Old Sarge

You have obviously never met me, but the bike has nothing to do with the emissions.

Astrozombie

It's even better when it happens on side streets (which you took to avoid traffic!) Dressing like a Fred probably doesn't help, i'm sure if i had a kit i'd get more respect. There's this one guy i see from time to time on the main Boulevard all decked out with a carbon bike, nobody seems to bother him.

Bikey Mikey

I do pay for the roads in the various taxes I pay including taxes on both cars, wife's and mine, and on the fuel used for said cars. But even if I didn't pay any of the taxes, a cyclists does not cause the damage to the infrastructure like a vehicle does.

Daspydyr 

Depends on where you eat during a long ride!

browngw 

+1
Another thing I tell anyone who will listen is, the roads were not made for autos in the first place! Look at a map from circa 1900 and you will see all kinds of roads and streets and nary a car. Motor vehicles have taken our roads meant for horses, pedestrians and cycles! Maybe they should be paying cyclists for their use.

ChrisM2097

Same here. Using a MTB is the best and fastest way to get to where the ducks are in certain hunting spots.

I've got a setup similar to this:

Daspydyr 

I attribute glass on the road to teenagers on Christmas and summer break. I mountain bike a lot and am bothered by glass on trails. It is usually around a time when Teens are out of school.

fietsbob

Get the deposit on the bottle raised, and not smashing it will be like real Money.

PaulH

Around here, it's not uncommon to circle the block for 15 minutes looking for a place to park a car. There ought to be an advertising campaign -- "Found a place to park? -- Thank a cyclist!"

koolerb

The rifle on the back would probably score a few extra respects point from drivers. I like it!

a77impala

Last year I had blowout and had to boot the tire to get home. I went back the next day to see
what could have sliced my tire all the way across the tread. I found a dozen box cutter blades
on the shoulder of the road. I like to think I saved some other people from ruining a tire. Why
the blades were there is anybody's guess.

cafzali

Journalists aren't doing anything to foment the conflict. This is basically about a bunch of entitled people who are used to getting what they want in many areas of life and wish they could have a society where they would have to interact with as few people as possible. I firmly believe that what causes this is when these individuals get out and about and see people who are doing something they can't and/or are too lazy to do, that they overreact.

In the NY area we see a lot of this and the incidents don't lie. It's always in higher demographic areas that tacks are spread on roads and it's always the monster SUVs and similar vehicles that are most aggressive. That says these people are spoiled brats that are incapable and/or unwilling to act like a responsible adult. This is why I don't believe there's anything that can be done to win them over. I believe a better tactic would be to put up a better fight. I'd like to gather some cyclists to hang out all day in one of these areas where tacks are spread just to sit on off to the side of busy cycling roads where these things happen to send a signal that they're actions were noticed and that they're being watched. Likewise, people with GoPros should get custom jerseys made to advertise the fact that every move of passing vehicles is being recorded. Nothing stops a bully faster than making them uncomfortable and this type of "intimidation," which is totally legal, would help things a lot.

AerobaticDreams

It's not just bicycles that the SUV/ diesel truck guys harrass. When I drive my Miata I get cut off, have my lane driven into and even chased by them for no known reason. When I drive my Corvette, I have enough power to not put up with their cr*p, but still have them "rolling coal", trying to race me and all other manner of stupid. I have increasingly shifted my cycling to paths and back roads away from main roads as a result.

On the other hand, over the years if somebody has threatened my life with their stupidity, they may find a really big, beat to hell F-250 that I couldn't care less about wrecking awaiting them on their next daily commute....because I've had no luck at all with law enforcement going after these types.

mtbikerinpa

In this part of PA I find some cases like that, but for the most part the law enforcement responds favorably. The two favorite incidents I had in recent weeks were
1) a well dressed African American male in a corolla leaning out his window as I am going +3mph of the speed limit and yelled matter of factly that "I don't see a license plate, so you shouldn't be on the road".

and
2) A saturday morning when the road was wide open another well dressed man in a fancy sedan decided to woosh past really close, pull by and come around to yell at me of how I am blocking traffic. For a fairly long stretch as traffic is building up behind him. I told him he was on camera and he should go on his way and he said $*$*#( to the camera and kept on his tirade. By the end of it I was tailgating in my lane and he was blocking the other lane with a dozen cars behind. Senseless.

