welcome

Welcome to the mish-mash in Puna's mind. Subjects may include crafts, crochet, knitting, scrapbooking, gaming, star wars, movies, killer bunnies, great and wonderful wizards named Tim, and pretty much anything else besides Taylor Lautner.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Bicycling Irritants


People on bicycles annoy me. Make that adult people on bicycles annoy me. I'm not talking about kids who randomly ride their bikes in the street, or have someone on their handlebars, or have no idea what is going on around them while they are riding their bikes. All those things are pretty irritating but I know what to expect with kids. No, I'm talking about grown men and woman who know better and honestly need to come off it. Take a look at this news story, which was aired on KHON2 last week, and which helps to explain some of my loathing. "Elderly woman dies after being hit by bicyclist". That's right you pedaling reprobates, a bicyclist in downtown Honolulu blew through a red light and hit and killed an elderly woman who was walking through a cross walk.

The typical bicyclist in my neighborhood, only not usually this good looking.
Now the reason why this got me so upset, beside the fact that someone actually got killed, is that there are so many cyclists who ride around my town like they are God's gift to anything with wheels. Hell, they even think that they're better than four wheel users. I can almost hear them thinking as they peddle by, I'm so cool because I'm being healthy and Eco-conscious by riding my bike around and you suck because you're walking, or driving a car, or plain just not me. Earth to stupid snob on a bike, your being a pedal pusher does not give you the right to disregard the laws!



Now don't get me wrong, I love riding my bike. For a while I was even biking my way to work because I wanted to be healthier. I also understand that it's a fairly cheap mode of transportation and totally better for the environment compared to all those icky cars. I get all of that, okay? The only thing that I take issue with is that many bicyclists do not know that by choosing to ride a bike they have agreed to the responsibility to obey the traffic laws just like any other operator of a vehicle. Which means no blowing through red lights, signaling before making any turns, using a bike lane when available, paying attention to your surroundings (like not texting while riding), and riding on the correct side of the road. All pretty simple stuff. If you can do these things than good on you, go ahead and pedal for all you're worth..

No comments:

Post a Comment