You think you'd seen it all...

4:30 PM downtown. Traffic heavy, but moving.

Four lanes, one way, headed south. At the far left is the bike lane. The
right lane has too many buses pulling in and out for it to be useful for
bikes. Personally, I don't use the bike lane, because it's too narrow and so
there's a high risk of getting doored by the cars parallel parked next to
it. So I'm in the number #1 all vehicle lane just to the right of it.

Just as well I was, because someone was driving her car, the wrong way
against four lanes of traffic (five, if you count the bike lane), up the
bike lane.

Ai carumba.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com

Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm

Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky

"Claire Petersky" wrote:

4:30 PM downtown. Traffic heavy, but moving.

Four lanes, one way, headed south. At the far left is the bike lane. The
right lane has too many buses pulling in and out for it to be useful for
bikes. Personally, I don't use the bike lane, because it's too narrow and so
there's a high risk of getting doored by the cars parallel parked next to
it. So I'm in the number #1 all vehicle lane just to the right of it.

Just as well I was, because someone was driving her car, the wrong way
against four lanes of traffic (five, if you count the bike lane), up the
bike lane.

Ai carumba.

That would hardly warrant a second glance in Beijing. Things are a
little more "free form" in most of Asia when it comes to traffic
"rules". Just because you're in a northbound bike lane doesn't mean
there isn't a southbound bus (or tractor or taxi or horse cart) in it
too.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $695 ti frame

On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 01:46:46 GMT, "Claire Petersky"
wrote:

4:30 PM downtown. Traffic heavy, but moving.

Four lanes, one way, headed south. At the far left is the bike lane. The
right lane has too many buses pulling in and out for it to be useful for
bikes. Personally, I don't use the bike lane, because it's too narrow and so
there's a high risk of getting doored by the cars parallel parked next to
it. So I'm in the number #1 all vehicle lane just to the right of it.

Just as well I was, because someone was driving her car, the wrong way
against four lanes of traffic (five, if you count the bike lane), up the
bike lane.

Ai carumba.

I wonder if any motorists posted to a car newsgroup with concerns that
this action that they witnessed gives all motorists a bad name.

"Claire Petersky" wrote:
Just as well I was, because someone was driving her car, the wrong way
against four lanes of traffic (five, if you count the bike lane), up the
bike lane.

Ai carumba.

My last week of high school (1991), I saw one of the in-duh!-viduals in my
graduating class trying to pull that sort of stunt. Admittedly, it's not
a highway he was skipping out on-- just a two lane road that gets VERY
congested at the time school would let out...

Now, there's a separate walking/bicycle path below grade, inside the arc of
the turn-- and then, there's an immeadiate dropoff to a river.

This idiot would REGULARLY boast in school about hitting 50 mph on this
short (1/4 mile stretch) of path, just to get around what would have been,
at the most, a 5 minute delay waiting for the stoplight....

It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling to sit on the bus as we rolled past, to see
the local PD there with cruisers. I wonder to this day who called them
twice, or provided them with photos showing the plate number.

Claire Petersky wrote:
4:30 PM downtown. Traffic heavy, but moving.

Four lanes, one way, headed south. At the far left is the bike lane. The
right lane has too many buses pulling in and out for it to be useful for
bikes. Personally, I don't use the bike lane, because it's too narrow and so
there's a high risk of getting doored by the cars parallel parked next to
it. So I'm in the number #1 all vehicle lane just to the right of it.

Just as well I was, because someone was driving her car, the wrong way
against four lanes of traffic (five, if you count the bike lane), up the
bike lane.

Dane shakes head

Where about's was this downtown? On 2nd?

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
Giving money and power to governments is like giving whiskey and
car keys to teenage boys. -- P.J. O'Rourke

This morning I had responsibilities that precluded my cycling to class. As
I stood at the bus stop, in the dark, I noted a cyclist riding the wrong way
down a major thoroughfare. She was dressed in black. Her bike had no
lights and only one reflector (on the rear of the bike). I was standing
under a lamppost and couldn't see her until she was within 10 metres of me.
No helmet on her head.

Assuming she does this regularly, I've no doubt that when she is hit and
killed by an automobile there will be an outcry for helmet legislation but
no mention will be made of general stupidity.

Wed, 22 Oct 2003 04:06:42 GMT,
, Mark Hickey
wrote:

That would hardly warrant a second glance in Beijing. Things are a
little more "free form" in most of Asia when it comes to traffic
"rules". Just because you're in a northbound bike lane doesn't mean
there isn't a southbound bus (or tractor or taxi or horse cart) in it
too.

Monday's rush hour report include warnings of an eastbound 18 wheeler
on the westbound T-Can.
--
zk

"Jeff" wrote in message ...
This morning I had responsibilities that precluded my cycling to class. As
I stood at the bus stop, in the dark, I noted a cyclist riding the wrong way
down a major thoroughfare. She was dressed in black. Her bike had no
lights and only one reflector (on the rear of the bike). I was standing
under a lamppost and couldn't see her until she was within 10 metres of me.
No helmet on her head.

Assuming she does this regularly, I've no doubt that when she is hit and
killed by an automobile there will be an outcry for helmet legislation but
no mention will be made of general stupidity.

Reminds me of the Cambridge student that was stopped by the police
cycling the wrong way up a one-way road, and charged for not having a
rear bike light. The student pointed out that as they were cycling the
wrong way up a one-way street, not having a rear light was irrelevent.
Unsurprisingly, they were subsequently charged with just about every
offence the police could find.