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-   -   Another useless thread: how to respond in the face of massive stupidity? (https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/666183-another-useless-thread-how-respond-face-massive-stupidity.html)

exile 07-27-10 04:25 PM

I'm confused by the markings on the road. It looks like an arrow pointing in the direction he was heading, but I can't tell if it shows a bike or pedestrian sign behind it? However reading your post AdamDZ, it sounds like there are markings overhead.

colleen c 07-27-10 05:14 PM


Originally Posted by AdamDZ (Post 11185244)
I scared the **** out of a couple with headphone on once, both were walking dead in the middle, no way to pass, oblivious to my bell so I used the AirZound, it was priceless, I actually felt bad but I was able to pass.

Please don't feel bad. You're doing them a big favor. Good habit has to start somewhere. If they are so oblivious to their surrounding, a warning or two might just save their lives one day.

Some Itune lover are so tuned to their mp3, they are in the far side of the galaxy. I once blasted this guy with my Airzound indoor at the train station. I was going down the stair holding my bike waist high with one hand on the handlebar. He was walking up the same stair on a suicidal mission with his head on a direct collision course to my wheel. I shouted at him and he kept his head tilted down staring at his Iphone with those super sized headphone jamming away. I started to lower my bike immediately and hit the Airzound horn. He almost crap in his trouser but it stopped him right away. It was his lucky day. My wheel was within a foot of wacking his family jewel inbetween his leg. Imagine him losing that to my Armadillo. Maybe, just maybe there a small chance that person awareness has raised a notch or two.

goodboynyc 07-27-10 05:16 PM

To exile, http://gothamist.com/2010/04/06/as_p...ed_the_dot.php

If you look at the image below the headline, the Williamsburg Bridge today follows the "Proposed" image. So the blundering fool talking while strolling isn't even going WITH bicycle traffic. He seems to be straddling the shoulder lane of the bridge.

Rollfast 07-27-10 05:20 PM

If it's useless then why bother teaching them any other ways to do it wrong and just adapt your relative rightness -1 or -2?

scorch 07-27-10 05:25 PM

Its not really a big deal IMO. What im guessing is the guy just got on the trail, and it looks like there was a cyclist in front of him, so maybe he chose not to cross over and get in your path and was eventually going to cross over after you crossed, maybe thats why he said he just got there?

Honestly, even if he is in the Bike lane, why approach him? There are tons of people always going the wrong way etc.. Who elected you officer of the trail? No offense by the way, i would never approach him over something some petty as that.


It makes me think in the future we will need police patrolling trails.

10 Wheels 07-27-10 05:29 PM

Going by this he is going the right direction,

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...0wheels/04.jpg

spooner 07-27-10 05:49 PM

Sometimes I have to gently remind people that here in the U.S. we walk on the same side that we drive - the right.

I honestly think that a lot of people don't realize this.

goodboynyc 07-27-10 05:51 PM


Originally Posted by 10 Wheels (Post 11186185)
Going by this he is going the right direction,

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...0wheels/04.jpg

That pedestrian sign is old(or at least it wasn't removed properly). All cyclists ride on the right half of the exit and pedestrians walk on the Left half of the exit.

nice_marmot 07-27-10 06:18 PM

Reminds me of the springtime tourists in D.C. who get all huffy when you ask them to stand on the right side of the Metro escalators so you can run down and catch your freakin' train home. Jerks. People LIVE here.

AdamDZ 07-27-10 06:21 PM


Originally Posted by 10 Wheels (Post 11186185)
Going by this he is going the right direction,

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...0wheels/04.jpg


These are not that visible and are clearly painted over. For some reason they're more visible on the picture than in reality, they're just shades of gray on black asphalt.


Originally Posted by spooner (Post 11186272)
Sometimes I have to gently remind people that here in the U.S. we walk on the same side that we drive - the right.

I honestly think that a lot of people don't realize this.

Actually... um, no. In NYS and most other states the pedestrians are supposed to walk against the traffic, on the left, if no sidewalk is present.


Originally Posted by Rollfast (Post 11186150)
If it's useless then why bother teaching them any other ways to do it wrong and just adapt your relative rightness -1 or -2?

No, I said the thread was useless as in "I'm preaching to the choir", I still believe that in some cases you really ought tell people that they're doing something wrong. Can't just shut up and go about your own business.

AdamDZ 07-27-10 06:30 PM


Originally Posted by scorch (Post 11186169)
Its not really a big deal IMO. What im guessing is the guy just got on the trail, and it looks like there was a cyclist in front of him, so maybe he chose not to cross over and get in your path and was eventually going to cross over after you crossed, maybe thats why he said he just got there?

