Duellist

So I'm home for the holidays (NY suburb) and went for an exercise/get the hell out of the house before I go nuts ride, and it seemed like every other person I met had something nasty to say about my bike, myself, or both. Things like 'Get off the road!' 'Get on the sidewalk!' 'That bike is not for the street' (from a guy on a wildly expensive looking mountain bike) 'Slow down!' 'Do a trackstand!' 'Wear a helmet!' 'Where's your brake?' It was so weird.

For the record, neither my bike nor I are particularly flashy (it's an old LeJeune track and I am an ordinaryish looking female art student) and I wasn't doing anything fancy. Do suburban people just hate fixies, or bikes in general, or does New Years make them cranky? Do any of you ride in the suburbs? I'm almost looking forward to returning to nice urban Philly, there all anyone says is 'Nice bike'.

Just had to blow off steam. Hope that didn't bore anyone too terribly much.

zzoundss

I cant wait to get back to Philly. Everyone here in MD gets so pissed when Im riding down the road. I dont understand it. What school do you go to in Philly? I go to Uarts myself.

drointhewind

suburban people hate bikes since they're not used to having to deal with them.

that my best guess atleast

PlatyPius

Everybody hates fixies. Primarily because of the people who ride them - they complain a lot.

bkowa092

First off, News Years does indeed make people cranky. Everyone at work today was cranky because all of their guests were cranky.

I live in the Suburbs and no one ever yelled anything to me on my bike. Every once and a while I'll get a "trying to save on gas?" or a "you are such a hipster" (I am the furthest thing from) from one of my friends who are trying to get a rise out of me.

Understanding

truth. around here the only people you'd see on bikes are our local eccentrics (myself included) and spanish day laborers

Thetank

Its cause you were in NY. Whole place is full of hate mongers anyways!

drummer5

Suburban people hate bikes because it takes up their SUV space on the roads. I love riding out on the country roads near me(Syracuse, NY), and every time I see a new development go up I cry a little, but that's for many reasons besides the residents and their SUVs.

Critical Jeff

first things first. You're a girl.

gestalt assault

ordinaryish looking female art students are hot...lol

peabodypride

Eh, the people aren't bad around here.

Understanding

as someone who lives in the suburbs, i'll back your statement.

iansmash

i didn't really have any problems when i went back to stay with my parents in the suburbs of DC


It's a relatively bike-friendly area though (Arlington, VA)

blankgen

Depends on the suburb. Stockton (my town) is a pretty terrible place to ride a bike as a result of the anti-cyclist sentiment that you experienced, terrible streets for VC, and crime. But then the suburbs in a lot of the surrounding towns are fantastic places to ride and rival the most bike friendly cities that I've visited.

mustang1

I only agree with the person that asked where the brake was. For everything else, I have no idea

PlatyPius

Why is EVERYthing "Hatred" these days?

How do you stop?
You're such a HATER!

What time is it?
WHY DO YOU HATE CLOCKS?!?!?111

Is "Hater" the word of the year or something?


And speaking of.....

Why do YOU hate the suburbs?

mihlbach

I ride almost exclusively in suburbia. The only thing anyone ever yelled at me was "Nice fix!".

IllSpecialist

Maybe they hate you because you call it a "fixie"? Just a guess.

filtersweep

It doesn't help that the suburbs are generally the worst place to ride, regarding infrastructure. There are plenty of 45mph roads with no shoulders (meaning vehicles are driving 60). I hate biking the burbs. Give me either the city or country roads. The transition is nasty.

durty

true, they're all just cranky (no bike pun intended). Around SC I get a lot of "get off the road" and "ride on the sidewalk" even though that's illegal, but it's not too frequent. Most cars just pass by. I think maybe you just remember the A-holes; it might be a good exercise for your spirit to be happy for all the cars who pass by and just politely shift their left tires to the centerline to give you space.

it's not like they're hurting you so f-them is what I say.
-durty

wearyourtruth

i agree with the general sentiments expressed so far. i live in downtown baltimore and i went home for xmas to my parents in the burbs of houston. while i didn't have anyone yell at me, the fact of the matter is that in suburban areas, bicycles are seen as a means of recreation, not transportation. suburban sprawl has moved us farther and farther from all the trips we used to make in the 40's by walking a few blocks; be it to school, the hardware store, the grocery store, etc. now everyone has to drive to work, drive to school, drive to soccer practice, and it is further encouraged by poor infrastructure.

in kingwood (my parent's burb) we don't even have sidewalks, we have "greenbelts," which are quite nice winding little concrete trails if you are taking a stroll or a leisurely ride, but they are awful for commuting on, but because these greenbelts exist as walking/biking trails, they are seen as where bikes "belong." to make matters worse, at least in tx, there is no such thing as parallel parking, which means every street has a curb and no shoulder.

the distances and infrastructure have discouraged people from using their bikes as a means of transportation, and so no one does it, and it's just a downward spiral.

whoosh!

Give me the country or the city. When I'm riding in the countryside of my homelands (Northern New York State), the people are SO awesome and go way out of their way to give me room and let me go first. And the shoulders are GIGANTIC! (I guess all that lake effect snow has to go somewhere) Though I know if I got hit, which would probably never happen, it'd be at 60+ mph and I would certainly die. On the other hand, here in Philly, I might get hit any day, and people are jerks, but I'd more than likely only taco a wheel or get more hurt in the resulting fist-fight than the crash.

From what I've seen of the suburbs, it's jerks, no room on the road, AND 60+ mph. Nothing good can come of riding in a place that completely ignored human-powered transportation in it's development.

j3ffr3y

every day that I ride, I get that one guy/woman on cell phone in a giant SUV that nearly takes me out as I ride in the gutter. My closest call has been with a GTI where the guy yelled at me to get of the road and came within inches of me.
edit: lives in a suburb of boston

Duellist

I'm at PAFA. For all I know I know you

Jabba Degrassi

If people had been saying "What gear ratio you running?" or "Can you skid ambidextrously?" you'd have a point, but they were dogging her, so you don't.

Tell me about it. It's "bicycle with a fixed gear drivetrain!" Get it straight, ***holes!