I bought a couple of drumsticks from the local Kwik-E-Mart. I get home to find out that some hungry clown had *taken a BIG BITE * out of one. Right at the best part.
:mad:
Thanks a lot, you hooligan.
Nope.
Listen, dipshit - I don’t know WTF a “cager” is, and I don’t fucking care, but no you DON’T get to use the whole lane just 'cuz you feel like it, so get the fuck over it. In CA you are LEGALLY REQUIRED to stay to the right. There are exceptions where you don’t have to move all the way over if it’s dangerous, but that is not in any way the same as having a right to the whole lane, and by NO STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION allows you to ride two abreast (a point I notice you completely ignored). As in my PERFECTLY SOUND analogy, the right to self-defense cannot be extended to include the right to murder.
This is not complicated. The Surb said “bicyclist [sic] have the right to one FULL AND COMPLETE lane. NOT one half of a lane, NOT one quarter of a lane, NOT one eighth of a lane. But GODDAMMIT… ONE FULL LANE.” And I said that’s not true where I live. You do NOT have the right to one full and complete lane. Your pathetic rambling does not change that fact.
Dear Fencing Company
I really like the guy who is actually building my new fence. This is good because I am deeply pissed off at how you quoted $590 to move concrete. There was a $60 dumping fee and it took an hour to smash the concrete. That’s a fucking insane profit. So why oh why are you trying to charge me $50 over the quoted price for sleepers to fill in the huge gaps at the base of the fence? The fence is being paid for by Disability Queensland to stop my kid bolting into the street, you know that so why the fuck wasn’t the wood included in the quote in the first place?
It’s a beautiful fence though. My yard is private for the first time ever! I won’t have to wave to the neighbours when we’re swimming next summer.
Dog shit…or rather *people * who don’t pick up their dog’s shit after they take a crap on a footpath (pavement/sidewalk etc) in a busy shopping centre.
And dumb bosses who think it is the employees fault that productivity is down. 
Sheesh. Now if I ruled the world… 
If you have to edit the crap out of something, then it’s poorly written. I don’t care if we paid some tech writer a gajillion dollars to draft the docment I’ve been working on. I don’t care if he’s got fifteen advanced degrees and 300 years experience writing about large scale student assessments – he’s a shitty writer. Period. You can be brilliant and still not be able to put a sentence together. You could have a sixth grade education and dig ditches for a living and write better than a PhD.
Any document that has:
• long strings of prepositional phrases strung together in a single sentence,
• successions of run-on sentences,
• infestations of passive verbs, and
• too much use of articles (a, an, the),
then the meaning and the message is muddled, people can’t read through it, don’t get it and put it down.
THAT’S BAD WRITING!
I don’t have to wait for the assessment experts to weigh in to tell me if the document is any good or not. The assessment experts are not fucking writers! They have exactly zero experience as editors, or in desktop publishing environments. THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT! If the facts are wrong, that’s why we’re waiting for their reviews. But you hired me to be the Senior Editor and that makes me the one who’s in charge of the grammar, spelling, usage, punctuation, syntax and so forth. I will change all the verbs to active voice and I will lop and slash prepositional phrases to my little editorial heart’s content.
I am not an intern and I am not your bitch. My opinion is valid and matters – you hired me for my expertise in these matters. Would you get off your self-righteous high horse and LISTEN once in a while?
Ooh. I feel much better.
Read the law again, it says that if I am moving signifigantly slower than traffic then this must happen. All states have these laws, and they apply to farm & construction equipment as well as bicycles. Under many circumstances, such as in urban biking, the difference in speed between cars is actually low. Cars often eventually get faster before they hit the next. If you just decalre that anything slightly slower than what’s behind must stay to the right, then cars starting from green lights should be required to move to the right because I accelerate a lot faster than many of them.
Given such circumstances, the lane is mine. That is the situation that Surb is likely experiencing. Mind you, I never really had to do that in CA since there were usually plenty of bike lanes in urban areas, and in areas where there weren’t I usually stay left in any case. But I’d still take the lane if passing wouldn endanger me or if road condtions require it (and they very, very, very ,very often do).