Honestly, even if he is in the Bike lane, why approach him? There are tons of people always going the wrong way etc.. Who elected you officer of the trail? No offense by the way, i would never approach him over something some petty as that.

It makes me think in the future we will need police patrolling trails.

He was on the wrong side from the beginning. Plenty of other people had no such problem. As I said before, what ticked me off is that he was pushing a stroller with a small kid. That kid would be seriously hurt if a bike crashed into them, because his dad is a mucking foron.

NYPD doesn't give a rat's ass about peds and cyclists.

spooner 07-27-10 06:34 PM


Originally Posted by AdamDZ (Post 11186422)
Actually... um, no. In NYS and most other states the pedestrians are supposed to walk against the traffic, on the left, if no sidewalk is present.

Agreed. I was discussing Multi-use paths.

Sirrus Rider 07-27-10 06:36 PM


Originally Posted by AdamDZ (Post 11182457)
This morning during the descent down the Williamsburg Bridge on the Manhattan side I see this zombie walking in the bike lane with a stroller yapping on a cellphone. The new lanes are finished and the signage is in place. I slowed down and said "Excuse me sir, but the pedestrian lane is over there... please? Please?" I would ignore him if it wasn't for the kid. It's like those idiots who wait off the curb for the light to change with the stroller in front of them in the traffic lane.

His response:

"Geez... I just got here!"

My jaw fell to the pavement, I was at loss of words in the face of such monumental stupidity. But he did walk over to the pedestrian lane immediately.

http://a-world.net/files/cycling/201...estrian/01.jpg

http://a-world.net/files/cycling/201...estrian/02.jpg

http://a-world.net/files/cycling/201...estrian/04.jpg


There's no point in it. Zombies like that are absolute experts in stupidity and will just drag you down. :(

bjornb 07-27-10 11:04 PM

Seriously, life improved for me when I stopped caring about things like this.

tjspiel 07-27-10 11:40 PM

Wow, some of you guys are pretty harsh. I see no problem in politely pointing out to the guy that he's in the wrong place but referring to the guy as a moron is a little over the top. Yes, I realize that no one has done to his face.

Clearly at one point in this MUPs existence, he would have been in the right place. Maybe it's the first time he's used the MUP in a while and just went to that spot out of habit? Maybe it was his first time there period? In my experience MUP signage seems adequate IF you know where to look for the signs. They rarely jump out at you, however

Also, I doubt he or his kid were in much danger. He was barely in the bike lane at all. Any cyclist could clearly see him and he, them. It hardly looks like there are swarms of bikes anyway and in my experience, there just aren't that many cyclists doing 20+ on MUPs. In fact, if there are a lot of bikes on the MUP, you probably shouldn't be going that fast.

What this reminds me of is the way some drivers act when cyclists dare to use THEIR lanes instead of the nice MUP or bike lane.

For the sake of full disclosure I'll admit that at night I sometimes run on the cycling paths in certain areas because the Ped paths aren't adequately lit everywhere. I run in the left lane so I can see if there are any bikes coming. There rarely are at that hour, but if I do see one, I step off the MUP.

wheeldeal 07-28-10 12:26 AM

What type of camera are you using?

AdamDZ 07-28-10 04:32 AM


Originally Posted by spooner (Post 11186466)
Agreed. I was discussing Multi-use paths.

Oh, that is a complete mess in NYC. This bridge had peds walking against the traffic before the re-painting, other bridges are different. There seems to be no definitive rule for peds and bikes traffic on MUPs here (they're not called MUPs either).

A.

AdamDZ 07-28-10 04:32 AM


Originally Posted by wheeldeal (Post 11187942)
What type of camera are you using?

The cheap keychain camera from eBay. There is another thread about those actually.

AdamDZ 07-28-10 04:37 AM


Originally Posted by tjspiel (Post 11187851)
Wow, some of you guys are pretty harsh. I see no problem in politely pointing out to the guy that he's in the wrong place but referring to the guy as a moron is a little over the top. Yes, I realize that no one has done to his face.

Clearly at one point in this MUPs existence, he would have been in the right place. Maybe it's the first time he's used the MUP in a while and just went to that spot out of habit? Maybe it was his first time there period? In my experience MUP signage seems adequate IF you know where to look for the signs. They rarely jump out at you, however

Also, I doubt he or his kid were in much danger. He was barely in the bike lane at all. Any cyclist could clearly see him and he, them. It hardly looks like there are swarms of bikes anyway and in my experience, there just aren't that many cyclists doing 20+ on MUPs. In fact, if there are a lot of bikes on the MUP, you probably shouldn't be going that fast.

