Originally Posted by
FMB42
So... You're afraid of baseball bats while you blow through red lights at 20 mph. Ya, that makes a lot of sense.
It would make sense if I didn't get misinterpreted around here.
As a general rule I always try to MAINTAIN 20-25 mph as most of our surface streets have speed limits of 20 to 30 mph. This keeps me in the flow of traffic or passing traffic up as I filter a bit slower. Anything above 20mph I feel I get treated as one of "them" in traffic and it becomes more hazardous for "them" to force a pass on me. When there are no cars in sight, like a 2AM for instance, maintaining 20+ gives neerdowells much less time to set up a trap. They have to swing at a fastball instead of a blooper pitch AND any evasive maneuver I make works better at high speed. So it is almost always SAFER for me to go 20+, I get where I am going faster, and I have the capability to do that speed all day. So why not?
As for
blowing through red lights at 20mph...maybe if sight lines are good and the coast is clear. Sometimes I have to stop and wait for a gap (or even a green light
) and sometimes I might have to hit 30 to shoot a gap. But the concept is so easy. I just look both ways before crossing the street. I do not pay the slightest attention to the color of road ornaments as it is unlikely that ornament will run me over. And lastly, if a car is going to hit me I simply yield right of way. Been doing it this way since I was 15 and next month I'll be 56. Been car free since 1989 and car light the entire time before that. I figure I run roughly 16,000 red lights each year with my current commute. I really don't take many risks. I just go when I can.
I've heard some lame and silly excuses in my life, but this takes the cake. As for your "everybody breaks traffic laws" cop-out; all I can say is that I very rarely see vehicle drivers blow through red lights the way you brag about doing.
How about speeding on the freeway? Or rolling through stop signs? Or stopping PAST the stop sign? (Most stop signs are placed before the sidewalk, not at the street corner), or stopping in a pedestrian crossing? Or speeding in 20 mph zones? Or parking against traffic on neighborhood streets. EFF the EFFING red lights already. Although where I live one to three cars go through every yellow/red light as a rule. When in Rome...
Bicycle riders yes, vehicle drivers no.
In NOLA your statement would be incorrect.
But then again, this is probably more about bragging rights to you than anything else. Right JoeyBike?
It's about getting where I am going in a reasonable time and raising my chances of survival from a number of hazards including swinging ball bats from the curb. I don't ride next to the curb. I ride in the flow. It's hard to jump into the flow of traffic to hit someone with a bat when the F-10 behind me is going to crush them.
I'll also mention that intelligent and experienced riders, of all skill levels, don't take unnecessary and/or inexcusable risks. This is something that most of us learned by the time we reached our late teens or early 20s.
I take very few risks. You ever cross a busy intersection that is not protected by a red light? Maybe just a stop sign? So tell us how you do it. Do you just wait until there is a gap, then go? This is exactly how I treat EVERY intersection. It is so easy. I don't know how some of you ever get anywhere if you can't just look both ways and cross when there is a gap.
"It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before." - Henry David Thoreau
No, it is a slackers life.
2 million years of humanity would argue with you. "We" only did just enough work to survive for the first 2,000,000 years. It is "natural" for a human to work 10 to 15 hours a week (
Reference). Only in the past 10,000 since farming began did the disease called "work ethic" develop to make enslaved people feel better about their situation and get some weird self esteem from it. Keeps the peasants from revolting.
Btw, do you have catastrophic health care and liability insurance? I know, from what you've said you don't seem to have much to lose. But you still need to think about other people at some point in your "life".
Health AND car insurance. I am not a risk taker - other than the fact that I ride a bicycle in a motor vehicle world. I just refuse to play by their rules. Bikes are not cars.