Look, shithead! When a motorcycle is zipping up between the cars, and you suddenly move over to remove the space he’s coming up on, even if you are in your lane, YOU ARE FAILING TO AVOID AN ACCIDENT, and in fact, causing one. It’s dangerous and wrong. Do you think the bike can fit on the width of the line? NO! There will be an accident if you haven’t estimated his speed correctly. Or if he changes speed. Or if someone else on the road makes a change. When I referred to Barney Fyfe, I was referring the self-important attitude, the Mister-expert-on-everthing tone that you spew all over. Generally a guy who’s full of shit.
Well, that answers that question. You DO approve of that kind of behavior from motorcyclists. You have absolutely no condemnation for the kind of cocksucker who would drive that way. Brilliant. And you wonder why so many people have a low opinion of motorcycle drivers?
You yourself say:
Then why is he driving on it in the first goddamned place?
Get this through your head, girly-girl. If I look in my rearview, and I see a guy riding the line about 100 yards behind me, I’m going to adjust my position in my lane, and he’s going to have to make a decision. Does he want to be in a lane, or does he want to hit someone? I do the same thing if I’m driving 75 and I see a car coming up behind me at light speed–I slow down. If I’m driving 75 and the person in front of me is driving 65, I also slow down. I’m not going to ride his ass and force him into doing something dumb. If these guys want to have an accident, they can have it behind me, or they can pass me and have it elsewhere.
In 15 years of driving, I have adopted this policy, and I’ve never once been involved in an accident in which I was driving the car, nor have I ever witnessed an accident between any vehicles as a result of something I’ve done. Here’s why: Because I’m a good, attentive driver who reacts quickly to situations. Someone driving up the yellow line on a motorcycle he knows damn well doesn’t fit is, by DEFINITION, a bad driver, and he can go be a bad driver by someone else, but he isn’t getting by me that way. If he wants to pass me when he’s got a clear lane, be my guest. That’s what they’re for.
I never said that a driver who does that is ok, or even sane! I have no warm feelings for a driver who behaves in a reckless manner. But you are now trying to qualify your original statement with speed limits and such, even though you can’t POSSIBLY anticipate everything that will happen on the road. You can only control your own actions. You may be a very careful driver in most instances, but pushing the limits by antagonizing him in that way is not safe. The best way for everyone in the area of a reckless driver is to just let him pass. He’ll probably wreck out of his OWN stupidity. Making it difficult for him to get out of a jam by squeezing him (your terminology) is adding more fuel to the fire. I mean, how would you feel if your action caused him to swerve into another car and hurt someone else!?
Pldennison,
Thanks for clearing that up. Likewise, when I am sitting at a traffic light and some nimwit cager squeezes into the lane beside me, I literally pull them from their car and beat them into a coma. Except I then carve an image of a car into my forearm with a broken bottle before tossing by scarf and laughing. God you cagers are woosies.
Hey, that money came out of my pocket. It didn’t cost the State a penny. The State was just a middleman. When do I get my money back?
Hey, we’re all signed up to pay taxes. We don’t always agree on where the money goes, but that’s part of living in the U.S.of A. I still don’t think you can pick and choose which sick people you will take care of. Maybe some day someone may choose to ignore your illness because you live near a chemical plant or something.
Broken bottle? Oh, I’d KILL for anything as painless as a broken bottle! I let live ferrets CHEW an image of a motorcycle right onto my back!
GirlFace: Look, my driving method works for me. I don’t intend to let some schmuck hit me, and I don’t intend to let them have an accident right in front of me, either. I can’t control what other people do on the road, only what I do; and I’m going to do what I feel is best for my safety. If some motorcyclists (and believe me, there are more than a few in NE Ohio) are going to drive like idiots, they have to be willing to live with the consequences of those actions. Just don’t expect to commit them around me.
And I’m not qualifying anything; I think you were making some assumptions that weren’t borne out.
I also noticed that you had no words of condemnation for ::ahem:: MindFucker’s threat to track down motorists who piss him off along with his friends and cripple him. I guess the old double standard is alive and kicking, eh?
Welcome to “virtual road rage.”
Glad you’re all safely tippy-tappying on the keyboard and not behind the wheel!!
GirlFace:
I’m not trying to pick and choose the recipients of the results of the State’s pick-pocketing.
My point was that it didn’t cost the State anything to treat them. They treated the patients with money that came out of my pocket, not the State’s.