Ah, I see. So taking actions to safegaurd my life and health makes me the moral equivelant of a murderer trying to beat the rap.
How nice.
Call a neuromuscular therapist. It helped with my carpal tunnel and might help with that nerve of yours, too. Even if you’re a bit sceptical, at least try to find one to consult with.
Mr. Miskatonic-I think Blowero, yourself and I have visited this subject before, but it may have been another cyclist who ranted all over the boards as if he owned all of the pavement he rode on.
You do not now, nor have you EVER had a right to the entire lane. Not here in California, and I’d hazard a guess that it’s pretty much the same in any vehicle code. You are to stay out of the way of traffic unless there is a hazard in what is the property apportioned to you. YOU become the hazard when travelling in the same lane as cagers who are outpacing you by 15 or 20 miles an hour-which is what I would say on our busy streets is a pretty good average speed difference.
If you can travel 35-50MPH all day long in busy traffic, then by all means, take up the entire lane. If not, stay to the side of the road for my safety and yours.
Sam
a) The roads I run on most of the day have a speed limit of 25 mph. The ones with higher limits usually have bike lanes. Making this irrelevant.
b) A difference of 5-7 mph between car and cycle does not justifty making me take action that risk my life so that an impatient driver can race to the next red light.
c) Staying to one side invites drivers to pass where it is not safe.
d) There are a shitload of hazards for bikes on the side of the road. Take a close look sometime.
e) If I am taking the lane, it is because I have judged that the situation does not warrent me risking my life and health. Very often, most lanes are simply not wide enough to allow a car to safely pass a bike. Thus riding to the right tempts drivers to squeeze past where it is unsafe to do so.
f) More operative words in the law are “as practical”. Since practical, safe riding means that My motion should be predicatble, I will not weave left and right at random if I can help it.
g) Hazards include the ‘dooring zone’ of parked cars. Its my safety, get over it.
There’s a bunch more here, but some folks seem to be ignoring large portions of the laws they quoted. But enough, this is not a bik thread. We’ve hijacked the nice OP’s thread enough. If you want to continue this, start antoher thread.
Uh, hello? If a car is trying to pass you, it would be a pretty good guess that you are going slower than the car.
Perhaps you need to read the statute again. It applies specifically to bicycles.
Wow, now you’re just out in left field.
Wrong.
Nope. Please re-read all the posts relating to bicycles.
That’s not what we were talking about. We’re talking about whether you have a right to the whole lane. You do not.
Ooh, I love tearing these down:
Godammit, enough! Like I told GaWd, start another fucking thread if you want to continue this shit. I’ll happily answer your crap comparisons and bullshit thinking there. We’ve hijacked this thread enough already.
You have misread the statute. It refers to the “normal speed of traffic”, NOT the prima facie speed limit. You are required to stay right if you are riding SLOWER than the speed of traffic, NOT if you are riding slower than the speed limit. THAT is the standard, and the law was deliberately written that way. “Normal speed of traffic”, and “prima facie speed limit” are 2 different legal concepts.
What’s the point of bringing up bike lanes? Obviously we’re not talking about roads that have bike lanes.
A. That’s not your decision to make.
B. You don’t have to take any action. You should already be as close to the right hand curb as practicable, so no change is required.
Again, that’s not your decision to make. If you don’t like the law, petition your legislator to have the law changed. Besides which, it’s foolish. If you try to “play cop”, and decide for the motorist what is or isn’t safe, and try to block him from passing you, you invite him to commit an even more dangerous action by passing in the oncoming lane.
But that’s not what we’re discussing. If it’s NECESSARY to stay more to the left because of hazards, you may legally do so. That’s what the subsections of the law are for. However, deciding that you aren’t going to let a car pass you because you want to decide for the motorist what is or isn’t safe, does not fall under this category. And again, it is in no way equivalent to saying you have the “right to the whole lane”.
We’re talking about what is legal or illegal, not what you personally think is safe or unsafe. If you want to write laws, then run for political office.
I think there’s some confusion here. Nobody is contesting the provision in the law that allows an exception for roadside hazards. You keep bringing that up, but it’s a red herring. It’s not what we’re discussing.
