Baloney!

If you were stopped on the street in your neighborhood having an argument with somebody and traffic was blocked, your neighbors would crowd around too to see what was going on. Then again maybe your neighbors wouldn't give a darn about you.

There was no "them" or "they" "claiming" a darn thing in that video. Nobody but the driver of the van hassled this cyclist.

And yeah I know, some of your best friends are "special people."

Yeah, right, have a nice day.

Not 'Baloney', but 'Baloney Macaroni' like the driver said in the video. :roflmao2:

I took this thread into the wrong direction by sarcastically asking how one would deal with the passive roadblock of people that feel they own the public streets through their neighborhood.

Public streets are for the public to use to transit from point to point, and such egress should not be impeded by anyone... and that has been addressed by the highest courts in the land.

Let's take this thread back to the education of cyclists in NYC and a promotion of cycling in the Big Apple.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/ny...?src=recg&_r=0

Perhaps one of the lessons to be taught about urban cycling is that most big cities have distinctive neighborhoods. While our legal rights and obligations do not change between neighborhoods the folkways sure do. The more attune we are to these variations the more happy our rides are apt to be.

I've met some really nice people of that persuasion, though I've observed some bad tendencies. Unfortunately, we observe them from the outside, so we see the bad stuff. We could talk all day about this, but let's not.

Valid point.

I have tried to make that point to others long ago here on BF and it was shot down... as "unlikely," the reason given was "motorists should all be following the rules of the road for drivers of vehicles."

Reality is that neighborhoods are different. We all know that cities may vary... certainly neighborhoods within cities could also vary.

Now here is the loaded question... does anyone have the right to stop a cyclist from using public roads, just because their neighborhood is different? I mean if I wear California bright clothing, should I worry about transitioning through a Houston neighborhood? (do folks from Austin worry about cycling through Houston... Austin is loads different in cycling attitude).

Yeah I know, I just stepped right back into that divergent conversation again.

Whatever that particular NYC neighborhood is called (somewhere between Williamsburg, DUMBO and Bed-Stuy, they've been in the news before. They compelled the city to erase some of the bike lanes that were initially put in (granted, they're of marginal value there, given the narrow streets) and even tried unsuccessfully to enforce Hasid code of conduct on city buses passing through, making women (all women) sit in the back. No doubt there are "nice" people who live there -- I've seen and interacted with them. But there are also some there, who carry an unbelievable sense of entitlement due to the insular and hierarchical nature of the world they believe they operate in. I commute through there every day and yes, I've figured out a way to reduce the number of close calls and road rage incidents around me. But it did come by way of treating that area with a special attitude I normally don't feel the need to adopt in other NYC neighborhoods. This isn't about singling out an ethnicity. I'm Jewish myself. This is a cult in the middle of a 21st century metropolis. Makes me sad, frankly.

When I first saw that video, it angered me enough to want to yank out a few tufts of beard on those clowns. Bottom line, you want to make your own rules for other people to follow, form your own country. Get the F*** out of mine. I'm ALL FOR freedom of religion, but it DIRECTLY INCLUDES the caveat that you KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.

Best thing I ever saw: "Religion is like a penis -- it's okay to have one, okay to be proud of it, but it's NOT okay to pull it out and wave it around."

Genec, You should be happy, your revival of the religious angle to a singular road rage incident has been successful

I ride through there all the time and have never had an issue, though I have heard about some. I'd just like to let those who are getting all worked up about this know that even though this incident should not be tolerated, this is not something that happens constantly. That hood is FULL of cyclists and most of them haven't had a problem.

The more I've thought about this, the more I-like-to-bike is right...regardless of what opinion I have of that community. If it wasn't this one particular group, I would never have considered it mattering, so the only relevance of that group is my bias.

The issue here is a jerkwad, regardless of persuasion.

The thing is I have no interest in the religious angle at all... please note that in my latest comment I used the cities of Houston and Austin as examples. I can give examples of other neighborhoods too... but then no doubt someone like you will say I am being racially prejudiced.

But I say again, NO ONE has the right to stop someone from legally using a PUBLIC ROADWAY... and that is my point.

What you think you derive from my comments is in your head.

Not in Williamsburg:

http://nymag.com/realestate/neighborhoods/2010/65356/

My response would be outside the scope of the forum and better left elsewhere. I am not without bias.

Fundamentally this isn't a cycling vs. Hasid issue...rather it's a Hasid vs. encroaching infidels issue. Bicycles aren't the issue.

So are cars of "infidels" stopped too? If not, this is a bicycle issue.

The comment was really only speaking to the link above...it involves bikes, but if the infidels used roller skates, it would be about roller skates.

The point about every neighborhood having a different look and feel seems to me to be at the heart of it. Just as an example, driving and pedestrians crossing the street are more haphazard in poor neighborhoods than in affluent neighborhoods. As such, I expect this, and I'm even more haphazard when I'm in a poor neighborhood. When in Rome, do as the Romans. This variety may not be in other areas of the country, but I have observed them in the three states I've lived in: New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

Just as it makes no sense to be completely disorderly anywhere, it also may not be the best plan to expect everyone to follow the letter of the law when there is an established local custom. That's wishful thinking that is asking for trouble. I recently lost my temper in a bike lane in Manhattan. My rage was so loud that people JUMPED out of the bike lane, but what good did it do me? I can't teach New Yorkers to respect the bike lane more than they do. In theory, I was right, because people should not have been walking in the bike lane. But roaring didn't help, nor did riding so close to them as to scare them, so I was wrong there.