Now some of the money is being refunded–but not to the people who funded it, but to the State to spend however the hell they desire.
I wonder if it really costs more to take
smokers. Non-smokers statistically live longer, so they also exact more “benefits” from the State as a result.
I don’t know the answer to that one, and I don’t know whether it is ascertainable.
Get off the road, Lisa! :::honk:::
Mjoll, are you referring to your insurance premium pocket or the state tax-funded hospital pocket? Either way, it’s all done through monthly/yearly contributions to the cause from all of us. Not that I agree that all the money is spent the way I’d like it to be, everyone has a cause they’d rather see the money spent on. I think the point I tried to make is that in our society, we have chosen to help people out when they get in a jam, even if the jam was due to a “bad idea” or a “stupid choice.” Incidently, I’m not 100% against helmet use – just being FORCED to wear one. At high speeds, they make a little more sense to me than at low speeds.
I should have responded to his post, but I was kind of in an exchange with you at the time. No, MindFucker’s road rage isn’t acceptable. I have known some of the the baddest of the bad bikers, and that kind of talk goes on all the time. He’s wrong, too. But he’s responding in the self-defense fashion that anyone would after the verbal attack you launched (not specifically to him, but launched nontheless). I just don’t see how EITHER attitude helps the situation when someone is driving like a jerk. However, getting back to the original thread, I reserve the right to NOT wear a helmet, as it is no one’s business but mine how I choose to protect myself.
Phil, what I said was that if you try to intentionally kill me or one of my friends while we are riding our motorcycles, as you stated that you would in your post, you will incite a very violent reaction to your violent action.
GirlFace:
Actually, I don’t think we have a difference of opinion, maybe a misunderstanding on your part of what I meant.
I’m not at all against chipping in tax money to help out the folks who can’t afford medical care.*
My point is just that the States sued the tobacco companies under the guise of attempting to recoup Medicaid costs.
I do not for a moment buy that. It didn’t cost the State a penny to treat them. They got the money from us.
I think it has more to do with the fact that politicians are always looking for creative ways to raise money to spend without actually saying their raising taxes.
“Voluntary taxes” are one way. Lawsuits have become another.
Lotteries have been very successful. You have lots of half-wit, semi-literate redneck types with $$ in their eyes.
That’s a voluntary tax.
The tobacco company lawsuits were another way.
Medicaid (or whatever State run org) was funded by my (and your) money. So, we’ve paid for their health care. We paid for it, with our tax money.
But the settlement money isn’t coming back to us, but to the state. It’s like your tax refund check being made out to the post office instead of you–all they did was deliver your tax return.
And, there is a much bigger debate in this, I think–and that is the concept of “health care.”
Not having any references, I might be totally wrong on these points, but I believe the concept of “health care” as we know it is largely a post-WW II concept.
But that’s a debate for another time.
Also, Phil, I saw on the news that at least one state is trying to enact laws that prevent drivers from being self-appointed ‘enforcers’. It was stated that drivers who drive slow to make those behind them ‘obey the speed limit’, cut off people who may be driving on the shoulder (not just on motorcycles), etc., are the major cause of road rage. Where my 'rents live, people have gotten shot over such petty crap – and not by motorcyclists. I’m right-handed, so I know how hard it is to twist the throttle and aim while you’re shooting.
After encountering many dumbasses on the road, and, admittedly, occasionally doing some dumbass things myself, usually unintentionally, I’ve found that it takes being more of a man to let things slide than it does to react in anger. I always try to take into consideration that maybe the other person is having a bad day, maybe a family member died, maybe they’re daydreaming, maybe they’re one of your friend’s mother, … whatever. No one has the right to make their day worse by honking at them or giving them the finger. You don’t deserve that, they don’t deserve that.
What’s this post about?? Oh, yeah: Helmets Rule!!! (sorry, GF)
I have had one serious accident as a rider, and almost cracked my head open. I was basically scalped (skull was visible according to bystanders) and needed to be put back together in the ER. I have become a little less cocky on the roads now but I still don’t wear a helmet. I was a rider in the 1995(?) Philly-DC AIDS Ride and another rider went down smashing his helmet into three pieces. After x-rays he was allowed to finish the course. The only time I have even seen a helmet law enforced was in the case of a bicycle messanger stopped by a secret service cop near the White House. If any authority figure tried to stop me and write me a ticket I am sure I would just be able to cruise away pretending not to hear, and there would be no way to catch me on foot or in a car. Of course, they could visit me in the hospital after a crash and give me the ticket then.
