superstitious in the streets..
 

On my ride home tonight two different people told me I was going to get hurt on my bike. The first was a jerk of a cabbie whom I passed when he was stopped at a light, and the other was some stoned dude in my hood. I wasn't biking fast, or dangerous, and wasn't even close to having a collision with either. I am probably being stupid, but now I think I'll take the subway to work tomorrow.
Am I the only one who is a little bit supersitious when it comes to the streets?

See, that's the irony. If you don't ride tomorrow, you'll probably get in a train wreck. Then you'll be like "OH NO! I should have ridden, SILLY ME!"

definitely ride. bust a hole in yer fears...

better than the last thing someone yelled at me: "go do something productive with your life!"

how'd they know my bag held two twelve packs of Schlitz?

I thought a case of beer WAS a productive way to spend your life...well night anyways.

last week, some ******bag SUV frat jerks yelled "get a brain" at me. i thought of this:

http://www.dword.org/mikel/trash/get_a_brain.jpg

A couple years ago someone yelled "grow up" when they passed me in their vehicle

well, did you?

I'm disappointed...no ones yelled anything moranic at me for over a year. All I've gotten in months as a "good for you for biking" comment from some old lady...thats not as fun as "get a brain" or "get off the road &^%hole!"

i'm yelled at a ton. especially now that the college ****heads are back.

i've actually taken to stopping and confronting people whenever i'm yelled at by pedestrians/frat boys -- it's surprisingly yielded some pretty positive conversations & not a single fight... i've more than once felt that i helped to change how certain fratboys see bikers.

one said to me "i guess not all bikers are *******" after he noticed that i didn't have any brakes... haha. then he offered me a beer.

i hope this is ampere stephen...

it is, how many stephens do you think there are in amherst who ride fixed & reference gauze on the internet?

hi nick.

I usually get "***!" yelled at me. Sometimes more aggressive/threatening remarks, but they've declined steadily as I've learned to ride more aggressively and decisively.

How iranic :).

i get yelled at sometimes, usually from old people when
i'm on the sidewalk for some reason or another.

and the first time i was back in the states on a bike i got
the "***" remark, but i was in texas, and it wasn't austin ...so...

So the cabbie you passed was stopped at a red light, but you weren't biking dangerous?

i have seen two cats get hit by cars in 5 days and it has really erk'd me out... they have bolted after being struck and I could not find them to see if they have survived so I am going to be taking it easy on the roads for the next few days as it must be saying something?

Please not this debate.

Me too, though it rarely has anything to do with my bike...

Just sayin'. Whatever your beliefs about the sensibility or otherwise of stopping at red (and I can see both), it's not hard to detect why the cabbie was pissed and told him he was gonna get hurt on his bike.

Um yeah, It was at the intersection to a one way street and it was those ten seconds or so that both streets had red lights, so I passed him with plenty of space and not even close to him or anyone else. I can say I was not biking dangerous because I wasn't.

Your lights are red both ways for ten seconds? Damn, thats a long time.

Best thing ever yelled to me was when I was working at a camera store in philly, I used to run packages to a few places (law firms, other camera shops, etc). I'm runnin up 18th St and turn onto Market through a red light (Market was basically clear). The cabby riding two lanes over comes to the lane next to me and says in a thick accent... "Like a dog, I'll run you over!" and sped off... to the next red light where I passed him. All I could think was who the f runs over dogs?

If you don't ride, the terrorists have won.

oh man! who let this kid in here!?

there goes the neighborhood!

there is a chance that i'm bringing my bike when we tour in october. i've at least convinced meghan that it's a good idea.... -- if this actually happens, we'll finally get to ride.