you eat some protein you can limit the muscle damage. Where I live is different. If I get a job in the area I want I could be commuting 50 km each way. And because of the traffic I could even be faster counting both the stop and go traffic and the more direct path I could take as a bicyclist. That's over 30mi each way. A lot. Not sure if I'd do that but if not many hills probably yes. The furthest I've commuted was a daily trip of 21 miles each way, but I know of one cyclist who commuted about double that for several years, from Dunstable to central London. We hired away a UK engineer, a very skinny guy. He had a commute somewhere north of 30mi, also near London. This guy rode a bike every day even in the driving rain. When he and his family arrived here in the US he no longer rode. Considering the absence of bike facilities this was fully understandable back then since that also caused me to stop riding. When did you hire this guy? Where, exactly, did he ride in Britain? In 1998. I forgot the exact route. There weren't ANY in the UK that long in 1998. Zero, none, zilch, that were even half that long! As I have said before side roads, residential roads and agricultural roads with little vehicle traffic are quite acceptable in lieu of bike paths. Smart cyclists tend to find those. Anywhere which would be regarded in the UK as "near London" would include negotiating barriers like major trunk roads and motorways, which only provide crossings for other major roads, forcing you to use them. The same is true for natural barriers like rivers, of course. Same here. Crossing them is not a problem. Riding on them for more than a few miles is a problem for most people. Or at least so uncomfortable that they won't do it. I think you missed the point - crossing them is only possible on other major roads - side roads, agricultural roads and residential roads, even if they existed before the barrier was created, are almost always severed by it, so you have to move onto the network of major roads just to be able to cross, and once on that network, it's very difficult to move back onto minor roads, because the major roads have limited junctions. We have a nice tool for that in the old colony: The traffic light :-) When going into the valley there is one major traffic artery where the bike path doesn't have the usual grade separation. I stopp, press a little button, 10 seconds later all traffic is stopped and I step on the pedals again. On the other roads in Folsom I can just barrel through regardless of traffic. Either under the road or on a cycle path bridge above. One even has both to pick from, beats me why. This one tops them all: http://www.traillink.com/trail-photo...rail.aspx#leaf [...] Now that bike infrastructure is gradually being put in people start riding bikes. Including myself. I guess for the auto industry that is not a good thing because my yearly car mileage is down to 1200mi. 4000mi on the bikes. Somehow, I don't think General Motors is going to notice. See http://www.afdc.energy.gov/data/10315 "2016 experienced the largest annual increase in VMT since tracking began in 1971." I meant my contribution to the auto industry. It is quite possible that our current vehicles which are both around 20 years old might live many more decades. Like the 1954 pickup truck my MTB buddy has. Naturally, the vast majority of our neighbors does not live like that and rides just about every mile inside a car. Sometimes even if it's just a few hundred yards. I noticed that in the US, and it mostly seemed to be pure habit. I'd use a stronger expression: Laziness. The problem with using that word is that it's an instant turn-off for anyone you are hoping to convert. You don't win converts by antagonising them. What makes you think that I use that in front of people I want to convince? The problem is that once you use it at all, it gets back to them as a commonly held opinion among cyclists. Again, I _never_ use that in front of people I want to convince to cycle. Sometimes laziness comes up but it's them bringing it up. It is good to be on their minds so they get off the couch because they don't want to be "those people". In this NG there will hardly be any lazy people since nearly all are already experienced cyclists. Doctors discuss a dire prognosis very openly among colleagues but, of course, not necessarily in front of a sensitive patient. The company I used to work for with an office in Tulsa used to send me out a few times a year, and people in the building where the office was located were alarmed at my walking to work - from the hotel NEXT DOOR! Utterly ridiculous, as I actually traveled further vertically after entering the building than I did horizontally to reach it - so much so, that I used the stairs some of the time, just for the exercise. If I'd had a bicycle out there, I'd have used it for going out in the evenings, but it was easier to get hold of a car (the office manager out there used to lend me her son's z28 Camaro, in return for service advice (the suspension was best described as a project!), which got less necessary as things got fixed and he learned how to look after it. A Z28 is real fun to drive. It is when it's properly maintained. Initially, it was almost unbeatable in a straight line and undrivable anywhere else! And even maintaining that straight line was challenging, with poor tracking and all the suspension joints loose giving bump-steering, torque steering, and all the other ills that afflict vehicles on which maintenance has been neglected over a long period - particularly powerful high performance ones. By my last visit, it was a pleasure to drive. By then, almost every joint and pivot in the suspension and steering had been replaced and fully re-aligned. That is a problem with many American passenger cars. Stuff does not last. Very different with many pickup trucks which seem to last forever. Bicycles have similar problems :-) But are much cheaper and easier to work on. Not at all. The only thing I ever did to my SUV was changing the oil, battery and (once) the tires. The timing belts were also changed once but only because the car is now 20 years old and I got concerned. They were still fine. The bicycles, however, need weekly maintenance or stuff will quickly go south. The difference in maintenance effort per mile between car and bicycles vastly exceeds 1:10. When you can get a drivers permit at so young an age and so easily as in all the states I know about, .... It's changing. The recent generation is know for a serious lack of interest in obtaining a driver's license. They are happy in their little virtual cyber world. Sad. Maybe - but if their lack of interest in travel leads to fewer of them gaining driving permits, they are more likely to cycle when they do need to travel, particularly for local trips. Not at all. They generally do not even own a bicycle and don't want one. They simply do not travel. Until some day ... oh dang ... they can't get a job. Many of them look like a blimp by the time they are past 20. That's where policies like promoting active travel to schools help. Although we do have that problem here, it is not as prevalent as there, because the UK is a pretty compact place generally, and as long as you don't live a long way out in the county, the chances are you will be in cycle commuting range of some kind of job, even if you are unfit. Here they often don't even have bike racks at school. Our local high school (Ponderosa High, Cameron Park, CA) can only be reached by narrow 2-lane fast roads. Nobody in their right mind cycles there regularly. ... nearly all types of business have drive through facilities, and they even build big parking lots at schools, driving to school becomes a status thing (and the first personal and private space that most teenagers enjoy!), people stop using anything else, and it's hard to get them back into the habit. The topper and this was in the early 80's: We returned a long term rental car. The rental place's owner was completely stunned when we presented the invoice for changing oil and air filter. We obviously were the first to think of such stuff and he profoundly thanked us, then handed us a check. The place had no cash but he sad the bank is right across the street. However, drive-through only. We came back "Hey, can we have that car for another couple hundred yards and five minutes to cash the check?" ... of course we could. It was weird. LMAO - that's a classic example of how non-motorists are marginalised when "everyone drives". Yup :-( And it's something we have far less of in the UK - drive through facilities are almost entirely at fast-food outlets. That's bad enough. Last time I frequented a fast food place was some time in the previous century and only because I got badgered into it by youngsters. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Max heart rates and age | Choppy Warburton | Racing | 30 | June 13th 11 09:12 PM |
Max heart rates and age | Fredmaster of Brainerd | Racing | 1 | June 10th 11 09:53 AM |
Tdf 'live' Heart rates | cupra | UK | 2 | July 18th 07 12:55 AM |
decrease of heart rates | le-sheq | Techniques | 4 | February 28th 06 11:33 PM |
Heart rates. | Simon Mason | UK | 0 | January 21st 06 07:45 PM |