[QUOTE=Epimetheus]
You are right, of course, there are NO bad motorcycle drivers, we just invented our stories in a pub to discredit those that actually ride responsibly. :rolleyes:
[/quote]
You are making a dick of yourself. I have never said any such thing. Quit with the strawmen while you are only a fair distance behind. You are leaping to wild conclusions about my views with no idea whatsoever what they are.
[QUOTE=Quartz]
There’s recently been some PSVs about how car drivers should be extra careful and double-check for motorbikes.
Well, I’d like to suggest they bloody well get bike riders to look out for cars!
[/quote]
They are looking out for cars. Particularly you. We know about you.
Oh, you think he wasn’t checking his mirrors, but he knew exactly where you were, and that sometimes it’s much safer to just go ahead and move quickly before signaling to you, sitting there with your iPod in one ear, your cell phone in the other, a cheeseburger in one hand, and your lipstick in the other, and reading the newspaper in your lap, that he was going to move therefore giving you opportunity to - at best - cut him off because these stupid bikes shouldn’t be on roads anyway, and at worst, killing him.
Of course there are idiot bike riders out there, but they don’t last long.
I figure this rider didn’t want to give you the opportunity to do anything, because car drivers really can’t be trusted to do anything competent. They really can’t. Not if you want to live long as a cycle rider.
I want to move to England. Nothing to do with the thread, really. Just a comment. I like it there.
[QUOTE=levdrakon]
I figure this rider didn’t want to give you the opportunity to do anything, because **car drivers **really can’t be trusted to do anything competent. They really can’t. Not if you want to live long as a cycle rider.
[/QUOTE]
Bolding mine.
Oh, go ahead. Call them “cagers.” You know you want to. Because everyone knows riders are the only safe drivers, and “cagers” are all incompetent idiots. :rolleyes:
[QUOTE=Turek]
Bolding mine.
Oh, go ahead. Call them “cagers.” You know you want to. Because everyone knows riders are the only safe drivers, and “cagers” are all incompetent idiots. :rolleyes:
[/QUOTE]
Actually, you bring up a good point. No, I don’t call them “cagers” but a big part of the problem is car drivers drive thinking in terms of “what can hurt me with this cage around me?” That truck’s bigger than me, better let him go. That little bike, fuck him. That’s how they behave around bikers. “I could survive this impact, think I’ll take the risk and show him what for.” They do it all the time. Sorry we don’t trust the lot of you, because of this.
Car vs. bike, car always wins. That’s why bikers sometimes don’t give you a choice to prove whether you’re Joe Conscientious Safe Driver of the Year or not.
[QUOTE=An Arky]
Well, yeah, and while we’re at it, how about a big ass bitch slap to pedestrians who take advantage of those stupid “must stop for pedestrians in crosswalk” laws in the form of jaywalking and sauntering across like retarded sloths.
[/QUOTE]
(bolding and typo correction mine).
or **snails **.
Personally I’ve been fixated on:
Makes me wish my peeps never got on the boat all those years ago.
But it is silly for a biker to ever think a car driver is going to be thinking “bike.” Unless by “bike” he understands that what is meant is “target.”
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya]
Personally I’ve been fixated on:
Makes me wish my peeps never got on the boat all those years ago.
[/QUOTE]
My pleasure, sir. I’m glad I’ve been able to give back some of the pleasure I’ve had reading the SDMB these past few years.
There are plenty of good car drivers out there, as a biker I can agree.
There are a number of idiot bikers too, I can agree on that.
The perceptions arise just because of numbers.
One percent of car drivers is a huge number of idiots(random estimate based on absolutely no evidence at all), and while you as a reasonable driver will notice the bad bike riders, and remember them, they are actually so few in comparison that it is quite easy to remember them all.
By contrast, can you remember, as a car driver, all the other idiot car drivers that did something stupid, along with the truck driver, taxi drivers etc etc?
Nope you can’t remember them all, because you come across so many of them.
Your brain automatically flushes them out of your memory, otherwise it would simply be data overload.
Even bikers can’t remeber all the idiots, because the idiots are just a matter of routine, and a good few of them are just folk who are having a bad day, mistakes, or on a tight schedule etc.
As a car driver, you must surely see a large number of other car drivers doing almost anything except putting their attention where it belongs.
You will not see too many bike riders reaching for the radio/mp3/sandwich, road map/mobile phone/lighting up a cigarette.
I daresay if it were possible for a bike rider to do any of these things then there would be some who would, but the reality is that the bike rider is much more likely to look where they are going, and where you are going too and as a result they can make moves that require fine timing - the problem is that they sometimes get it wrong, fortunately most car drivers are good enough.
I suggest to the OP that they try count up the number of car drivers committing a moving traffic offence, and in London especially a static traffic offence such as dangerous parking.
You’ll find you lose count long before you get halfway to your destination.
[QUOTE=casdave]
I suggest to the OP that they try count up the number of car drivers committing a moving traffic offence, and in London especially a static traffic offence such as dangerous parking.
You’ll find you lose count long before you get halfway to your destination.
[/QUOTE]
Except of course that in order to do this one would have to pay insufficient attention to one’s driving, which would mean that one would have to count oneself. 
[QUOTE=An Arky]
Well, yeah, and while we’re at it, how about a big ass bitch slap to pedestrians who take advantage of those stupid “must stop for pedestrians in crosswalk” laws in the form of jaywalking and sauntering across like redarded sloths. You can make all the laws you want, but the tons of steel moving fast ultimately beats any less-than-fully-aware or passive-aggressive scofflaws.
[/QUOTE]
If only every city in the world were as sensible about jay-walking as New York.
[QUOTE=casdave]
I suggest to the OP that they try count up the number of car drivers committing a moving traffic offence
[/QUOTE]
Oh, I quite agree, and I believe I have posted something similar some time ago. But this was a particularly egregious example.