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Can you make it to the market on a bike?



 
 
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  #451  
Old August 7th 07, 01:32 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
Pat
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 671
Default I guess the scooter ain't very safe either

On Aug 6, 1:43 pm, donquijote1954 wrote:
I guess the scooter ain't very safe either...

Zigzagging: Most Dangerous Driving

Don't ask me for a study that backs up such a statement, it's just
obvious. Every time you get on the road you see these wild vehicles
(usually SUVs and larger vehicles) zigzagging all around playing a
game of Russian Roulette --a game they always win since they are
bigger...

So there I was last night riding my scooter with my girlfriend
(sitting ducks, so to speak), taking the middle lane on a three lane
road, when a beat-up van with three terrorist rats* cut me off almost
to the point of making catastrophic contact (*forgive me my jungle
talk referring to the small time predators, unlike the big time
predators in SUVs).

WHY? Well, I know that if I had had a gun I would have emptied it in
his head and so feeding the ROAD RAGE ESCALATION, but I didn't and I
wouldn't have caught up with him anyway. So I was left to cope with my
rage and impotence, if only having the consolation to be alive. But
still that hasn't answered my question. WHY? I guess it may have do to
with the instinct in "Natural Born Killers,"** but there's some deeper
cause, one that points at the system that doesn't crack down on them,
and that simply fails to implement some basic RULES OF THE ROAD.

This dawned on me later: They were provoked into this reckless,
criminal driving (no excuses for that) by a road that was completely
blocked by a few cars, oblivious to that basic rule of "slow vehicles
keep to the right." And there's lies the problem: When there are no
rules of the road, then you get the Law of the Jungle...

** NATURAL BORN KILLERS, the movie

REVIEW
Why not kill them at birth, or even before
By Jacques COULARDEAU

This is Apocalypto in the all-American modern version. Our society
produces, be they born or not born, a whole fringe of killers that
absolutely know what is wrong or right, good or bad, but who do not
care a fig about it, even if at times they do not find any pleasure in
murdering. The film explores the destiny of a couple of two young
people who meet by accident but find in themselves so many common
alienations and frustrations based on about the same social, cultural
and personal environment : sexual abuse and violence from parents,
rejection from society, total lack of care and help in education that
is inexistant or social counselling that is just impotent. They end up
taking what they want by force since it is not provided to them free.
But the film goes a lot further. It analyzes the role of the media
that systematically sell paper and prime time advertising with this
showing of violence and with fake or unfake interviews of murderers
and other criminals. The lower, the better. The nastier, the more
profitable. The bloodier, the tastier. Then the film also shows that
the prison system is a system of incarceration and containment, in no
way of reform, education and improvement. These prisoners are there to
survive because no one dares execute them all. They are the
sacrificial victims of society that needs them to regenerate its lost
virginity, purity and morality. They are the sacrificial victims of a
god that has nothing to envy the Maya gods. This god is the god of
selfish greedy consumerism. Till it explodes. And the official end of
the film shows that such criminals can disappear in society forever,
and they are then living among us unknown and unseen. The alternative
ending shows that you need the intervention of an angel to execute
these criminals. The film preaches and advocates that these criminals
are natural born killers, hence that they will never be anything else,
hence that they have to be purely and simply executed as soon as they
are noticed and as fast as possible to avoid as many victims as
possible, why not at birth ? This vision of crime in our society is
criminal in itself because it produces the criminals concerned by
considering there is no other way, it is their fate and ours.

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLEhttp://webspawner.com/users/donquijote

COMING OUT OF THE JUNGLEhttp://webspawner.com/users/donquijote1


You guys always lose me with these SUVs are evil threads. I never
have any problems with them when I'm on my motorcycle. You just have
to drive your motorcycle like a car, following the same rules, keep
your high beam on in the daytime, and make eye contact. If you are
experiencing problems, I would guess it is one of three things: you
are not keeping up to road speed, you are not accelerating as quickly
as everyone else, or your bike just too small to be seen/noticed.

You might want to consider something a bit bigger. I've ridden the
Honda Silver Wing and that's a sweet ride.

Other than that, the best you can do is get a really loud horn, such a
boat horn or something.

Ads
  #452  
Old August 7th 07, 05:11 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
donquijote1954
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,851
Default I guess the scooter ain't very safe either

On Aug 6, 8:32 pm, Pat wrote:

Zigzagging: Most Dangerous Driving


Don't ask me for a study that backs up such a statement, it's just
obvious. Every time you get on the road you see these wild vehicles
(usually SUVs and larger vehicles) zigzagging all around playing a
game of Russian Roulette --a game they always win since they are
bigger...



