Cyclists get a grip on something other than your handlebars.
05-19-10, 10:03 AM
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Cyclists get a grip on something other than your handlebars.
Last weekend 4 dead cyclists in Quebec, 3 of them seem to be caused by a motorist passing unsafely(lane splitting at 55mph). A political party is going to table a 3-foot passing in the city 5 foot on the highway bill.
Anyway, i stumbled across this piece of hate.
https://thestar.blogs.com/kenzie/2010...andlebars.html
Anyway, i stumbled across this piece of hate.
Cyclists - get a grip on something other than your handlebars
Cyclists across the province are riding - metaphorically, at least - to support NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo's private members bill which would amend Ontario's Highway Traffic Act to establish specific distances that motorists must leave for cyclists, from the current 'so far as may be necessary to avoid a collision', to three feet below 50 km/h, four feet between 50 and 80, and five feet over 80.
Um, how many metres would that be?
And would motorists need long, calibrated curb feelers to determine those distances?
Cyclists say they need this protection, especially at higher speeds when the wind from passing cars can blow them right off their bikes.
HELLO?
You're riding on a road on such a flimsy contraption that the wind from other road users can blow you into the ditch?
Are you nuts??
And you expect your government and publicly-funded health care to support you in this insanity?
Yikes.
If Ms DiNovo really did belong to a 'democratic' party, new or old, she might recognize that while democracies have some level of obligation to protect minorities, it still is 'majority rules', 'greatest good for the greatest number', etc.
This law would force motorists to swerve into adjacent lanes, probably causing even more collisions, in which the cyclists would likely be collateral damage anyway.
Causing more crashes is not the way to improved road safety - for anyone.
Of course, this bill hasn't a snowflake's chance in Hades of getting passed in a Liberal-dominated legislature.
But it does show that cyclists really don't understand how dangerous what they do is.
Why should their risk-taking impinge on the rest of us?
Cyclists across the province are riding - metaphorically, at least - to support NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo's private members bill which would amend Ontario's Highway Traffic Act to establish specific distances that motorists must leave for cyclists, from the current 'so far as may be necessary to avoid a collision', to three feet below 50 km/h, four feet between 50 and 80, and five feet over 80.
Um, how many metres would that be?
And would motorists need long, calibrated curb feelers to determine those distances?
Cyclists say they need this protection, especially at higher speeds when the wind from passing cars can blow them right off their bikes.
HELLO?
You're riding on a road on such a flimsy contraption that the wind from other road users can blow you into the ditch?
Are you nuts??
And you expect your government and publicly-funded health care to support you in this insanity?
Yikes.
If Ms DiNovo really did belong to a 'democratic' party, new or old, she might recognize that while democracies have some level of obligation to protect minorities, it still is 'majority rules', 'greatest good for the greatest number', etc.
This law would force motorists to swerve into adjacent lanes, probably causing even more collisions, in which the cyclists would likely be collateral damage anyway.
Causing more crashes is not the way to improved road safety - for anyone.
Of course, this bill hasn't a snowflake's chance in Hades of getting passed in a Liberal-dominated legislature.
But it does show that cyclists really don't understand how dangerous what they do is.
Why should their risk-taking impinge on the rest of us?
https://thestar.blogs.com/kenzie/2010...andlebars.html
05-19-10, 10:22 AM
#2
The Drive Side is Within
this is pretty much what someone was shouting at me before he got out of the car to kick my behind. "I'm just trying to look out for your saftey! Some people think they own the road! I've been riding bikes my whole life! I know what the law is! You can't ride if there's no white line! Now get out of the road before I make you!!!"
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The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets. Christopher Morley
The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets. Christopher Morley
05-19-10, 10:29 AM
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It's just hilarious. Many motorists complain of increased inconvinience or danger when having to move over/change lanes for a cyclist. For the 5-10 seconds it takes to shoulder check, signal, turn the steering wheel those painful one or two inches, and pass safely,it does not seem like such a horrible thing for a safe passing to be put into legislation. It's just like passing any other slow moving vehicle. You don't see people flipping off drivers of farm equipment.
05-19-10, 11:22 AM
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My response to Kenzie's post:
"A few things you seem not to have noticed in your 25 years of automotive journalism:
When one motor vehicle passes another on a two-lane, undivided highway, it has to move *entirely* into the other lane to do it. That applies even when it's slow-moving farm equipment, or a tractor-trailer unit whose driver has missed a shift going up a hill.
Whenever a stiff wind blows across a highway, flimsy things like SUV's and tractor-trailer units wind up on their sides in the ditch.
