Bike rage/road rage--thoughts from 50+ers?
There is a very good article on the BikePortland web site about how the design of roads and the mix of cars and bikes contributes to road rage. This may even tie in to Bombadil's recent thread on urban living/urban sprawl.
Go here: http://bikeportland.org/2008/07/14/e...ess/#more-8184 Note: This thread is specifically and intentionally posted on the 50+ forum in order to take full advantage of the sage wisdom of the 50+ elders, purposefully bypassing & transcending the impulsive, inane remarks of those of lesser years, experience, and wisdom. (All impulsive, inane remarks shall be kept in-house here.) |
Thanks for sharing!! People get frustrated from BOTH ends, don't they? :(
(nice disclosure, by the way.. Hee hee! :thumb:) |
There are jerks on bicycles and jerks in cars. But the original article comes close the equivalent of telling women that they are partially to blame for being beaten by their husbands - if only they wouldn't do things to make the men mad. That fat-*****, cell phone-yammering, SUV-driving motorist is almost certainly a jerk outside of his vehicle. Street design is not making him a jerk. He just is a jerk. Period.
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Consideration of others should never be a secondary thought. At least that's what they taught me in second grade. Hence, I tend to agree with the principle (but not the expression of it) behind Cone Wrench's comment: the challenges we face is never an excuse for treating others poorly.
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My theory is that we all are test animals in a giant laboratory to test the limits of human toleration to neurosensory overload.
Cell phones, IPods, IPhones, MP3, portable computers, Bluetooth everything, radios, TV's in every room, TiVo, Blackberry, Palm devices which let you do CME while taking a dump, and caffeine-spiked Starbucks to keep our cortices twitching 24/7 in our full-service economy. Case in point. I'm at the beach, it's nice out, the waves are beckoning, but I'd rather be picking fights on the TdF forum via a signal poached on my laptop. Is that pitiful or what? We've become so stimulated that most of the population has lost the ability to percieve nature at all. And it's playing havoc with our neurology. Papa Darwin did not randomly design us to handle this degree of overload. And it will only get worse. Those who prosper will learn to insulate themselves from it, at least some. That is one reason why cycling is so appealing. |
Note the article below on the subject of overload. Also, note the hyperlink after that article on Google and our changing brain patterns. As far as picking fights/rage, that to me is a different issue more related to lessening of self control due to anonymity. Same problem when we are in our cars: some behave differently because of the we are relatively hidden from view.
A friend suffers from road rage symptoms, but in her case it's because she angers quickly. I'm hoping that she gets herself under control as it can lead to health problems. In the old days, before the present information overload, there were numerous articles how type-A's were prone to heart attacks. I'm a type A, but I never believed it. Then they realized it wasn't the type A, but the angry type A that was prone to self destructing. Al -- INFORMATION AGE By L. GORDON CROVITZ Unloading Information Overload July 7, 2008; Page A11 Warning: On average, knowledge workers change activities every three minutes, usually because they're distracted by email or a phone call. It then takes almost half an hour to get back to the task once attention is lost. So if you're trying to read this column at the office or within range of your mobile device, what should be a few minutes can take much longer. Consider the rest of this article an 800-word test of your ability to maintain attention. A decline in our ability to focus is a side effect of the otherwise powerful tools we use to gather and analyze information. A new organization has just been launched, the Information Overload Research Group, whose founders include executives from companies such as Microsoft, Google, IBM and Intel. These are the very companies that have done the most to create the information tools that undermine our ability to focus; indeed, an initiative from them to address too much information could be compared to video-game programmers launching a line of Zen meditation centers. Still, it's encouraging that the most information-intense companies are trying to overcome their own overload. Microsoft runs a research lab called the Visualization and Interaction Research Group, which for years has tried to develop software that would prioritize email and other communications. An engineer at Google recently created E-Mail Addict, which lets users of Gmail turn off their inboxes for 15-minute stretches, thus using computer technology to enable human self-discipline. Even those of us who cheer new technologies for the choices and access they bring realize we're early in the process of humans using these technologies wisely. Data show that technology is a huge productivity enhancer – and a huge source of inefficiency. Research company Basex estimates that more than one-quarter of the day of the typical information worker is taken up by interruptions such as email, instant messaging, Twitter, RSS feeds and other untamed information flows. Less time is spent each day on activities such as writing emails, going to meetings or searching for information. The researchers concluded that only about one-tenth of the day is spent thinking and reflecting. Until information technology can heal itself, there's a lot of experimenting. Intel has tried "zero-email Fridays." IBM has "Think Fridays," limiting email and other interruptions. John Battelle, a Web maven and co-founder of Wired magazine, recently told his senior staff at the online advertising network Federated Media to "Take 48," banishing the sending of emails over the weekend. The University of Chicago Law School blocks Internet access from classrooms; the dean said, "One student will visit a gossip site or shop for shoes, and within 20 minutes an entire row is shoe shopping." The CEO of a board on which I served began each meeting by demanding that her directors give up their BlackBerrys, gathering them in the center of the boardroom table, like guns tossed in a stack before a poker game in the Wild West. Sudden withdrawal from the CrackBerrys required frequent info-breaks, but the Information Overload Research Group might try this approach at its inaugural conference later this month. There's a lively debate on the broader issues raised by information overload. In a new book called "Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age," author Maggie Jackson warns that the cumulative effect of new technologies is that we may be losing our ability to maintain attention more generally. Attention requires focus, awareness and what she calls executive attention. "Relying on multitasking as a way of life, we chop up our opportunities and abilities to make big-picture sense of the world and pursue our long-term goals," she writes. "The way we live is eroding our capacity for deep, sustained, perceptive attention – the building block of intimacy, wisdom, and cultural progress." Ms. Jackson concludes that "as we plunge into a new world of infinitely connectible and accessible information, we risk losing our means and ability to go beneath the surface, to think deeply." Likewise, in an article in the current Atlantic magazine headlined "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" author Nicholas Carr writes, "What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski." The good news is that Ms. Jackson wrote a book, not just a blog post, on this complex topic. Mr. Carr's Atlantic article was more than 4,000 words. And executives at the most innovative technology companies are focused on solving information overload for themselves and the rest of us. We humans can be slow, but eventually we catch up to the technologies we create and figure out how best to use them. Write to informationage@wsj.com --- http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google |
I do not plan on accepting excuses for bad behavior on our roads based on stress or the pressure in peoples lives. IMHO, the world out there is just plain filled with selfish/greedy people. Unfortunately, even though I'm not sure what we did/did not do, I think its probably our generations fault that this happened.
Just this morning, a coworker brought in a picture of his driveway yesterday evening. In it was a crushed upside down SUV. The lady driver lost part of a hand but not her life. What did she do wrong.......nothing.........she was broadsided and flipped by a driver used to running the stop sign when there were no vehicles present. Too bad lady........couldn't bring himself to stop just because it was the thing to do.....by-by hand. |
I'm thankful that I am not enraged in my pickup truck or on my bike. I don't think road design has much to do with thoughtless action and anger in your life.
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As far as Electronic Gizmo Clutter goes, I totally agree that there is just way
too much "Have to have it" stuff. Enough already! I'm not sure if I'm just burning out or if recent serious life experiences have changed my attitrude but I've already started push away from most of that electronic gadgetry. I've started to seriuosly de-clutter my life. It has also carried over to living a simpler life style. Cutting the lawn has been transformed from a chore to "something to do". I eat at home almost exclusively and when we do go out it has turned into something special (granted, the gas costs have contributed slightly to this new outlook). These changes have brought a sense of peace to my life that I find to be quite refreshing. I've even noticed that I have more patience than I used to have before. TWL may be on to something. Just my opinion. Oh, yeah. Happy Trails |
I am very pro-cyclist, yet have been annoyed on many occasions by cyclists. Around our campus I have to be very careful at stop signs, especially 4-way stops, because the cyclists don't stop. And they run a lot of red lights too, even in traffic.
