Advocacy & Safety - Forum Hijacked by ??????

Has this forum been hijacked by sophmoric morons?

The thread name reads: "Advocacy & Safety" yet there are quite a number of those (it appers to be a persistent theme / problem with these people) whose post I've read that wreak of anything but bicycling advocacy and safety.

Public admonishment appears to be a waist of time because they just do not have the intellect to discuss the issue or comprehend even a direct insult.

Umm, not sure what you mean?:p

Has this forum been hijacked by sophmoric morons?

The thread name reads: "Advocacy & Safety" yet there are quite a number of those (it appers to be a persistent theme / problem with these people) whose post I've read that wreak of anything but bicycling advocacy and safety.

Public admonishment appears to be a waist of time because they just do not have the intellect to discuss the issue or comprehend even a direct insult.

I'd say getting a wrong way cyclist off a FREEWAY qualifies as 'safety'

Get off your high horse, *******.

*edited to remove gratuitous profanity*

I'd say getting a wrong way cyclist off a FREEWAY qualifies as 'safety'

Get off your high horse, jackass.

I don't think you know where I'm comin from. You are a perfect example of not getting the picture.

Meh. My response was pretty out of line. I don't know what you want from this forum, but some of the posts that people have jumped all over most definitely had to do with someone doing what they felt was right for safety.

As far as advocacy? The best way I know of to advocate for cycling is to get out there and do it. Show others that it's safe, and to do it SAFELY and in accordance with the law.

Too many people go out, break the law, get themselves in dangerous positions, and then whine when people get pissed or take it out on them.

Now... it's way past my bedtime, as evidenced by my pissy mood. G'night.

I'd say getting a wrong way cyclist off a FREEWAY qualifies as 'safety'

Get off your high horse, *******.

*edited to remove gratuitous profanity*


Gratuitous profanity was removed.

If you read my post in the thread that you refer to I concur with your point of view. Wrong way cyclist should get off he freeway. So, what gives?

Gratuitous profanity was removed.

If you read my post in the thread that you refer to I concur with your point of view. Wrong way cyclist should get off he freeway. So, what gives?

A lot of people here do not think anyone should call the police when they see a wrong way cyclist riding illegally on the interstate. They think people should mind their own business. That's what gives. You post a safety or advocacy issue here & what you believe to be right. Even if it is within your legal right or responsibility to do something the opposers of it jump all over & brow beat you. Call you names, etc. I call them outlaws. To me these people are not advocates or safety minded cyclists. So why are they eve here posting? I have yet to see them post a advocacy or safety thread that they are the OP in. All they do is post negative responses to what the rest of us here think is right or the right way to do something.

A lot of people here do not think anyone should call the police when they see a wrong way cyclist riding illegally on the interstate. They think people should mind their own business. That's what gives. You post a safety or advocacy issue here & what you believe to be right. Even if it is within your legal right or responsibility to do something the opposers of it jump all over & brow beat you. Call you names, etc. I call them outlaws. To me these people are not advocates or safety minded cyclists. So why are they eve here posting? I have yet to see them post a advocacy or safety thread that they are the OP in. All they do is post negative responses to what the rest of us here think is right or the right way to do something.

Well you know non cyclists see our posts advocating cycling and think that were trying to cover up all the bad things cyclists do like blowing red lights goign the wrong way or other bone head moves cyclists will do.
heres a qoute from one such person on bikeportlands blog page

" Shawn
July 21st, 2006 13:13
180

Some of the people that post these comments make me laugh. You would support a persons rights one minute, then denouce other people rights to the FCC. Why not encourage people to call the police on every cyclist that breaks the law? How many of these posters have run a stop sign, cut of pedestrians all in the name of thier rights? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. You shollow people make me sick "
http://bikeportland.org/2006/07/17/what-should-we-do-now/#more-1665

I for one am happy to see some posts on the bad things cyclists do. I think this helps cycling advocacy
as it shows that even cyclists them selves will not tolerate other cyclists breaking the laws.
While im sure that theres a large number who go unreported im sure theres a far larger percentage that do get reported but we just dont posts about the report.

Ive reported or aproached a few cyclists this year for being total idiots i just chose to not post about it because it was not realy post worthy.

waist of time

You need one of those temporal belts.

I think the issue is that what one calls safe another feels is limiting and uncalled for.
Just because one person believes one thing to be safe and another not
does not mean that the other action is indeed unsafe.