Fortunately, we’ve always “kept the rubber side down” when we’re on the scoot, so I don’t have first-hand knowledge about losing it. I’ve lost friends and family, both with and without brainboxes. It’s simply a matter of choice. When we’re puttin’ through the countryside, running 40 mph or so, the experience is much more enjoyable, and in my opinion, safer, without the headgear. We don’t drink and drive, we obey speed limits, and we stay on the defensive. Christ! If I went off on every bad driver (or if I tried to correct every bad driver) I ever encountered, I wouldn’t EVER leave the house. Illinois’ ABATE is very powerful. Even the legislators working for the helmet laws said they can’t stop them. More and more the government inches in to our personal lives – it’s not right. I’m not one of those freedom freaks that wants to hole up in Montana and electrify my fence or anything, but I think there’s a limit to how much power The Man should have over our lives.
Pldennison:
Yo limpdick. News flash for ya; it is illegal for you to operate any piece of machinery in such a way as to cause injury to another person unless it is in self defence. Lately juries have been interpreting self defence as where a reasonable person (with lots of time to think it over) would believe his life was in danger. You think you can sell it to a hanging judge that a 400 lb bike near your truck constitutes a clear and immediate threat of death? Do us all a favor and check that with a lawyer - lots of people are in jail for shooting armed attackers. The accepted legal standard is extreme. Geek.
If you ever do smear a biker who is splitting lanes you will go to jail for a long, long time. Have I ever mentioned that there are quite a number of bikers in jail? Might give a new spin to those conjugal visits. I suggest you tell them you’re in for tax evasion.
And of course your family would be living in cardboard box because his next of kin would own your worthless butt in civil court. Does the phrase wrongful death ring a bell for you? If you get lucky and he dies, the usual standard is you have to come up with his expected life savings. Your wife is legally liable too. Divorcing you after the fact would probably not reduce her liability. You do sorta like her, don’t you?
Think it through. It doesn’t matter if the dimwit is right or wrong, all that matters is your children will grow up calling someone else daddy. But hey, no big deal, you sure taught that idiot a lesson. You were right, by God.
I agree anyone who splits lanes in rolling traffic is in a hurry to die. So you’ll probably be scandalized to know that in California it is legal for a bike to split lanes if it is safe. That generally means stopped or a slow roll. The exact speed is subject to interpretation. That’s been specifically established in vehicle code and case law because they are high occupancy vehicles.
Wouldn’t you just be a real fuckstick if you killed a young husband and father who was real late with the ring at his brother’s wedding? Are you sure lane splitting is illegal in your area? Have you checked? Is your little heart burn worth a life even if the guy’s an idiot? Have you ever realized you were acting like an idiot about something, and then been glad later you had the chance to snap out of it?
Oh Lordy Lordy all I want for Christmas is to kick your skinny pink ass up around your narrow shoulders.
Adios sphincter boy.
Ok guys the topic here is helmets, not how we want to carve our initials in Pldennison’s ass.
Admittidedly I was a little steamed by his remarks, (I in fact have run into nimrods on the road who do what he suggests). His remarks do reflect the general hostilities we encounter on the roads daily. So I am not at all surprised by the rabid attacks on his charactor, but enough is enough.
Pldennison, I know your remarks were not meant literally, so why not just come out and appologise. If you ever bit pavement because some bubba didn’t like the fact you could go around an accident while he had to wait, you would understand the calls for your hide. I have spent time in the ER twice because of some of the smooth moves pulled by hostile car drivers, as well as time in lockdown because of my reaction to such moves.
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Is it really that difficult to understand what Phil’s saying?
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Unless you’ve ridden a motorcycle (a lot) you probably don’t realize that there are a few minor adjustments you need to make when you’re driving a car and sharing the road with a motorcycle. However…
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There was nothing offensive or wrong with what Phil said. If a person is driving like a moron, he deserves to be let know that he’s driving like a moron. It’s called defensive driving, and they should have taught you that in driver’s ed. Whether the situation requires a simple flash of your headlights, or forcing a driver to the back, it’s not anything more than a preventative measure. Some of those cars have children in them, y’know?
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Wear a helmet, don’t wear a helmet. Just don’t be a dick.
“…all the prettiest girls live in Des Moines…”
–Jack Kerouac, On the Road