Advocacy & Safety - You want ig'nant people? How's this...

Drove home from the Peter Gabriel concert at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View. It's 11:30pm, coming south on Rengstorff at Central Expressway (for those of you familiar with the area).

There are two cyclists there. No lights, dark clothing, only a couple of broken reflectors between them.... and a baby/toddler in a seat on the back of one of the bikes.

It's hard to imagine some cyclists being that stupid. It's 11:30 at night, a good amount of post-concert vehicle traffic there (and probably the commensurate percentage of liquored-up drivers from the concert) and there they are, cycling at night in dark clothing with no lights and a toddler.

It's too bad all you need is a libido to have children. I think a lot more of them would be safe (and probably alive) if it took something more.

I have seen similar things. Once I got caught out at night without too much reflection so I got super careful and took side streets. It sounds like this road has some pretty fast traffic on it. Crazy cyclists <rolleyes>.

Hopefully this was a mistake and they wil learn from it. OK so this is pure optismism, but we can hope right?

Joe

Did you say anything to them? I know it's taking a chance on being told to mind your own business, or worse.

I'm not sure if I would have said anything, but I would kick myself for not doing it!

Darwin award nominees I see.

Originally posted by aerobat
Did you say anything to them? I know it's taking a chance on being told to mind your own business, or worse.

I'm not sure if I would have said anything, but I would kick myself for not doing it!

That's not my thing. I just mind my own business. I don't care for conflict and that's just asking for it, IMHO.

Southeast Portland is rife with this type of rider. Dark clothing is so cool after sundown, doncha know. One night I nearly ran down one of these eejits as I was trying to find parking near The Pied Cow (coffee house). He was on a side street and weaving around, and I almost parked my car on top of him.

Originally posted by jatkins679
It's hard to imagine some cyclists being that stupid. It's 11:30...

We should not be so quick on judgemnt as we don't really know the situation.
It is possible to imagine that they planned to return back home at the day light, but some emergency (heart attack of the grandmother), kept them lately than planned. With no other relatives, the only realistic choise was to ride back in the circumstances you happened to observe.

Originally posted by Inoplanetyanin
We should not be so quick on judgemnt as we don't really know the situation.


You're right. I guess the laughing and smiling they were doing said something. Or that the drunk driver who could have hit them in part because they don't have any lights on their bikes should have taken unknown circumstances behind their ride into consideration.

My bad. I guess it's just not safe to presume that cycling at 1130pm without lights or adequate reflectors with a dependent child on your butt is a bad idea regardless of why. I guess it would be wrong to assume they could have called for a ride or taken a cab or even simply walked their bikes on the sidewalk to give their child (who depends on them for his safety) some protection.

My bad. Good call!

Originally posted by jatkins679
You're right. I guess the laughing and smiling they were doing said something. Or that the drunk driver who could have hit them in part because they don't have any lights on their bikes should have taken unknown circumstances behind their ride into consideration.

My bad. I guess it's just not safe to presume that cycling at 1130pm without lights or adequate reflectors with a dependent child on your butt is a bad idea regardless of why. I guess it would be wrong to assume they could have called for a ride or taken a cab or even simply walked their bikes on the sidewalk to give their child (who depends on them for his safety) some protection.

:lol:

The stupidity of some cyclists amazes me. There are times I think it's surpassed only by the stupidity of drivers and other "majorities" that lump us all together like that.

We should not call these people cyclists. They are simply Darwin Award nominees on bicycles.

Originally posted by jatkins679
You're right. I guess the laughing and smiling they were doing said something. ...I guess it would be wrong to assume they could have called for a ride or taken a cab or even simply walked their bikes on the sidewalk to give their child (who depends on them for his safety) some protection.

My bad. Good call!

You are spot on jatkins679.

As an aside- How was the show???

Are you sure that was a child in the seat? Maybe it was being used as a handy carrying basket for their case of (insert local brand cheap beer here)...:)

Originally posted by Chris L
:lol:

The stupidity of some cyclists amazes me. There are times I think it's surpassed only by the stupidity of drivers and other "majorities" that lump us all together like that.

I hear ya. I'm not sure sometimes who lumps who 'together like that' more: cyclists who believe all motorists are evil-doers who are out to hit all cyclists on purpose or motorists who think no cyclist obeys traffic laws. It's a two way street on that.

But the stupidity of stereotyping isn't as dangerous as putting a child in such peril as these two people did.