What this reminds me of is the way some drivers act when cyclists dare to use THEIR lanes instead of the nice MUP or bike lane.

For the sake of full disclosure I'll admit that at night I sometimes run on the cycling paths in certain areas because the Ped paths aren't adequately lit everywhere. I run in the left lane so I can see if there are any bikes coming. There rarely are at that hour, but if I do see one, I step off the MUP.

That part of the bridge goes down for several hundred meters, it's very common to see bikes go very fast. Even a clunker can easily hit 20mph there without much effort from the rider. I think there were actually bike-pedestrian collisions on that part in the past, before the lanes were re-painted to separate bikes and peds.

Yes, I was very calm and polite and I didn't yell at him or call him names.

mikeybikes 07-28-10 06:28 AM


Originally Posted by bjornb (Post 11187762)
Seriously, life improved for me when I stopped caring about things like this.

Kinda how I feel too.

pdid1 07-28-10 09:17 AM

This thread reminds me of when I nearly got killed in Barcelona. It was my first time in a European country and I was trying to find my hotel. I aimlessly crossed what I thought was a bike lane with my eyes upwards looking for any sign of the hotel. Before I knew what was going on there is a large scooter two feet from me schreeching to a halt. What I thought was a bike lane was a narrow street with traffic doing 30 mph. The woman on the scooter shouted some Catalan curses at me and sped off.

AdamDZ 07-28-10 09:26 AM


Originally Posted by pdid1 (Post 11189111)
This thread reminds me of when I nearly got killed in Barcelona. It was my first time in a European country and I was trying to find my hotel. I aimlessly crossed what I thought was a bike lane with my eyes upwards looking for any sign of the hotel. Before I knew what was going on there is a large scooter two feet from me schreeching to a halt. What I thought was a bike lane was a narrow street with traffic doing 30 mph. The woman on the scooter shouted some Catalan curses at me and sped off.

Well, you were in an unfamiliar setting after all.

Adam

SlimAgainSoon 07-28-10 10:03 AM

Down here, we'd call someone like that ... a New Yorker!

Snowsurfer 07-28-10 01:22 PM

Were the photos extracted from video on the $10 cam?

I am looking to get one of em (from the other thread you posted in)

wut's the seller name again?

rex_kramer 07-28-10 10:34 PM

The pedestrians are one thing since they think because there's empty space that they can just occupy it, but do you ever say anything to the dum dum fishies? I would be able to tolerate very little of that before yelling at someone.

agarose2000 07-28-10 11:01 PM

Actually, I think that cell phone guy represents 99% of Americans out there. It's us cyclists who are the <1% anomaly.

Seriously - less than 1% of America bike commutes. So the notion of actually seeing a bike commuter using a bike lane is completely outlandish and fantastical to 99% of Americans. Hence, they assume they can do as they please in the bike lanes, even without a bike.

Even here in Norcal where there are an abundance of the loveliest, safest, and most useful bike lanes and cooperative weather to be found in the entire world, I'm usually the only commuting cyclist to be seen in a sea of cars at rush hour. (After rush hour there are a lot of recreatioanl cyclists, but there are very few bike commuters outside a 2-mile radius of Stanford university.) I'm sure all those cagers look at the bike lanes and think "what a friggin' waste of space."

Not trying to stick up for them - just noting the reality of our lives as the vast minority and the weird problems that come up with it.

noglider 07-28-10 11:51 PM

"Geez... I just got here!"

That is SUCH a non sequitur! I think I'll use it whenever I use a mistake. It's priceless.

AdamDZ 07-29-10 05:05 AM


Originally Posted by Snowsurfer (Post 11190560)
Were the photos extracted from video on the $10 cam?

I am looking to get one of em (from the other thread you posted in)

wut's the seller name again?


Yes, they were. Well, it's more like $15 :) The seller name from eBay is marktech101.

AdamDZ 07-29-10 05:07 AM


Originally Posted by rex_kramer (Post 11193494)
The pedestrians are one thing since they think because there's empty space that they can just occupy it, but do you ever say anything to the dum dum fishies? I would be able to tolerate very little of that before yelling at someone.

You mean salmons? Yeah, I used to. But I'm getting slowly to the point that just don't give a damn. I would have ignored even this guy if it wasn't for the stroller with a little kid.

AdamDZ 07-29-10 05:09 AM


Originally Posted by noglider (Post 11193732)
"Geez... I just got here!"

That is SUCH a non sequitur! I think I'll use it whenever I use a mistake. It's priceless.

Yeah, it's best response I got from anyone so far :D I think he meant "Geez... I just woke up!".


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