Advocacy & Safety - How not to ride

How Not to Ride (http://youtube.com/watch?v=nR2ygFn-yR8)

That is so awesome very awesome I wish I could ride as fast as those guys

When the pedals are spinning that fast on a fixie how do you get your feet back into the toe clips or clipless system?

stolen from here...http://www.digave.com/videos/index.htm# :-(

That's a YouTube ripoff of the infamous Lucas Brunelle NYC Drag Racing video, he has that and some other really good videoshere. (http://www.digave.com/videos/)

Other good ones: Eleven Tooth (Denver Messengers) (http://eleventooth.com/videos.htm),

Rumble Through The Bronx 2006 (NYC Alleycat) (http://www.playintrafficproductions.com/)

Monster Track (another NYC alleycat) (http://mysite.verizon.net/vze3vsmk/monstertrack/id1.html)

and Red Light Go (http://www.redlightgo.ws/).

There is tons of other good stuff on YouTube, mostly under the search of bicycle messenger.

I love this kind of riding and racing, puts the Tour De France to shame.

How Not to Ride (http://youtube.com/watch?v=nR2ygFn-yR8)

I think this is what you meant to post (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6HEQhbm6_U). These people are maniacs and give bicycling a bad name.

i ride that way daily

How long can someone ride like that without getting into a collision?

How long can someone ride like that without getting into a collision? My guess is "not very long". Ride crazy, die young seems to be the philosophy.

But then traffic is moving so slowly whereabouts they are riding, so their injuries are not likely to be very grave.

Not trying to say that there aren't some situations in the video that are quite dangerous, but, I bet many of the more impossible looking moves through the traffic are made when the cars are either at a standstill or at a mere crawl. The video can be deceptive. But, it is also a nice piece to watch.

I've spent considerable time riding the streets of NYC - the Riverside Drive path along the river from one end to the other, and one very notable trip from the GWB to the BB. Very scenic stuff for an old country boy who grew up riding a single speed coaster over a rectangular grid of non-ending farm roads where the only congestion was caused by hay fever.

I bet those riders are really expert at their trade and probably are safer as riders than many of us who consider ourselves cautious.

The video is spectacular, to be sure, but, I'll refrain from characterizing it as 'how not to ride.'

Caruso

actually almost everyone beside the messengers are breaking some form of law or nother

I love this kind of riding and racing, puts the Tour De France to shame.

While this riding is impressive, all I have to say is LMAO!

I called this thread "How Not To Ride" because that's what it's called in the link.

That said, these guys are total a-holes. Vehicular assault on pedestrians is "awesome"? So then when autos do that ***** to us, it's awesome too?

I'm especially impressed with how this video puts the lie to the claim of those who blow stop lights/signs that they always yield the right of way. Yeah, whatever.

When the pedals are spinning that fast on a fixie how do you get your feet back into the toe clips or clipless system?

They're not on fixies.

That said, these guys are total a-holes. Vehicular assault on pedestrians is "awesome"?

What a dumb thing to makeup. I didn't see any pedestrians hit in ANY of these videos. A rider did get t-boned by a car on the Lucas' Bronx video, but it is actually hard to tell who is at fault. I'm sure it was his fault no matter what though right? Oh and he survived WITHOUT a helmet!!!

What a dumb thing to makeup. I didn't see any pedestrians hit in ANY of these videos.
I didn't say the pedestrians were hit. Do you even know what assault is?

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EDIT: After rethinking this, and after checking the NY statutes, I'm revising my previous statement. Vehicular Assault-- indeed any criminal charge of assault, requires some degree of bodily injury. Nevertheless, other charges are applicable: the criminal charge of Reckless Endangerment, and the tortious claim of Assault.

You might think that these guys are just racking up some traffic infractions, but they're not. They're commiting criminal and tortious acts against the pedestrians. I haven't even addressed what charges might be brought against them for their actions against other vehicle operators.
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Are you gonna tell us that if a car did to you what these guys are doing to pedestrians, you wouldn't be posting here crying about it? Or boasting about what you did for revenge? :rolleyes:


A rider did get t-boned by a car on the Lucas' Bronx video, but it is actually hard to tell who is at fault. I'm sure it was his fault no matter what though right?If he violated any traffic regulation, and that contributed to the accident, he is liable.

No, I'm not one to come on here whining about a car honking at me or passing me too close, nor would I be one to exact revenge on them for being rude to me, not worth the trouble. You could say cars already do the same thing to a lot of us, as they already pass to close, cut us off, run lights (I do drive, so I am not anti-car). I don't agree that this is some all out "assault" that is being waged on pedestrians by this kind of riding. How far away should one be from a pedestrian to ride by without being threatening or endangering to them?

No, I'm not one to come on here whining about a car honking at me or passing me too close, nor would I be one to exact revenge on them for being rude to me, not worth the trouble. You could say cars already do the same thing to a lot of us, as they already pass to close, cut us off, run lights (I do drive, so I am not anti-car). I don't agree that this is some all out "assault" that is being waged on pedestrians by this kind of riding. How far away should one be from a pedestrian to ride by without being threatening or endangering to them?

