Blogger Party

For some time now, friends and I have been bitching about the bicyclists in Portland. Don't get me wrong, this isn't about not wanting to share the road. In Portland, we don't have a choice. It is illegal for them to ride on the sidewalks. That's why almost every street has a bike lane.

This is about the total lack of respect for and/or refusal to follow the basic traffic laws. Now, not all the bicyclists in Portland are like that. Some actually do follow the traffic laws because they understand that this will reduce their chances of becoming a hood ornament. To these bicyclists, I say thank you because, trust me, as strong as your desire is to not be laid out on the hood of my car, my desire to not have you on my car is even greater.

The problem is your counterparts. Those who don't believe that stop signs, traffic lights, or hand signals apply to them. These are the same assholes who have the nerve to be completely indignant when they ride through a red light or stop sign, into an intersection, and get smacked into the middle of next week.

Like I said at the beginning, my friends and I have been bitching about these idiots for some time now. But, I've never written about it. I just didn't feel the need to. What changed my mind were a couple of things I saw recently.

The first being my boss almost running over a guy on a bike. He was driving back from lunch and this soon to be stain in the street just rode his bike right out in front of him without even looking. Of course, my boss slammed on the brakes and the horn. I'm sure that I and anyone else, if placed in that situation, would have done the same. However, I have to wonder if him getting hit would have been a bad thing. Let me explain. I certainly don't want to kill or seriously injure anyone. But, some people need a little help learning things that are just basic common sense for the rest us. Maybe laying in the street and having his 2,000 dollar bike become a worthless piece of modern art would be a valuable lesson for that fool.

The second thing I saw was this headline from fark.com:

"Bicyclists were twice as likely as drivers to be at fault in collisions. Bike advocates say these statistics are skewed since their side of the story is usually unconscious and being hauled away on a stretcher"

If you aren't familiar with fark, the headline is submitted by a member of the site. It is intended to be humorous and it links to an actual article on the subject in the headline. I will link to the same article at the end of this post.

It reminded me of a time when I almost ran down 3 bicyclists at the same time (I wonder how many points that would have been worth). I was driving west on Irving, that little side street that ends on the north side of Benson High School. I had just passed the on-ramp for 84 eastbound. On my right, in the bike lane where they belong, are some bicyclists. They're rolling 4 deep, single file. A couple of them look back and see me approaching. For reasons I still can't comprehend, they decided this would be the perfect time to switch from single file to shoulder-to-shoulder. The back 3 dart out in front of me and completely block my lane. I had to slam on my brakes. I laid on the horn too. They had the nerve to look back at me like I was the asshole. Really? If I were the asshole in that situation I wouldn't have slammed on my brakes. I would have kept going and taught those 3 the Darwinian lesson they are bound to learn sonner or later.

To read the article concerning bicyclists being at fault for accidents, click here