Out on the rural roads around my home, most are well-behaved, but I've had many occasions to have to come to almost full stops approaching the crest of a hill, because two cyclists are riding side by side and I cannot pass them without going fully into the other lane. Or one cyclist is riding halfway out into the lane, on a stretch of road where it is impossible to safely pass them. When a cyclist leaves me with the choice of driving 5-10 mph to follow them up over a hill, or putting my family at risk if I choose to pass them, then I get annoyed. Especially when there is plenty of room for them to pull toward the side and allow me to pass safely. 90 some percent do the right thing, but in the last 2-3 years, it seems like more riders than ever are behaving badly. Some, I'm sure, because they refuse to use any type of mirror and don't even know my car is right behind them. So I see a number of cyclists provoking ill will toward cyclists. That annoys me because I know the consequence is that well-intentioned cyclists may end up bearing the brunt of anger that others provoked. |
One of the thoughts that prompted me to start this thread had to do with an incident that happened in Portland recently. The thread about it on BF is here:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...gonian+article It was then widely talked about on bikeportland.org, the local popular cyclist web site. My wife and two daughters and I were in Portland about the time this happened. We were leaving the Saturday Market, walking on *the sidewalk* when a guy on a bike rode up behind my wife and shouted, "EXCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME!" Although the words were "polite" his message wasn't. It was basically "Get the eff out of my way" and he wasn't going to stop to wait for an answer. I had to grab my wife's arm and pull her out of the way so that she wasn't run into or run over by the guy. I don't remember exactly what I said to the guy--I do know that I didn't use profanity (my daughters were there, y'know)--but I invited him in no uncertain terms to stop and have an up-close and personal discussion with me about his cycling etiquette. He declined and kept riding. My wife said, "Let it go, let it go." If we had gotten into an altercation, I'm fairly certain that some bystanders would have taken the side of the guy on the bike simply because he was on a bike. In the incident linked to above, some people who came on the scene between the "cyclist" and driver simply assumed that the driver was in the wrong because he was a driver. Their mentality is "two wheels good, four wheels bad." As to the gadgets people are so attached to while driving, a new law went into effect July 1 in Washington state that drivers can't talk on a cell phone while driving, can't text message either. I've noticed no difference in behavior on the part of drivers. The fact that it's a secondary offense, meaning that the cops can't stop the driver just for that, might have something to do with it. I really don't want to be taken out on my bike by some beanhead yakking on a cell phone. On the other hand, as a driver I wouldn't want to be hassled by bike nazis either. |
I am very pro cyclist and think I am a courteous driver but even I get really mad when I see cyclists riding two or three abreast on a busy country road. I was taught to "paint the white line" or close to it. I get mad when I see a cyclist 5 feet out from the roadway. It is dangerous and just plain rude. If the rider was focused he would be maintaining his line and no one would be endangered.
Whew. Thanks for letting me vent. |
assuming that 1 out of 10 folks you meet every day is either 1)an inveterate a*hole whose public behavior rarely varies from 1 on a politeness scale of 1-10 or 2)a generally polite person who is having a particularly bad day and is not coping well or 3)a generally polite person in the midst of an emergency of sme sort, then if you only meet ten people in a day, the chances are you will have a poor interaction with one of them.
However, when you interact with hundreds every day you're going to be interacting with 10 or more turdballs every day. the math is against you. This is not Japan. Our culture did not evolve as an island nation where politeness was necessary for survival. Seems to me we're more or less as polite as we've always been, there's just more of us. |
Irony to follow. Some of you might not like it.
A couple of months ago a quasipolitical thread was running in which one's attitudes toward authority, etc were examined. Many, perhaps most of the folks here prided themselves for their rugged antiauthoritarian self-reliant (self-centered self-absorbed?) individualism. Yet you get shocked when you see the logical conclusion of your attitudes being played out in society. You get shocked, I say, shocked to see what happens when someone extends that same "No one tells me what to do" attitude to our traffic laws. Crap, they ain't my traffic laws. I didn't vote for them. It reminds me of a very clever Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Calvin wants to destory an ant hill. Instead of pouring gasoline on it or stomping out the little ants, he tells them to quit listening to authority and go off on their own, knowing that the colony wouldn't exist for five weeks if the ants adopted that attitude. Just sayin'. |
^^ It's posts like that that keep me coming back here for more.
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Originally Posted by rideon7
(Post 7063545)
There is a very good article on the BikePortland web site about how the design of roads and the mix of cars and bikes contributes to road rage. This may even tie in to Bombadil's recent thread on urban living/urban sprawl.
Go here: http://bikeportland.org/2008/07/14/e...ess/#more-8184 Maybe in his part of the country they have something called a 'curb lane' but I have never heard of such a thing. So I suspect that he has trouble because he is riding too far to the right on a street where that is not appropriate, riding in a lane that exists only in his imagination. Basically, there are wide lanes, where cars can pass bikes easily within the lane and the cyclist can ride well to the right, and there are narrow lanes, where a cyclist should avoid riding so far to the right as to invite unsafe passing. If the blogger does not feel able to 'take the lane' when it is the only safe way to ride then he needs to find an alternate route where he doesn't have to do that. |
Originally Posted by walter231
(Post 7068829)
This blogger talks about a motorist encroaching into the 'curb lane' so that he fears being squeezed off the road 'yet again.'
