Metal Man

This is just a little story about our trip to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg VA. We were there about 9:20 AM on the 9th of this month. The park opened at 10AM. There are about 10 lanes going into the park with a toll booth at each one to collect the $15 parking fee. Gates are down at the booths, cones in the middle of the lanes at each booth, and cones about 10 car lengths back in the middle of each lane.

We were the second car back in our row. Now, we're all early, waiting to spend $72 each to spend ALL day walking in the sun, no matter how you look at it it's going to a long hot day for most people there. So in the cool of the morning most of the cars are sitting there, motors running, windows up A/C on. After a while there is some activity at the toll booths. A guy walks up the side of the entrance lanes with a cart to collect the cones just in front of the cars. He makes his way to the far left side of the lanes and starts picking up the cones and putting them on his cart on his way back to the right.

Now it's maybe 9:30 the park still won't be open for a while yet. There are still cones very visibly ahead of us all the gates are still down. As the guy collects his cones in each lane each car takes off as if it's a race to the next set of cones. If doesn't matter how fast they drive to the cones there is only one guy in charge of the cones. After he makes his way across all the lanes he has to walk himself and his cart up to the booths to collect the next set of cones. It's a few more minutes until he has them all collected and we can now wait at the gate and pay our parking.
So this is what we're up against, these people had many minutes to sit and evaluate the situation and the best response most came up with is go like hell. It's no wonder it is a problem for them when them come up behind a bike.

Matariki

It's tough to go slow in a car. Try traveling at bike speed timing the lights so you don't have to stop. You just can't do it in a car. There are some who try, but most just adopt the point, squirt, splat method. Also, few things irk me more than folks sitting in their cars with the motor running. There's a guy where I work who spends his lunch hour reading in his car. Motor running even when nice.

CB HI

On the rare time that I drive and get stuck in traffic, I have no problem just taking my foot off the brake and very slowly rolling forward without ever touching the gas pedal.

You should see the people in Honolulu who drive to the beach park, and eat their lunch in the closed car, with a park bench 5 feet away.

daihard 

That's only possible if you have an automatic transmission.

CB HI

I have down it on slight slops with manual transmissions. And even on flat roads it only takes an extremely light touch of gas with clutch work to move up.

daihard 

I was referring to the "creeping" movement that only happens to an automatic transmission. With a manual transmission, you will need to touch the gas with the clutch out in order to move. I know - I'd only owned manual transmissions for 20 years since I got my driver's license, until I bought my current car.

I-Like-To-Bike

[/h]
No maybe's about this post or the replies. This thread has nothing to do with bicycling advocacy, bicycling safety, or bicycling at all.

genec

Most cars can coast... a lot of folks fail to realize that, and instead insist on pushing on the gas pedal right up to the moment they push on the brake. My truck has a clutch and clutch pedal... it really can coast.

Automatic transmissions don't coast all that well... they tend to slow down due to the engagement of the transmission... but they can coast a bit.

And really... you can't drive 10MPH? Must make getting around in a parking lot a real hell.

genec

Pretty much true. But the thread is about driving slowly or driving at a human pace. And that is about sharing the road.

Matariki

My point was that it's mentally tough to go that slow when driving. Sure, you can creep along at bike speed, but that's not where most driver's heads are.

huizar

+1, quite possibly my biggest pet peeve!

genec

Yeah they need to readjust their heads then... and stop trying to act like every moment in a car is an Indy 500 moment... instead of putting their brains on cruise control and ignoring what is happening beyond their moving couch.

I feel that showing good handling skills is just as important at low speeds as it is at high speed.

CrankyOne

People throwing litter and cig butts out their windows is probably higher on my list, but this is right up there (and is quite illegal in much of Europe).

daihard 

That gets my vote.

huizar

Cigarette butts out windows is my #2 . Many smokers who don't otherwise litter still toss butts out windows because they don't view it as littering, and often times cigarette butts have a harsher ecological impact that many other forms of litter.

Recumbomatic

$8.00/gallon of gas will fix all this. At $6.00, they'll start saying "Wow, this is expensive." At $7.00, it's "Gosh, I better do something..."

I-Like-To-Bike

Really? What will it "fix"?

Dave Cutter

+1 You're correct this thread isn't pro-bicycle or bicycle advocacy.... it is anti-automobile, anti-motorist.

I think this thread belongs in PO.

Matariki

I've heard that it takes 17 years before they deteriorate enough to be unrecognizable. I seem to recall that some state toyed with the idea of charging a deposit on a pack of cigs so that the customer returns his/her trash. Couldn't see it working well; however it would have been a source of income for scroungers.

B. Carfree

Many years ago, as I was lane-splitting (legal in CA) through stop-and-go rush hour traffic, someone threw a burning cigarette butt out his window. I stopped, picked it up and dropped it back on his lap while saying in a pleasant voice, "You dropped something." If nothing else, I suspect he started looking around before tossing burning objects out of his car after that.

Fortunately, I've mellowed over the years. Otherwise, someone would have shot me by now.

monsterdog

Wow Metalman...

Bikes and a discussion of Auto vs manual transmissions..

Is this Bike forums or TDI Club?

Amy

I-Like-To-Bike

Don't forget the evils of smokers and their filthy habits.

Next up for this so-called bicycling related thread:
Whining about Walmart and fast food joints and their offerings.

RPK79

Or Trollheim.

I-Like-To-Bike

Or Living Car Free. Some of those fellows wallow in this sort of self righteous discussion.

RPK79

Only some? It's gone from a living a lifestyle without a car forum to a how do we make everyone live without a car forum.