People who drive (something other than a desk) can even tell how far they are from other objects on the road by sight, not Braille. How do you keep your vehicle between the lines on the road?"
Comments are moderated, though, so we'll see if it makes it through.
"A few things you seem not to have noticed in your 25 years of automotive journalism:
When one motor vehicle passes another on a two-lane, undivided highway, it has to move *entirely* into the other lane to do it. That applies even when it's slow-moving farm equipment, or a tractor-trailer unit whose driver has missed a shift going up a hill.
Whenever a stiff wind blows across a highway, flimsy things like SUV's and tractor-trailer units wind up on their sides in the ditch.
People who drive (something other than a desk) can even tell how far they are from other objects on the road by sight, not Braille. How do you keep your vehicle between the lines on the road?"
Comments are moderated, though, so we'll see if it makes it through.
05-19-10, 11:42 AM
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Originally Posted by Tool
But it does show that cyclists really don't understand how dangerous what they do is.
05-19-10, 01:11 PM
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Something tells me this is more about gathering a mob with some torches and pitchforks to kill some more dem cyclists - for their own safety of course not because they inflict responsibility on other people(how dare they)
05-19-10, 03:01 PM
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He hates motorbikes too, I was confusing him with the other guy there.
He does however, seem to enjoy "test driving" exotic cars and deriding the OPP for ticketing speeders.
05-19-10, 03:41 PM
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Oh well, i don't see much difference between endorsing different high powered vehicles, in fact the sports car maybe worse since you'll probably take your passenger or a bystander with you to your grave. And these guys who speed on public roads do eventually end up damaged goods or dead.
The Toronto Star just posted this probably in an attempt to save face about their oh so talented writer Jim Kenzie. At least they realize how careless it is to go against such a law.
The comments are funny... "If i have to pass people safely it will be gridlock!" Uh... really? So you're admitting to passing people unsafely?? haha.
The Toronto Star just posted this probably in an attempt to save face about their oh so talented writer Jim Kenzie. At least they realize how careless it is to go against such a law.
The comments are funny... "If i have to pass people safely it will be gridlock!" Uh... really? So you're admitting to passing people unsafely?? haha.
05-19-10, 04:43 PM
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I used to think Mr. Kenzie was fairly intelligent, but then he spews this nonsensical vitriol. Sheesh.
05-19-10, 05:14 PM
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My own comment, (I was a bit pissed off):
Cycling isn't especially dangerous, it's the drivers who just CAN'T for FIVE SECONDS impede their right to be somewhere as fast as they can legally or illegally get there.
A passing truck can blow a Smart Car into the ditch if the driver isn't paying attention. They're still legal, eh?
If smokers and overeaters and those who never exercise have the right to our health care system, then those of us who cycle (using NO fuel, getting exercise and taking barely any space on the road) certainly expect support from the government and the healthcare system.
Where should we ride, Jim? On the sidewalk? That's illegal and bothers me to see other cyclists do it. What about where there are no bike lanes? Are we to rely on kind folks like yourself to ferry us over the nasty, mean highways?
Have you ever cycled, Jim? If not, then maybe you have had your head stuck under the hood for too long.
Cycling isn't especially dangerous, it's the drivers who just CAN'T for FIVE SECONDS impede their right to be somewhere as fast as they can legally or illegally get there.
A passing truck can blow a Smart Car into the ditch if the driver isn't paying attention. They're still legal, eh?
If smokers and overeaters and those who never exercise have the right to our health care system, then those of us who cycle (using NO fuel, getting exercise and taking barely any space on the road) certainly expect support from the government and the healthcare system.
Where should we ride, Jim? On the sidewalk? That's illegal and bothers me to see other cyclists do it. What about where there are no bike lanes? Are we to rely on kind folks like yourself to ferry us over the nasty, mean highways?
Have you ever cycled, Jim? If not, then maybe you have had your head stuck under the hood for too long.
05-20-10, 05:46 PM
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For us who actually ride, we are truly sorry for the loss of life. It is getting nigh impossible to stop impaired auto drivers.( or should I say aimers?)
For the one bad apple that comes along and make a mess of things. There are probably 200 who are watching this moron or morons(can't forget the plural)
plow through with unnerving regularity. What make it worse is for one of these aimers who are proabably aimless in life anyhow coming on this forum
to spill their spleen.
Bob
For the one bad apple that comes along and make a mess of things. There are probably 200 who are watching this moron or morons(can't forget the plural)
plow through with unnerving regularity. What make it worse is for one of these aimers who are proabably aimless in life anyhow coming on this forum
to spill their spleen.
Bob
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