You guys always lose me with these SUVs are evil threads. I never
have any problems with them when I'm on my motorcycle. You just have
to drive your motorcycle like a car, following the same rules, keep
your high beam on in the daytime, and make eye contact.


You'll be lucky if you can make eye contact. Most of them have tinted
windows.

If you are
experiencing problems, I would guess it is one of three things: you
are not keeping up to road speed, you are not accelerating as quickly
as everyone else, or your bike just too small to be seen/noticed.


If they can miss a scooter, what comfort there's for a bicycle? Or
could it be that they simply miss it because they are engaged on the
phone, changing pampers, etc?


You might want to consider something a bit bigger. I've ridden the
Honda Silver Wing and that's a sweet ride.

Other than that, the best you can do is get a really loud horn, such a
boat horn or something.-


How about requiring these TRUCKS to require a TRUCK DRIVER'S LICENSE
(a step above driving a regular car but not a fully semi driver's
license) and banning cell phones, etc? I guess that would be too much
for the big business involved in SUVs...

  #453  
Old August 7th 07, 05:43 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
Pat
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 671
Default I guess the scooter ain't very safe either

On Aug 7, 12:11 pm, donquijote1954
wrote:
On Aug 6, 8:32 pm, Pat wrote:

Zigzagging: Most Dangerous Driving


Don't ask me for a study that backs up such a statement, it's just
obvious. Every time you get on the road you see these wild vehicles
(usually SUVs and larger vehicles) zigzagging all around playing a
game of Russian Roulette --a game they always win since they are
bigger...


You guys always lose me with these SUVs are evil threads. I never
have any problems with them when I'm on my motorcycle. You just have
to drive your motorcycle like a car, following the same rules, keep
your high beam on in the daytime, and make eye contact.


You'll be lucky if you can make eye contact. Most of them have tinted
windows.

If you are

experiencing problems, I would guess it is one of three things: you
are not keeping up to road speed, you are not accelerating as quickly
as everyone else, or your bike just too small to be seen/noticed.


If they can miss a scooter, what comfort there's for a bicycle? Or
could it be that they simply miss it because they are engaged on the
phone, changing pampers, etc?



You might want to consider something a bit bigger. I've ridden the
Honda Silver Wing and that's a sweet ride.


Other than that, the best you can do is get a really loud horn, such a
boat horn or something.-


How about requiring these TRUCKS to require a TRUCK DRIVER'S LICENSE
(a step above driving a regular car but not a fully semi driver's
license) and banning cell phones, etc? I guess that would be too much
for the big business involved in SUVs...


I am curious as to where you live.

In NYS, you can't tint front windows or windshields, so that problem
goes away. It is also illegal to talk on a cell phone (except with
hands-free or a headset).


  #454  
Old August 8th 07, 03:58 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
donquijote1954
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,851
Default you think the monkeys will ever learn to drive?

On Aug 8, 8:46 am, "J. Clarke" wrote:

How about requiring these TRUCKS to require a TRUCK DRIVER'S LICENSE
(a step above driving a regular car but not a fully semi driver's
license) and banning cell phones, etc? I guess that would be too much
for the big business involved in SUVs...


Write a legal definition of "truck" so that it can be determined who has
to have such a license (can't be "everybody knows what a truck is", it
has to be one that a lawyer can't argue away in court) and figure out
what training should be required and come up with a convincing argument
why that particular training would improve safety then suggest it to
your Congresscritter and you may be surprised at what happens. SUVs are
basically a way of working around the CAFE tax and if that could be
closed wihout seeming to be an SUV ban until after it was in place the
Congresscritters might be all over it.

As for banning cell phones, that's not going to happen. That genii is
well and truly out of the bottle and any Congress than successfully
enacted legislation prohibiting their sale and possession would be out
of office at the next election.

As for bans on using them while driving, such bans are essentially
unenforceable--yeah, a cop can bust somebody if he catches them in the
act, but cops can't be everywhere all the time and most people who use
them while driving don't use them all the time, so the likelihood of
actually getting caught is too low to serve as a deterrent.

Personally though I've never noticed SUVs "zigzagging around all over
the place playing a game of Russian Roulette". The big problem I have
with them is that SUV drivers seem to be unwilling to just PASS THE
EFFING TRUCK. They'll pull up behind an 18-wheeler, take ten minutes to
slowly creep by it, and having passed it then take off at 90 mph. And
meanwhile I'm sitting there in the buffet zone waiting for this circus
to end so I can get by the blasted thing.