I have the right to come in here and denounce anything which I do not feel always contributes to a safe ride.
Anyone has the right to come in here and argue about things which they feel are unsafe practices or against the law or whatever
but once someone goes so far as to call
every
single cyclist that exhibits one of these behaviors unsafe/idiotic/etc
that's just going too far.
Not one of you Advocacy and Safety guru's have all the answers
so if you would, please
shut it before you go that far
and I
for one
wouldn't bother to come in this forum.


If some cyclist in this forum feels it to be his duty to report other cyclists behavior to the authorities/this forum
That cyclist should also feel the responsibility as a caring citizen of this country to report every single traffic violation they witness or happen to violate themselves ...not to mention all the other common illegalities that occur on a daily basis right in front of our eyes.
I believe that focusing only on a fraction of what is illegal
while turning a blind eye to everything else
is nothing more than the furthering of ones own agenda.

If you feel you have done something to protect someone
Good for you, I mean that. I doubt anyone can find fault in someones effort to try and do the right thing.
Coming into a public forum such as this, however, and boasting about how you just saved the world from a mass of idiots
You lose
nearly
all my respect.

I wonder if there was ever a time where this forum wasn't mostly populated by the sophomoric - most of the people here clearly aren't morons, but many do seem more than a bit unhinged and obsessive.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

I think the issue is that what one calls safe another feels is limiting and uncalled for.
Just because one person believes one thing to be safe and another not
does not mean that the other action is indeed unsafe.

I have the right to come in here and denounce anything which I do not feel always contributes to a safe ride.
Anyone has the right to come in here and argue about things which they feel are unsafe practices or against the law or whatever
but once someone goes so far as to call
every
single cyclist that exhibits one of these behaviors unsafe/idiotic/etc
that's just going too far.
Not one of you Advocacy and Safety guru's have all the answers
so if you would, please
shut it before you go that far
and I
for one
wouldn't bother to come in this forum.


If some cyclist in this forum feels it to be his duty to report other cyclists behavior to the authorities/this forum
That cyclist should also feel the responsibility as a caring citizen of this country to report every single traffic violation they witness or happen to violate themselves ...not to mention all the other common illegalities that occur on a daily basis right in front of our eyes.
I believe that focusing only on a fraction of what is illegal
while turning a blind eye to everything else
is nothing more than the furthering of ones own agenda.

If you feel you have done something to protect someone
Good for you, I mean that. I doubt anyone can find fault in someones effort to try and do the right thing.
Coming into a public forum such as this, however, and boasting about how you just saved the world from a mass of idiots
You lose
nearly
all my respect.

Obviously you cant report every trafic violation. But blatanly stupid and dangerous ones you can.

Like a wrong way cyclist on a highway. people have and do swerve to avoid a deer only to end up hittign another car and kill every one in both cars. Same thing can and does happen with cyclists doing somethign so obviously dangerous.

Drivers have no resonable expectation of that cyclist being there espessially goign the wrong way. They will see him or her to late to do any hing but pull a wild move and swerve to avoid the collision or they plow them down.

So yeh these sorts of people tend to get reported much more than the cyclists or drivers who blow a stop sign or light when theres little to no other trafic. The danger level just dont realy cal for it.

But when theres heavy trafic and a motorist blows stops or a cyclist does the same thing. Yeh they will get reported and they will get posted about. You bet its cherry picking and its useign the person doing the bone headed behavior as a example of what not to do.

Hopefully some cyclist who reads the post and does this sort of thing will stop doing it and end up having their life or the lives of others saved do to it.

The law of avarages is in agreement with that. Fact is with all the posts here and on other cycling forums the chancs of it not having already happened are pretty well near zero> While the chances of at least 1 life being saved do to these posts is infact zero. Will we ever hear proof positive information that it has happened? Not unless the person in question has some power that lets them see all possible alternate time lines we wont.

You simply can not hear about how many live were saved. You might hear of some one saying had i been riding on the wrong side of the road that truck would have killed me.
But fact is theres no real way to say for sure if it would have.

Funny thing about people we can be totaly stupid and still have iqs in the 200s You can be totaly stupid in english and be extreamly smart in math or in kowing your various laws.

I seen a post one time on one forum may have been here or some other forum where a guy posted about how he could just not under stand chemistry yet physics was easy for him and his wife who was a chemist was the exact reverse.

Smart people can also and often do do very stupid moronic and idiotic things.