Basically, there are wide lanes, where cars can pass bikes easily within the lane and the cyclist can ride well to the right, and there are narrow lanes, where a cyclist should avoid riding so far to the right as to invite unsafe passing. If the blogger does not feel able to 'take the lane' when it is the only safe way to ride then he needs to find an alternate route where he doesn't have to do that. On a narrow substandard (in width) rural road I'll dive for the shoulder when a large truck like a commercial dump truck needs to pass on a hill where he can't see on-coming traffic over the top of the hill. I figure they hate to slow to a crawl and go through all that down/up shifting. I use wide enough tires (25 mm) that I can go off-pavement ok. When I rode regularly in this particularly hilly section, after a while I got an unexpected benefit. The trucks would go ahead and slow way before they would normally overtake me to let me get closer to the crest of the hill and thus save me the effort of leaving the pavement. They started to wave or honk as they went by. Since I live in a pretty bike-hostile area, that was rewarding to say the least. Al |
Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil
(Post 7065386)
I am very pro-cyclist, yet have been annoyed on many occasions by cyclists. Around our campus I have to be very careful at stop signs, especially 4-way stops, because the cyclists don't stop. And they run a lot of red lights too, even in traffic.
Out on the rural roads around my home, most are well-behaved, but I've had many occasions to have to come to almost full stops approaching the crest of a hill, because two cyclists are riding side by side and I cannot pass them without going fully into the other lane. Or one cyclist is riding halfway out into the lane, on a stretch of road where it is impossible to safely pass them. When a cyclist leaves me with the choice of driving 5-10 mph to follow them up over a hill, or putting my family at risk if I choose to pass them, then I get annoyed. Especially when there is plenty of room for them to pull toward the side and allow me to pass safely. 90 some percent do the right thing, but in the last 2-3 years, it seems like more riders than ever are behaving badly. Some, I'm sure, because they refuse to use any type of mirror and don't even know my car is right behind them. So I see a number of cyclists provoking ill will toward cyclists. That annoys me because I know the consequence is that well-intentioned cyclists may end up bearing the brunt of anger that others provoked. Period. If a situation calls for a pass, then that pass can only be safely made if the sight line will support it. Doesn't matter whether the slower vehicle is a bike or a tractor. As to provoking ill will - I'm provoking safe passing on blind hills and curves by riding where I need to for safety. Mine and theirs. "When a cyclist leaves me with the choice of driving 5-10 mph to follow them up over a hill, or putting my family at risk if I choose to pass them, then I get annoyed." Then you have a problem. It isn't the cyclist's problem, it's your attitude problem. Worst case scenario, you'll end up in a whole heap of trouble. Because passing in those situations and putting yourself and those you left out - oncoming traffic and the cyclist - in danger is simply stupid. Illegal. Put a sock in it. Don't like it, fine, but blaming the slow traffic is - and I use this word intentionally - just arrogant and stupid. It's not your road and driving isn't a right. Get over it. Here's a typical situation you describe. Let's have the cyclist do what's appropriate and then do what you want - move over. Cyclist in right hand tire path on 2 lane road with blind hill ahead. Pickup truck approaches from rear. Double yellow line. Options: Cyclist moves to far edge of road OR cyclist maintains position. Cyclist moves to far edge, pickup passes at legal 3 feet of separation, left tires 3 feet into oncoming traffic. OR cyclist maintains position and pickup passes 1/2 in oncoming lane. In either situation, when a pickup doing this eventually encounter another pickup coming at him at 55 mph, he will swerve to the right. The cyclist in the right tire track position or further left has room to the right to use up before heading off the road. Good cyclists can really use this room to great advantage in an emergency. I have and I've seen others do it, too. Cyclist already at the right edge simple drops off the edge into whatever is there. No wiggle room. Very dangerous. The legal and correct thing to do with slow vehicles and blind situations is to wait. You're being stupid, probably lots of the time while driving. Take a careful look at yourself and your loved ones and back off. So. Where does this stupidity so nicely illustrated come from? Aggression as the poster I quoted displays comes from somewhere. The article pointed at shows design and education of road users as sources. Another article I read was telling. Folks think of their cars and by extension the roads they're on as private spaces. The road is theirs' That seems to be the situation. If I had time to follow up, I'd start commuting with a camera and mike, get the license numbers and photo evidence of the major dangerous things I see and attempt to get the DA to prosecute on the basis of my videos. Might work. It's not just bikes that people treat oddly. Stopping at stop signs is so rare around here that I nearly "caused" a head on collision through actually stopping. We have a T intersection with stops on the arms. Blind because of hedges. I stopped. A car was coming up the stem of the T, no stop. A car pulled up behind me and without hesitation passed on my left running the stop sign into the oncoming car. Almost. They missed each other. No idea what this motorist was thinking, but I know I'm the only person I ever see come to a complete stop there. Might have assumed I was STOPPED and would remain parked there. Really weird. We get lots of double line passing here. Too often into obvious oncoming traffic. Too often that oncoming traffic is me. Or I'm the vehicle being passed illegally. 