"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary
depends upon his not understanding it."
- Upton Sinclair

I think the paper on which I'd write to my Congressman (woman) could
be put to better use. It's all about money, you know...

'And what does Detroit think about all this? They love it. Why?
Because when they sell an SUV, they're selling their lowest-tech
vehicle that has the least R&D expense and costs the least to produce,
since its basically the same product they've been selling -- as a
truck -- for the last 50 years. Come on, people! Challenge Detroit!
Ask for a product they have to break a sweat to design and build! "No
thank you," says Mr. and Mrs. America, "even though we spent the 1980s
and 1990s putting down American cars as being technologically inferior
to European and Japanese products, we've changed our minds now and
want to buy cars that American manufacturers were good at making -- in
1950."

So much for the idiotic decision to buy an SUV that America has been
making in showrooms for the last ten years. What about SUVs on the
road? Let's face it: Most people aren't very good drivers and even the
best drivers have bad moments. This is one reason SUVs are popular.
When I rant about SUVs to my friends (many of whom drive SUVs), they
often respond that they feel "safer" in an SUV. They're right, in one
sense: Surrounded by a ton of unnecessary extra steel, they're likely
to come out of an accident with a normal-sized car better off than the
people in the car. But they don't ask themselves whether being in the
SUV may have contributed to the accident in the first place: With a
higher center of gravity, poor handling and terrible stopping power
due to the extra mass of the vehicle, I think this is a real factor in
a lot of accidents. But, please, let's not think about what we're
doing, OK? Let's just wrap an extra ton of steel around the kids.'

http://www.gregburch.net/cars/suvs.html

My effort go toward THE REVOLUTION. Hey, it may never happen, but I'm
having fun...

By the way, you think the monkeys will ever learn to drive?


What do you think of the monkeys?
Well, put your headphones on --and grab a banana-- before you can
enjoy/cry over what these stupid monkeys are doing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a15KgyXBX24

Oh, we should add that some of them want to believe themselves to be
lions...

***

Hey, I don't want to leave you depressed with those stupid monkeys.
Some monkeys really know how to have fun...

Do you imagine life as a monkey would be like?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_EyXPs2_Jk

A lot of fun, for sure. I sure like to play with those lady monkeys.

Hey, if you are really proud of who you are, you may consider this T-
shirt:

"Have you felt like monkeying around without any apparent reason and
with a sense of guilt? Well, now you know what to do..."

http://www.zazzle.com/product/235602224199217660

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote

THE BANANA REVOLUTION
http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote40


__________________
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" -M.L. King

  #455  
Old August 9th 07, 05:20 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban,rec.bicycles.tech
Edward Dolan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 14,212
Default The Revolution Will Not be Motorized


"A Muzi" wrote in message
...
donquijote1954 who? wrote:
On Aug 4, 2:15 pm, "Tom \"Johnny Sunset\" Sherman"
wrote:
donquijote1954 who? wrote:
OK, with such a motivation (warning the novices against you), I ask
you (I hope there are many witnesses out there), WHAT THE HELL IS THE
SOLUTION, so we can go from 1% to, say, 30% ridership?...
Google "Hubbert's Peak.
Oil production peak... It's gonna be fun to be alive and watch the
couch potatos finally pedalling when things finally start going down
hill (it'll be up hill for them though). I don't see much prevention
in practice, particularly when bicycles are mostly banned from the
dangerous roads --banned by fear, that is.


"Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman" wrote
How about stopping all the fear-mongering about how dangerous cycling is
and the related promotion of h*lm*ts and segregated facilities? Chicken
Little was wrong about the sky falling, and you are wrong about the true
danger of cycling.


Edward Dolan wrote:
Cycling on highways with lots of traffic and no shoulders is extremely
dangerous. Even an idiot knows that much.


Ed, it hasn't killed me yet- even though most of my cohort is long gone
from other causes. Want an aderenalin buzz? Follow me between buses in the
morning, brushing elbows on both sides. Danger? Bah! Sitting home bitching
will kill you sooner.


It is just a matter of time and you will die like a dog on the road that you
are.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota


  #456  
Old August 9th 07, 05:35 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban,rec.bicycles.tech
Edward Dolan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 14,212
Default TAMING THE BEAST


"Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman" wrote in message
.. .
Andrew Muzi wrote:

[...]
Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman wrote:
All of that ignores the real problem that no one wants to deal with
because of the difficulties in implementing the solution.
The could be a decent life for everyone if the world's population was 2
to 2.5 Billion. At 6.5+ Billion or more, forget about it, and that
includes low enough traffic to make cycling reasonable almost
everywhere.


