jeff-o

Dude, you need an iPod and the entire Pink Floyd collection. Chill out! Calm down! Relax!

And EMF radiation?? Are you serious? There's more radiation coming from cell phone towers and power lines than there are from cars. Heck, you're being bombarded with cosmic radiation and neutrinos every single second of your life, so unless you live in a lead house you'll never be totally free. Sheesh.

I-Like-To-Bike

The OP might consider a wood cabin up in Montana where he could write down his thoughts and bike into town to get supplies and mail his letters. It is hard to believe anyone with such a "problem" is capable of holding a permanent job

Or better yet, seek professional help.

CagerTools

It seems some of you don't mind traffic and loud noises and huge rumbling engines and trucks that fly by you endangering your life. I don't know how you could even get motivated and feel uplifted by that "energy".

I also thought I might find other people like me... and it seems there are some.

I'm not sure if its from a past traumatic experience with cars (i did almost get run over once...my bike actually ended up hitting the car but it was slowed down by that point)...

But I just get really stressed out around vehicles... I want to save the environment and not have reliance on autos myself... so its just hard to be a pedestrian in a non-pedestrian car-dominant city.

I guess I do need to just move to where I can enjoy myself more and not worry/stress so much. Stress is the number one killer and I wonder how my arteries are looking right now.

Until then, its gonna be booze.. good quality tobacco...some ganja... chocolate... and just relaxing as much as I possibly can. I guess I'll take Jeanne Calment's way of life and take pleasure when I can... do my best in this crazy mad world.

CagerTools

By the way,
Recently I did have the fortune of living in a smaller place in Hawaii. The roads were worse...since people went faster.

I think when people design cities they should have a transportation connection system for vehicles...then another one for non-vehicles... and make them as far apart as possible.

PDay

A machine? Like your computer? Maybe you're right.

PDay

Yeah, that would make a whole lotta sense, like in cities like New York. You people need to take 5 seconds to think sometimes.

CagerTools

Dude... machines meaning automobiles for the most part. I have no problem with my laptop!!

jamesdenver

Any you live "near Santa Barbara"? Christ that's one of the most beautiful areas of the country. Don't ever move to N.Y. or Sao Paulo.

I actually like the city. I love people moving, trains, taxis, bikes all moving together. I find it invigorating and stimulating. Sure biking behind a dump truck or bus is no fun - but hey: just ride faster.

Not into it? Like the other posters said - there's plenty of great small towns in any part of the country to move to.

CagerTools

Yeah ideally that is where I like to go.

I was just feeling extremely stressed out when I made that post. Ugh... I will live another day, I hope.

Newspaperguy

You need help. You need to learn to relax without substances.

For your own sake, please quit the tobacco. You're putting yourself at serious risk of lung cancer and numerous lung and breathing diseases. As a cyclist, you need your complete lung capacity. You won't have it if you're smoking.

If you're using alcohol or other drugs — including marijuana — when you ride, you're putting yourself and everyone else on the road at risk. If you're impaired, even if you don't feel impaired, you're much more likely to do something unpredictable or to respond too slowly if there's danger on the roads. If you're riding erratically, motorists will swerve to avoid you, but they could put themselves and others at risk in the process.

If you're having trouble now, what makes you think you'll fare any better if you move? There's stress involved with moving and even if you move to a tranquil rural area, every community has its own stressful factors. It's up to you to handle what life gives you.

I-Like-To-Bike

All good advice but probably wasted on the basket case.

atman

I think it depends on the 'other drugs'. Most people would feel comfortable on the road after a nice cup of coffee, which contains the stimulant drug caffeine. Alcohol is known to cause various impairments which affect the operation of a bicycle. Marijuana, on the other hand, does not do so, or not to nearly the same degree, and this has been studied. The idea that someone (experienced) who has smoked some cannabis can't ride in a straight line is absurd, and cannabis users do not experience a degradation of their reflexes (again, this has been studied) the way users of alcohol and tranquilizers, say, do. 'Impairment' is a poor description of the cannabis profile, for most people, although short-term memory is a famous example of something that is impaired...but not reflexes or gross and fine motor skills. In other words, you might forget to stop at the grocery store, but you're not likely to miss a red light or swerve into traffic.

There's some sort of joke here about bike culture and dope culture in the Netherlands, but I'm not going to make it because someone would take me seriously.

AStomper

skipping all responses,
I have to say I used to work at Mickey D's and even when I had the head set all the way down I got an intolorable headache.
I beleive in Magnetic interference. Route your plug wires next to each other then come argue this with me.

I don't think that that is the problem. When I'm in a car on the freeway going 55 and I get passed I get really stressed waiting for them to pass me. They pass and then the next car comes and it happens all over again. I think you should take the lane, then pull over every half mile and let the cagers go by as you watch them. Think if you were prey, you wouldn't want anything behind you that you didn't know what it was and what it was doing. That is how we all innately think.

