gcottay

Today's All Things Considered included a five-minute segment featuring Christian Stoehr and Ron Peterson's encounter with that felonious Mandeville Canyon driver.

Digital_Cowboy

That was a very good piece, thank you for sharing it.

CB HI

Seemed too heavy on the implication that it is cyclist who are not sharing the road.

SweetLou

I hate the term "share the road". It seems like a lot of people think "share the road" means for me to be out of their way, no matter what the road conditions are.

gcottay

That also bothered me. There does seem to be a small group of riders who enjoy riding abreast and are not much interested in the real or imagined consequences for other traffic.

When a lane is too narrow for safe sharing, riding abreast is arguably efficient from a cyclist's perspective. To the average intelligent driver this can seem like a bunch of riders doing a rolling blockade.

dwilbur3

I got that impression too. It's like they were trying to "balance" the story. "Yes murder is bad, but you cyclists better not be riding side by side (even if it is legal)".

San Rensho 

Way too heavy on the car drivers in the segment. Althoug one of the persons interviewed, that lives in the same neighborhood as the convicted MD basically said he is hoping cyclists get killed, so it did show the irrational hatred that many car drivers have towards cyclists.

idoru2005

They definitely didn't talk about the non-spandex-clad segment that cycle for transportation. That bothered me as well. But then again, the case in question does involve spandex-clad cyclists, so it makes sense the story focused on them.

Digital_Cowboy

Agreed, there could have been more cyclists interviewed then there was.

Yeah, I heard that and got the same impression. Hopefully the sentence that the "good" doctor gets will help to dissuade anyone in that neighborhood from doing so. But sadly I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

Roughstuff

Small group of riders? As a %age of cyclists it may be small, but in terms of defining how motorists and others see us, they have completely dominated the headlines. The thousands of cyclists who have coexisted with traffic on the nations roadways for decades are, of course, far to boring and unprogressive to get news media attention.

roughstuff

Speedo

????

As a matter of fact, they didn't mention the word spandex at all. Not once. When they were talking about the East Hollywood "bicycle district" I was under the impression that they were talking to transportational cyclists.

Speedo

Roughstuff

Do they wear speedos under their spandex?


roughstuff

CB HI

Interesting that YOU do not consider my 20 mile one way, daily, work commute as NOT "cycle for transportation" simply because I am a "spandex-clad" cyclist. I suppose my utility rides do not count either, when I wear spandex.

Am I OK on the days I wear the wool jersey rather than a spandex one?
Or, must I also wear wool shorts to be OK?
How about if the motorist cannot tell the difference between my wool and spandex cycling clothes?

genec

LOL I wear spandex shorts, but cotton shirts... oh my, I must really confuse motorists.

Standalone 

Huh. This was broadcast on a day when something similar happened to me, but thankfully, the guy decided to only pull in front and tap his brakes to scare me and teach me a lesson rather than slam them on fully.

Gotta be thankful for small things. I'm glad I'm not writing this from inside his back window.

Speedo

Since I am no longer the rippling hunka-hunka burning man flesh that I (think that I) used to be. There are people who wish I would wear my Speedo under spandex.

Speedo

Digital_Cowboy

Good points as except for the very shortest of trips I too am wearing spandex when I ride. As it gets cooler/colder out I add arm/leg warmers, windbreaker, hoodie, etc., and eventually jeans. BUT I've still got the spandex on underneath it all.

Digital_Cowboy

And what about those of us who as it gets colder wear jeans over our spandex?

Digital_Cowboy

A little off topic. Considering that it is the "good" doctor's fault that Peterson (I think it was Peterson) lost his teeth and he now has to wear false teeth is the "good" doctor responsible for each new set of false teeth or just the first set?

gcottay

I haven't heard anything about the civil suit. After that is concluded, I hope the driver is left with only bus money.

idoru2005

Sorry, my brief statement was misinterpreted. You are reading too much into what I said. Of course your commute is transportation regardless of what you wear, duh. BTW, I'm also a spandex-clad bike commuter that takes the long way to work (16 miles) and the short way home (8 miles). So I combine fun, exercise, and transportation.

I was trying (and failed) to make the distinction between recreational cyclists and bike commuters. Of course some might be one in the same, but there are some people who bike purely for transportation (for a variety of reasons) and not for fun and exercise.

Sorry if I offended you.

Chris516

Ditto!!! I think of that term as, 'I will share the road BUT, motorists will eat my dust, since I 'take the lane'.

Digital_Cowboy

Which for the next 10 yrs (or however long he get's sentenced to) he won't be needing. And given that IF he serves the whole dime he'll be in his early 70s isn't about or past the time that he would have hung up his keys for good? Granted I think many here would agree that he should have done so before now.

But at least for a while he's off the road and is no longer a threat to anyone else.

pacificaslim

It would just be so much easier if we set up a priority system like they have on trails and use it on surface streets. Cars yield to everyone, bikes yield to pedestrians and equestrians, pedestrians yield to equestrians and equestrians yield to no one (and don't even have to pick up their ****). On highways or roads with separated bike/walk paths running parallel, then cars have free reign and no others allowed.

crhilton

That's what I thought too as I listened. The comments on the article are even worse. I didn't realize NPR listeners were such idiots.