All the attitude in the world doesn’t change the law.
You’re the one who doesn’t understand the law.
I don’t know why I keep getting dragged back into this.
The law says:
The law already pretty much covers the circumstances I’ve been talking about.
I have little doubt that your idea of ‘travel safely side-by-side’ is different than mine. It is the same with most drivers. That’s why I take the lane under such circumstances. Its my safety on the line, its a handful of seconds for the driver.
You are correct about one thing, I don’t have a ‘right’ to the lane. I’m not certain I ever said I did. In fact, nobody has a ‘right’ to the lane. Driving is a priveledge, not a right, as you may recall. Bicycling is slightly closer to being a ‘right’, but still not considered such. I will, however, take the lane as circumstances warrent.
Returning now to the non-cycling portion of this thread…
My 15 year-old daughter, who lives with her mother 10 miles away and who I spent almost off of the day on Saturday with, did not wish me Happy Father’s Day, did not call me on Father’s Day, and did not send me a Father’s Day card. 
Heartburn
Actually, you’re doing the dragging.
This is really quite simple. The law we are discussing requires you to ride as far to the right as practicable, and describes very specific exceptions where one is not required to stay all the way to the right. It NEVER says you have a “right to the whole lane”.
I’m correct about everything I have written.
Agreed.
You’re not following the thread. The Surb, is the one who said he thinks bicyclists have the right to the whole lane. I told him that isn’t true in California. Then YOU said we’re “both right”. We aren’t “both right”. The Surb is wrong, and I am right.
Your conclusion that bicyclists don’t have a ‘right’ to the whole lane is correct, but your reasoning is not. The reason is because of the statute I mentioned earlier. Driving being a privilege has nothing to do with it.
You may legally stay further away from the shoulder if necessary for your safety as outlined in the statute, but that is all. If that’s what you’re doing, then you are obeying the law. If you’re doing anything else, you are violating the law.
I don’t see much hope of that either. I’ve been at the same level for nearly six years. To be fair, I’ve gotten some handsome raises over that time, but now I’m nearly topped out for the level I’m in. The trouble I’m having is that I "have to show initiative and leadership–yeah right, to be promoted from a IT Analyst Programmer II to an IT Senior Analyst Programmer I. Well there’s just one problem with that. I work on two or three major projects plus a couple of smaller ones, and I’m really spread too thin to think of major initiatives I could introduce.
And…top management got a hair up their butts about a major new enhancement that affects nearly all IT systems, and has to be in production next month…and we weren’t told about it until a week ago. Needless to say I’m working next weekend, though hopefully not both days.
Reminds me of the great Newman speech from the last Seinfeld, after Jerry had refused to take him along to Paris:
(paraphrasing)
All right! But hear me and hear me well - The day will come. Oh yes, mark my words, rodent - your day of reckoning is coming. When an evil wind will blow through your little playworld, and dash that tasty vegetable from your lips. And I’ll be there, in all my glory, watching - watching as it all comes crumbling down.
To The Bitch Using The Office Microwave Ahead Of Me:
I do not want your 24 seconds.
What I want is to put my food in there, hit 2-0-0-Start and heat my food up for two minutes. I do not want to hit 2-0 before I realize I’m not hearing any beeping. Why not? Oh, because TBUTOMAOM has decided to take her food out of the microwave in the middle of a cycle, and not have the fucking courtesy to hit the “clear” button. Again.
Bitch, they are your 24 seconds. You have the option to spend them heating up your food further. If you don’t wish to do so, then get rid of your damn 24 seconds! Don’t leave them lying around where they’ll just wind up getting in my way. If you wan’t want 'em, toss 'em!
Yours,
Hal
Whatever higher power is causing my sweet seventeen-year-old kitty to lose control of her bowels, FUCK YOU. According to my vet, this is a sign that we’re going to need to start thinking about what we can do for her. I’m not ready to say goodbye yet.
Fuck, this makes all of my other stupid piddling fucking wedding problems seem even more stupid. I couldn’t care less if they get solved if my girl would just feel better.
Ava