90% of the time I'm in a motor vehicle seeing this. Considering I spend about 75% of my road time on 2 wheels that's pretty amazing. I suppose I'm just as guilty as the slow cyclists. I drive the speed limit, stop and stop signs, slow down in dangerous places where morons will often pass into me on blind hills and curves, honk when going over blind hills on narrow roads, and otherwise behave sensibly. Annoys the crap out of folks, they get really aggressive. sort of that rock and hard place thing. I notice a couple of the other good drivers I know drive like I do. People who can or could under the right conditions drive. I can probably still drive if I get on a track. I used to be able to drive just fine at 150 mph and go around corners sideways at 90 mph. I suspect many or most of us who have done that are little old ladies out here with the civilians!!!! Never know what they're going to do. Worse than a club ride to drive a car on our roads. OR pickup waits 25 seconds and passes when sightline clears. |
How about the alternative........rider sees one car (I am intentionally limiting the downside to the rider) behind him and moves off the road for say 5 seconds to let it by then proceeds on unmolested. Driver waves thanks. Everyone is happy.
Both the above post and this are equally possible solutions. I don't believe that it has to be one way or the other. Either solution can be used depending on the circumstances. I live in farm country and the better tractor drivers will pull over every now and then to let the traffic by. |
Its about human virtues, or the lack of virtues. Learning about virtues should start at an early age. But there are plenty of books about it. Once the child learns what is the greater good and that it takes effort, then it begins to grow.
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Originally Posted by Garfield Cat
(Post 7069861)
Its about human virtues, or the lack of virtues. Learning about virtues should start at an early age. But there are plenty of books about it. Once the child learns what is the greater good and that it takes effort, then it begins to grow.
Road designs have no effect on Idiot riders or drivers. |
I think much of the road rage problem is an inappropriate reaction to the frustrations of driving under increasingly congested conditions. Other motorists, in their sheer numbers, cause almost all of this congestion and slowing, but cyclists are a visible and convenient blame target.
My answer is to set out early for every time-critical destination and to schedule recreational rides and time-flexible errands for low traffic periods. I leave a generous following distance when motoring and never let those who cut in elevate my blood pressure. |
There was an article I read once about bumper stickers and road rage.
There was a study done on people who exhibited road rage and the bumper stickers on their car. It was found that people who "personalize" their car are more likely to drive as if the road belongs to them since their car is part of their private world and since the road shares their private world they feel like you are tresspassing on their property when you do something on the road they think rightfully belongs to them. It doesn't matter if the bumper sticker says "My son/daughter is an honor roll student" or some anti-war slogan. Any type of dressing up a car and personalizing it usually has a person in that car that believes the road belongs to them. I imagine the same can be said for motorcyclists and bicyclists who dress up their bikes or themselves? Of course the article did say that not ALL were this way but it was uncanny the high percentage that was. Case in point? If you, as a bicyclist see a car coming at you that has been bumper stickered, best to just get out of the way. |
Originally Posted by rideon7
(Post 7063545)
There is a very good article on the BikePortland web site about how the design of roads and the mix of cars and bikes contributes to road rage. This may even tie in to Bombadil's recent thread on urban living/urban sprawl.
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When I was in my teen years, and in my twenties/college years I found myself in many road rage incidents with motorist. Some of these incidents resulted in violence. I would be riding my bicycle and when an aggresive motorist would pull out in front of me, or some teenagers in a car would yell at me, I would feel compelled to respond. I was always ready with the middle finger, or the F**k word.
Now, I am 50 years old. I have returned to biking again about four years ago. It seems that I have had few confrontations with motorist. This doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, but I do believe that if I don't respond to the motorist, and avoid eye contact with them, then I can avoid incidents, in most cases. My goal is to get from point A to point B, and have a good time. If I can avoid contact with the idiots in a car, the better. |
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