Bikey Mikey

Morons

contango 

I hear there are some trails in California where you might get to try such a sport. You even get to shoot at moving targets who will try to make you crash your bike.

WHOOOSSHHH...

On the other hand lots of cyclists are idiots....

Bikey Mikey

Very true. I'll even admit to doing some dumb things.

I've been buzzed a couple of times and honked at by a few, but overall, the drivers treat me fine...of course I ride back roads and not the major ones. I'll see how things go with drivers on major routes come April and May when I do two organized centuries--
see: >>Tour de Cure: Hampton Roads and Cap2Cap thread<<

WC89

[COLOR="#000080"]If one has disdain for someone, or for some other group (cyclists in this case), in this day and time, then I think it's not far-fetched for them to take it out in a way that would certainly irk the target. Certainly, more despicable things have been done in this world. Yes, could be some stupid kids breaking bottles at night; could also be a selfish motorist with contempt for cyclists.
Could someone actually be so diabolical as to break glass at some other location, collect it in a container, only to scatter it over a lonely, dark 3.5 mile section road? Absolutely!! Please, please don't think that it couldn't be.
Next, some of the glass was different types: bottle glass, window glass, AND car windshield glass.
Could EVEN be someone who's ridden a bicycle a few times on the road in his/her lifetime and knows very well how troublesome that much glass can be for bicycle tires.
Yes. Could be some nimrods. But, it absolutely, could not be. IMO, this was premeditated. We'll never know and it would be naive for me to think that it couldn't be an irate, malicious, selfish motorist.
I pedal onCOLOR]

FrederickH

[QUOTE=WC89;15092057]Just venting here. Some time between last Friday morning and the next Saturday morning, on a 3.5 mile stretch of nicely paved, lightly traveled (by cars), 2-lane road (no shoulder), through tree-lined watershed property and very low-density residential properties, some lowly individual scattered broken glass every few hundred feet or so The road is not even a popular cyclist road - I don't know why it's not popular, b/c to be such a nice stretch of road it's a little rare that I see another cyclist. I've had no hostile encounters with any motorists, except for one a couple of months ago who laid on his horn while passing me at high speed. It's the kind of road that when cars pass, there's always plenty of room and rare for a passing car to have traffic in the opposite lane to contend with. I reported to local PD just so they would be aware. I also reported to local DPW w/ a request for a street-sweeper.
What a big AH that did such a thing! [/QUOTE)

I feel your pain about all of the broken glass found on today's roads. Around here, most of the glass makes an appearance on Saturday and Sunday mornings. This is when the locals buy a six-pack (usually some kind of light beer) at the bar's closing time (2:00 AM) and have a few more on the way home. Guess what they do with their empties. No, recycling is not the answer. I then try ride, my road bike, with both eyes wide open at all times. I average about 1-2 road flats/month.

VNA

You may keep the sport separate, but the statistics overwhelmingly show that the first one is by far more dangerous!
[h=3][/h]"Just saying!!!"

technoD

I do, right after a nice hot bowl of chili!

goldfinch

I am visiting Clearwater, Florida and this has to be one of the scariest places I have ever ridden. I was riding the Raim-Wilson paved MUP this morning and there was broken glass all over a section of the trail. I spent a half an hour picking up the worst of it. Why I bothered I don't know as I couldn't get it all.

The roads here are frightening. Partly because there rarely are shoulders and just a few random bike lanes.

mtbikerinpa

For the most part Lancaster has been really good about cleaning the glass off the roads(bi-weekly street sweepers), so knock on wood I haven't had a problem with that in ages. Usually if there is some left unswept it's in the parking area which I avoid anyway. That said, there are certainly merits to having armored/sealed tires...

Old Sarge

Actually the statistics don't show such a thing. 2008 stats showed 594 accidental deaths by firearms and 716 bicyclists were killed in traffic accidents. Looks like cycling is the more dangerous of the two. "Just sayin'"