A highly elitist analysis. (you volunteering to disappear??)


I have no children and no plans to have any. Good enough?

Let's go back to the real world and attainable solutions.


The world will implement population control, and there will be nothing the
foolish hominids can do about it.


I most emphatically agree with Mr. Sherman's point of view on population.
Unfortunately, the human species is programmed to reproduce like crazy
lemmings. The future is full of horror as yet undreamed of because of this -
and there is nothing that can be done about it unless you get into the human
gene ("Brave New World") and change the way we are biologically.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota




  #457  
Old August 9th 07, 05:39 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban,rec.bicycles.tech
Edward Dolan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 14,212
Default The Revolution Will Not be Motorized


wrote in message
oups.com...
On Aug 5, 11:18 am, donquijote1954
wrote:
On Aug 5, 7:12 am, "Edward Dolan" wrote:



"Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman" wrote in
s.com...


Andrew Muzi wrote:
However, I stand by my statement that the free-market has
failed,
since there is no real free-market health care system in the US.


"Johnny Sunset aka Tom Sherman" wrote
Seeing as it's never really been tried, except perhaps many moons
ago
when health care was nowhere near as complex and expensive as it
is
now,


Joe the Aroma WHO? wrote:
I think it's hasty to make that conclusion.


"Tom "Johnny Sunset" Sherman" wrote
My point exactly. The FREE MARKET is failing to provide free
market
health care in the U.S.


Edward Dolan wrote:
Mr. Sherman is quite corred on this matter of health care in the
US. The
present system is broken and cannot be fixed except by a single
payer
system (the government). Such a health care system will be like the
public school system. It is not socialism, but simply good common
sense.
It ought to be financed via higher progressive income taxes on the
rich
and/or a value added tax on those who like to spend money on
luxuries. A
total no-brainer!


You have obviously not thought that through to its logical
conclusion


My logical conclusion was that I could not afford to get treatment
for a
chronic health problem, since my portion of the expenses was more
than my
discretionary income - and yes, I am "covered" under a[n] employer
provided "health plan". I really need to start trying to get a job in
Canada.


More than 50% of recent personal bankruptcies in the US are from
people
who got sick, lost their jobs and/or health coverage or exceeded the
coverage limits, and exhausted their financial assets on medical
bills.
Great system, eh?


Mr. Sherman is a professional civil engineer with a very good job and
yet he
finds himself in trouble. That says it all.


No nation that has gone to government paid health care has ever voted
to
give it up. Most of us do not want transplants or other heroic medical
procedures, but we do want garden variety health care. Heath care needs
to
be made a right and not something you can only get if you can afford to
pay
for it. Where the Hell did such a crazy idea ever come from in the
first
place?


The sooner the present system goes kaput, the better. If I did not have
the
VA, I would have to think about emigrating to Canada myself.


I suggested this to you elsewhe Relocate the capital to Ottawa. How
would we go about it? (Within the Constitution, that is?)



Hey, that's where I live! We've got some very nice bike paths (sorry,
"multi-user recreational pathwways" that started out as just bike
paths) , about 180 kilometres worth. I use them on occasion, but
there is enough of a cycling presence here that most motorists are
pretty considerate. There are of course a few suburban arterial roads
that I'd rather not be on if I can help it, but then again I try to
avoid the suburbs in general.

That said, we have a severe shortage of family doctors here. In Ottawa
I think the number without a family physician is 40%. Of course there
are lots of walk-in clinics, but a regular family doctor is much
preferred as one gets old and starts needing those regular tests...


"No nation that has gone to government paid health care has ever voted to
give it up." - Ed Dolan

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota



  #458  
Old August 9th 07, 08:38 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban,rec.bicycles.tech
Dana Myers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 53
Default TAMING THE BEAST

Edward Dolan wrote:

I most emphatically agree with Mr. Sherman's point of view on population.
Unfortunately, the human species is programmed to reproduce like crazy
lemmings.


Evolution has a way of doing that - programming surviving species to
"reproduce".

Dana
  #459  
Old August 11th 07, 02:46 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban,rec.bicycles.tech
Edward Dolan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 14,212
Default TAMING THE BEAST


"Dana Myers" wrote in message
. ..
Edward Dolan wrote:

I most emphatically agree with Mr. Sherman's point of view on population.
Unfortunately, the human species is programmed to reproduce like crazy
lemmings.


Evolution has a way of doing that - programming surviving species to
"reproduce".


Yes, but unfortunately the human species is no longer bound by natural
checks and balances. We shall end up on a planet populated only by ourselves
and various pests, like rats and cockroaches.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota


 




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