Heck the other night i did a very stupid thing and ran a stop sign . Nothign i could do aout running that stop sign as my breaks failed. Still it was my own stupidity when i recabled my front and back breaks that lead to me not adjusting them. I was in a foolish hurry to go get my pop from the gas station.

Lucky for me 99.999999% of the time this paticular stop serve no purpose when your turnign left as the ammount of trafic coming from the other direction to the right is so lite as to be almost non existant. If i was to spend a week strait 24 hours a day i would be lucky if i seen 2 cars cross from the right hand side to the left hand side.

Ive tried to get the stop sign removed and put facing the other 2 directions but had no success.

My point is to any one watchign i would be some foolish rule breaking cyclist and infact i was foolish and did break the law. Fooish for not double checkign my breaks prior to riding and broke the law because i ran the stop sign because of it. Intrestingly enough i didnt runt he first stop corse i also came unclipped and siimply stop cause i wasnt pedaling. Most likly saved by accidental unclip as that first stop sign is at a road with 35 to 50 mph trafic.

The thread name reads: "Advocacy & Safety" yet there are quite a number of those (it appers to be a persistent theme / problem with these people) whose post I've read that wreak of anything but bicycling advocacy and safety.

I know what you mean.

I'm here to learn, so I'm not opposed to another point of view.

However, when I'm criticized or insulted for my assertion, and I read no legitimate opposing view, I really can't come around to their way of thinking.

I can only presume that they believe criticism is a way to feign intellegence.

Forum seems to be running smooth enough until this complaint. If the mass on here doesn't like a thread, don't reply to it and it goes down the page. Let it go dude.

"Has this forum been hijacked by sophmoric morons?"

No.....we've always owned it. :p

"Has this forum been hijacked by sophmoric morons?"

No.....we've always owned it. :p
And anyone who disagrees is a troll!

that is such a cool bike in your avatar, Fem, what is it? :)

that is such a cool bike in your avatar, Fem, what is it? :)

Go here, Rando, and look at the 'Major Taylor' !

http://www.antbikemike.com/bikes.html

It is unequivicly the koolest bike Ive come across recently...
#1 on my must-have list !!:D

Bah...

There was no hijacking, the fools have always been here.

Problem is two schools of people, I made mup my own categories for them, just because they do fit:

1) structurists.

Everything for them must be in order, consistant, etc. Having rules is a way to make things run smoother is a common belief. I myself fall into this category

2) The opposition (just kidding, but it sure does feel that way sometimes :p)

These are the folks that talk about how they feel they don't need lights, or how they feel jumping between the road and sidewalk as convenient is safe, riding the wrong way, etc. To them it's more of a "do as you will" kind of attitude.

I give these folks credit, that is a far easier method, and to some extent is self-policing....but the problem is there are often repurcussions on other people as the reuslt of their "convenience", whether in the form of a near accident, or otherwise.

As for people reporting suspicious activity...I'm not a fan of it, unless there is very little doubt about the situation at hand. Bad reports just waste police time, and they are usually understaffed as is.

Go here, Rando, and look at the 'Major Taylor' !

http://www.antbikemike.com/bikes.html

It is unequivicly the koolest bike Ive come across recently...
#1 on my must-have list !!:D

Thanks, FIP! I am in love with several of them. the Major is the best, though. :D

The only problems I have with the route of some of the threads in this forum are the ones that give a blow by blow of calling the police over the slightest infraction. I'm not against involving the police, mind you, but why continually brag about it? Are they seeking approval for being the "Hall Monitor"? If you want to make a difference out there for cycling, and advocacy thereof, try to come to some kind of agreement on a tack to take, as far as education and advocacy and run with it rather than the Lunatic Fringe comments some here make. These are totally counterproductive, and while I'm often in sympathy with the feeling and intent, I also realize enough about the general psychology of the general public to realize that these actions only serve to marginalize us and reduce any chance of effectiveness we may have to advance the agenda of the cycling community. If we are percieved as a marginal group or a lunatic fringe, we cannot get out our message, that being that cyclists are part of traffic and deserving of the same respect that any other vehicle is.

Great link, that Boston Roadster is sweet.

Has this forum been hijacked by sophmoric morons?...


I know you are, but what am I?:D Seriously, what do you expect from the internet? Every forum I frequent has the same issues. Uh-Oh, maybe it's me!!:eek:

I think it is FLBandit's fault. :eek:

That is why I use the ignore feature.

Al