You mean when running a red light?
The only time I really noticed them crowding the peds was when they blew through the cross walk when running the red lights.

No, I'm not one to come on here whining about a car honking at me or passing me too close, nor would I be one to exact revenge on them for being rude to me, not worth the trouble.OK, I'll accept that at face value. But the vast majority of posts here, once you factor out Hard Head's posts, are about cars that buzz/honk/yell/throw things at cyclists, and the responses from the cyclist. I think it's fair to say that the swinging lock is a favorite weapon of the messenger set when they feel that they've been assaulted by a motorist.


You could say cars already do the same thing to a lot of us, as they already pass to close, cut us off, run lights (I do drive, so I am not anti-car).That's my point. These guys are behaving worse than the worst of the motorists. If this was a video of "cagers" driving through crowded crosswalks, running lights, cutting off cars, etc, this thread would be full of indignant condemnation.


I don't agree that this is some all out "assault" that is being waged on pedestrians by this kind of riding. How far away should one be from a pedestrian to ride by without being threatening or endangering to them?If the pedestrian believes that physical contact is imminent, they've been assaulted for purposes of a tort claim. For purposes of a criminal charge of reckless endangerment, a prosecutor would have to prove reckless conduct which creates a risk of serious physical injury to another person. These guys are doing that in spades.

How far away should one be from a pedestrian to ride by without being threatening or endangering to them?
If you ride close enough that it is physically possible for them to cross your path, so that you are unable to avoid hitting them, then you are riding too close to them. You must ride with enough distance from them (or slowly enough), that you can avoid them--no matter what they do.

Notice that the title is "Bike messengers are on crack".
Looks like they had some of the product that they were delivering!

i watched some of those trailers and fail to see what all the fuss is about.

what was wrong with the riding again? I saw some lane splitting, some traffic jamming. nothing too out of hand. or did i not see the objectionable riding? i agree, buzzing peds is not cool, but riding like a banshee in city traffic is an adrenalin rush.

Well not safe at all.
Good educational video .

I do believe their were some legal and safe practices about.

Lets not forget they were racing! Boys will be boys after all...

Let’s not forget they were racing! Boys will be boys after all...

. . . and, they were making a video for effect. I still say much of it is deceptive video. Those bits where they appear to jump in front of or around a car just inches from what appears to be a certain fate of being dragged under or running into a vehicle probably looks that way because the cyclists are moving and the cars are standing still or barely moving.

The same might be true of the close encounters with the peds.

. . . and, if they set out to make a video that they wanted (or decided) to call "how not to ride" everything was done for effect.

Obviously, I wouldn't ride in a manner that even gives the impression of what appears in this video - and, while tempting, I've yet to indulge in the distraction of riding with a video cam attached to my bike or my helmet or whatever.

They made a video - I am not going to get too worked up over it.

Caruso

I called this thread "How Not To Ride" because that's what it's called in the link.

That said, these guys are total a-holes. Vehicular assault on pedestrians is "awesome"? So then when autos do that ***** to us, it's awesome too?

I'm especially impressed with how this video puts the lie to the claim of those who blow stop lights/signs that they always yield the right of way. Yeah, whatever.



Sanctimonious. (Look it up.)




In other words: Don't play like CNN and take a piece of video that was produced for effect and showing a 3 to 5 people, and extrapolate that to include EVERYONE ON A BICYCLE IN NYC.

I would sit and expound on how ******** that is, but I'm sure I don't have to. A simple analogy will suffice: It's like seeing Johnny Knoxville wreck a shopping cart and saying "See? SEE? I told you skateboarders (or kids, or whatever group you wish to pigeonhole) are vandals!"

Sanctimonious. (Look it up.)




In other words: Don't play like CNN and take a piece of video that was produced for effect and showing a 3 to 5 people, and extrapolate that to include EVERYONE ON A BICYCLE IN NYC.

I would sit and expound on how ******** that is, but I'm sure I don't have to. A simple analogy will suffice: It's like seeing Johnny Knoxville wreck a shopping cart and saying "See? SEE? I told you skateboarders (or kids, or whatever group you wish to pigeonhole) are vandals!"****tard. Look it up.

But first, show me where I extrapolated that "to include EVERYONE ON A BICYCLE IN NYC."

****tard. Look it up.

But first, show me where I extrapolated that "to include EVERYONE ON A BICYCLE IN NYC."

That would be this sentence:


I'm especially impressed with how this video puts the lie to the claim of those who blow stop lights/signs that they always yield the right of way. Yeah, whatever.

That would be this sentence:OK.

But if everybody who blows stop signs/lights says "I always yield when I blow a stop sign/light," and yet every day I see roughly half of the sign/light runners (here in Portland, btw, not in NYC) refusing to yield when they blow the signs/lights, and on this video, we have irrefutable evidence that these guys are refusing to yield, then either

1) Some of the people (roughly half, by my estimate) who claim to always yield are lying; or

2) the people who refuse to yield never post about it.

Given that some of the sign & light runners are clearly a-holes, as evidenced by this video, I choose to believe that some of the sign & light runners are lying about always yielding.

So my "yeah, whatever" stands.