cranky old dude

So I'm, tooling along down the road just a few feet out from the right shoulder and here comes this Bozzo from the other direction. He's on a real nice and expensive looking Road Bike and dressed like he's a professional racer. He's in his forties, maybe early fifties. Problem is he is stupid and he's not handling the bike very well at all.

Let me explain...This clown is riding down the road and he's staring straight down. I know he's not at all looking where he's going because he's drifting accros the road and he's coming straight at me. Of course I should mention that he's deeply engrossed in a phone conversation while trying to ride. I'm watching this guy as he's approaching me. He started out along his edge of the roadway and over the past thirty yards or so he's drifted all the way accross he road and will hit me head on if I don't speak out.

While he's still jabbering away on the phone and only about fifteen feet away I finally shout out loudly "Heads up". He finally looked up and though he seemed a bit shocked to be on the wrong side of he road he wasn't shaken up enough to stop yacking on his phone. He turned back towards his side of the road, we passed safely and I continued along only now I'm laughing out loud at this fool.

What ran through my mind was how very professional he would have looked laying out there bleeding all over the road. I was laughing too hard at him to bother chastising him about his dangerous riding habits.

Now be sure to understand me here...this is not a shot at Road Bike enthusiasts. This jerk would have acted the same regardless of what he was piloting, I'm just glad it wasn't his car. This is a post about how I almost clobbered an unbelievably stupid man on a bicycle.

chasm54

Hmm. Speaking as a roadie, he wasn't one. He was just a tool.

cehowardGS

Even more reason to get me a PHONE JAMMER!!

Glad he didn't hit you..

bruce19

A phone on a bike? You gotta been joking.

chasm54

You've evidently lived a very sheltered life. I regularly see people phoning while riding, sometimes in urban traffic. It works best when they are meeting a car driven by someone who is texting...

Bikey Mikey

I turn my phone off when I ride. I only have the phone if I need to use it because of a breakdown or some other GOOD reason. Today, I did keep the phone on since I was hoping the Doc's office would call....if the office had called, I would've stopped, pulled over, and answered the phone--of course I don't get many calls usually--but the office never called and still hasn't.

OldsCOOL

Did he nod or give a two finger wave?

Mort Canard

The man deserves a Darwin Award!

Sculptor7

One could safely assume that he would be inept at whatever means of transportation he chose.

bruce19

I'm starting to feel even better about my life.

CACycling

I see people riding no-handed so they have both hands free for texting. Phone in one hand and cigarette in the other is common as well.

berner

I also frequent hiking and backpacking (hill walking) forums. Several years ago it was reported on one forum that a man walking in the California mountains while on a cell phone, was so engrossed in the conversation he actually walked off a cliff to his death. These hiking people, many who I know personally, are caring, compassionate folk. In this case there was no sympathy for the man.

JanMM

Thought the thread was going to be about Salmon Roadie. What you describe is even more Scary.

RepWI

OK. What I am about to write is not intended to begin a flame war. When I was in the WI state legislature I co-sponsored proposed legislation that would ban cell phone use while driving.

This is what I believe:

It is not the dialing, not the checking of messages, not the fiddling with the phone that is the problem.

It is the brain. When speaking on a telephone our brain attempts to replicate what the brain would, "see" if the conversation were held in person.

It is the gestures, shrugs, eye contact that also makes up the signals of conversation. When we cannot see that input, our brain will try its best to compensate. But in doing so the brain begins to filter out most other inputs of the environment.

Therefore, when a person on a cell phone sitting at a stop light does not move when the light turns green is one example. That persons brain is so engaged in attempting to gather the conversation inputs, it does not check the environment, (traffic light) for input.

But the corporate profit motive has convinced us to say, "fiddling with candy bars, car radios and CD's are the same issue." IMHO, removing a candy bar wrapper, CD changing, drinking coffee etc is a totally different set of brain activities. Those activities are motor driven with little brain power needed. On the other hand, conversational background is much more intense and out brain fills up with trying to figure that out.

Therefore, as we drive around and talk on the cell phone our brain is disengaged more so than fiddling with radio's, coffee etc.

And what about somebody conversing in the car? Our brain is able to handle that through some subtle signals that it receives.

chasm54

You are correct. There has been research undertaken in the UK that demonstrated that driving skills were impaired as much by carrying on a conversation on a hands-free 'phone as by having a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit. And I see that the University of Utah came to a similar conclusion.

TheHen

I venture over to A&S so you don't have to. On a nearly weekly basis, someone will put up a post about a death of a cyclist where the motorists is thought to have been distracted by an electronic device. Wide roads, good sight lines, daylight, bike lane and WHAM! Someone's phone conversation was more valuable to them than someone's life. I think using a phone while driving should result in immediate license revocation. Driving without a license should be a wipe-you-out fine plus prison. Cycling while on a phone is Darwin's domain.

bruce19

Apparently there's an app for that.

qcpmsame 

wRepWI,
Agreed 100%, the industry has their head in the sand (or another part of their anatomy, further south) about this problem. When the Florida legislature tried to put in a no texting while driving law this session lobbyist and the Libertarian Party came out with the idea that it was un-needed and was a further infringement of our constitutional freedoms and therefore unnecessary. Their words not mine. We have had ~1/2 dozen deaths in the last 2 years with direct attribution to texting while driving in the Florida panhandle. We see many close calls everyday, literally. Bicyclist and drivers need to forget this distraction for a bit and concentrate on safety.

Bill

bigbadwullf

Not sure what his riding outfit has to do with the situation but it sounds like he is surely an idiot though.

bigbadwullf

And I bet the same is true of carrying on a conversation with someone in the car. Hate to say this but women get so engrossed in conversation, they are completely unaware of their surroundings. I see it all the time. And try just once to interject something while they are talking

I love it when people make hand gestures when talking on a phone........................ like the person can see them? I told someone this the other day and they looked at me like I was from planet Mars.

Hendricks97

A couple nights ago, I almost hit a guy in my car. He was riding a fixie, no helmet, weaving all over the road, and texting, on a very busy street. Its not just the cagers being idiots

cranky old dude

I believe this to be a human trait shared by both sexes. I witness it almost daily.

Bikey Mikey

It is illegal now in VA to text while driving. I just can't understand how anyone would think that it's safe to text and drive--seriously, we have to have law to point out stupidity.

While riding on back neighborhood roads the other week, I shouted in a loud voice "Stop Texting! You nearly hit me!"

Shimagnolo

I would have tried to avoid the fool w/o catching his attention, just so I could watch him run off the wrong side of the street.

Artkansas 

Obviously multiple arms would be a great thing to evolve just about now.