I'm passed that, I filter up, I let people buzz me, I pretend that I can't get run over.

If your not over it try to take some trips on MUPs or vent on bikeforums.

becnal

Ah, the humanity!

I-Like-To-Bike

You are right. Sometimes I forget that some posters believe the good bicyclists are all members of a support group that should provide group hugs for characters with any and all personal problems and over-the-top issues.

Bushman

--------------------------------

there is some great headwear you can get to block out all that harmful stuff:



there is even protection for your pets:

Lamplight

I guess I'm the exact opposite. I can almost feel my blood pressure rising when I'm driving instead of riding. And after a long stressful day at work, riding home is a peaceful, supremely relaxing endeavor that causes me to calm down and unwind. Driving does the opposite to me.

aMull

I'm with you, although i like quiet roads as well. As for the original poster, i feel a bit sorry for you. Riding a bike is anything but stressful for me, cars or not. I honestly never ever think about dying on my bike, i just ride and be careful, whatever happens happens.

donrhummy

Wear a gas mask. Read this thread (got some very good info on the pollution facing cyclists and options):

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/165915-pollution-any-solutions-cyclists-minimize-impact-any-studies.html

If you go the gas mask route, you'll want one that is NIOSH certified (like a 3M or North one). You'll want a HEPA filter and an Organic Vapors cartridge.

dynodonn 

Personally, when it comes to blocking out the cold cruel world, I might prefer to have a foil hat made from gold, since it won't grow any "whiskers" like tin would, and possibly short out a few brain synapses. If that's not available, then riding several miles on a bike on some deserted back roads/streets would serve me just as well.

CagerTools

okay let me see if i can get to all the responses.

first off, in regards to drugs. please. take your puritanical idealogy somewhere else. taking a hit of marijuana is going to put me and everyone else in danger? lol... u obviously don't smoke weed, or have hardly any experience with it. And I don't really even smoke tobacco regularly. If I do I usually puff it like a cigar.

There are actual studies on mice done...where they give caffeine to them, and find the mice can be more calm and focused in crowded stressful situations. In other words, caffeine helps all of us city-dwellers be able to psychologically deal with the actual crazy conditions we live in. No wonder everyone and their mom drinks it.

Weed on the other hand just heightens how crazy the reality actually IS. It allows you to see the real madness of the situation....pretty much unfiltered. Thats why Bob Marley says smoking weed reveals you to yourself. It pretty much reveals everything. Or "takes the veal away" from things.

Personally caffeine makes me more stressed normally. Weed doesn't really calm me down in traffic. The only drugs that help me are tobacco and alcohol.

I have never really been a drinker, but I did note one interesting thing. Back awhile ago in college, I started drinking more beer. I noticed if I had a half beer in the morning, walking to school along the roads bothered me much less. The cars/noise/safety issues still bothered me, but not as much. Maybe it put me at a reduced sensitivity level that many of you are just at by nature.

Without it, I am just naturally more sensitive. In fact, my father always used to say I was really sensitive. I just AM. I'm sensitive and that is how I am wired. I hear more/see more/feel more I guess... I am also a very decent musician...so that would help explain things. I can listen to any song, of any genre...and within seconds be playing a melody on guitar, or singing. Maybe thats not the best example...but the point is I am very sound sensitive.

Anyways, maybe this is the main issue. I know city are inherently stress-ful environments. I think you have to be fooling yourself to think otherwise. With the EMF, congestion, fear of dying, fast moving people, tons of noise... its a recipe for stress. In the wild, you mainly hear wind, bubbling creeks... rarely do you hear any large noises..maybe a tree falling here or there... or you have the thread of a bear wanting to eat you...

But in a city, especially as a pedestrian... there is always that fear of someone behind you in a car, who might not be paying attention.

Maybe the reason some of you have less fears about it, is because you are just less aware than me. I have always been the type of person who is very aware of my surroundings, which would explain why I excel at sports of any kind I play.

AStomper - I get stressed driving to. I really hate it when someone is behind me, and they are riding my bumper... it seems people are so fast-paced and only thinking about the next destination instead of taking their stress level down a notch and relaxing.... but this might be a larger societal issue.

DonRhummy - I've thought about those gas-masks before, those are cool.



Well, I might not have to deal with any of this madness. I might be moving to Venice. Not really any bikes there, but at least I won't have to deal with cars at all.

Check out carfree.com... peace

CagerTools

By the way, I think its quite possible your at a high risk for cancer by spending time near lots of vehicles... on major roads. Driving/biking/walking/or just living near a busy road. The truth hurts.

I-Like-To-Bike

Look out for the Killer Gondolas and noisy Gondoliers; don't forget to wear a life preserver at all times as well as your helmet.

CagerTools

haha okay man...

acroy

another stresed out Californian.

Sell your house while you can (you did buy some property in the recent madness, didn't you?) and move to the Big Island of Hawaii.

or Texas. Lots of transplanted Californians here, much happier (i am one)
Cheers