HEY AWESOME

[spatch]

1. The Great Gatsby is a story about a circus clown who falls in love with a one-armed stenographer and, after getting married on a Graaf Zeppelin, must team up to fight Bolsheviks on Easter Island.

2. It's perfectly legal and totally okay to, when you ride a bike down College Avenue, zip right between a double line of cars stopped at the Store 24 light and heydily hoidily zoom through the red light into the middle of Davis Square.

3. Curt Schilling is a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

One of those statements is true. One. Though I'd sure pony up money for that first story.

I watched the incident in #2 happen this morning. At the risk of stuffing this little feller here full of straw and waving him around angrily, I wonder if Mr. Wonder Biker is the same type of fellow who complains that cars don't treat bicyclists with respect. Would we have seen an angry, indignant post in davis_square today had he clipped himself on someone's side view mirror or been cussed at by a driver in the line? Or would this guy, who's already shown he doesn't give a tinker's damn, have taken a header and then picked himself up, brushed himself off and started all over again?

But facts is facts, and if you're on a bike you obey the same traffic laws as a driver.

I'm growing increasingly curious about observing these idiot riders as there is a bicycle coming my way and, honestly, I grew up in towns with hills and almost-paved roads with wide shoulders and an infrequent number of automobiles coming by. This kind of urban riding annoys and unnerves me, and I want to enjoy nice happy fun ride time, but I don't want to be lumped into the same category as Tommy Trafficlight there to whom the rules of the road apparently don't apply. Also, I have a severe and distinct phobia of side view mirrors.

Luckily we do have a nice system of rail trails around which I believe I'll be enjoying now that the weather's nicer.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Once I've stopped and checked there there are no pedestrians waiting to cross my path, I don't see much point in remaining stopped. Bicycles are small and easily maneuverable and fit into lots of places where cars don't.

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

Would you say the same thing if a car stopped at a red and then kept going because there was no traffic?

[ron_newman]

yes, actually. I think most red lights could be safely changed to blinking red.

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

"Most red lights could be safely changed to blinking red" is not the same as saying "running a red light which could safely be changed to a blinking red" is okay. There's a lot to be said for predictable traffic patterns.