i understand this, and i also empathise w people pointing out bike lanes exist… but when bike lanes exist, they’re clogged with pedestrians— who are just as annoying to cyclists as we are to cars, with the added bonus that they can PUSH US OFF OUR BIKES, which we can’t exactly do to cars. not that i’d want to.

and yes some cyclists are assholes, but please stop demonising us and getting annoyed at us regardless of where we cycle, because fundamentally it’s healthier and better for the environment than driving

I realize it is healthier for the environment, but I have little sympathy for large groups of recreational bikers who choose to bike the objectively very dangerous narrow, winding roads around where I live where it is impossible to pass them. I do not have the option to bike to work because I live too far in the country and cycling tourists routinely make me anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes late. There are both bike trails and safer roads with greater visibility nearby and if people are choosing the scenic, dangerous, inconvenient roads over those, well, they’re assholes and I’m not sorry.

Tht’s why they are schooling! The large groups of cyclists are much safer on those roads than 2-3 bikers on their own.

I know it’s inconvenient, but this forces cars to slow down and pass appropriately when they are able to instead of squeezing by in the same lane as a biker.

I get the irritation. I do. But I’ll always maintain that roads are for bikers, too. Road biking is very much different from trail riding, and those scenic roads are going to be by far the most fun to bike.

It forces cars to slow down when they can see them. A winding rural road may have a speed limit of forty miles per hour—if you are driving, you have absolutely no way of knowing that a shoal of cyclists is just around the curve of the road ahead of you going fifteen miles per hour until you are basically colliding on top of them. I get that people want to exercise in places with lots of trees that are nice to look at, but roads with poor lines of sight are just a shitty and obnoxious place to do so.

Isn’t that exactly the reason you’re supposed to slow down on blind corners like that? Like, I’m sorry to call you out for this but if you can collide with something you can’t see you’re going too fast. They have as much of a right to be there as you do, and I know it’s not great to compromise but that’s how the world is right now.

Callout post: OP drives the posted speed limit?

The sharper corners have slower speed limits but those are usually still much faster than bikes go. Plus, we regularly get fatalities from joyriders zooming illegally fast where there are no cops to patrol out here. When I am walking my dog I literally walk off away from the road when I hear a car coming and wait for it to pass. Forested roads are dangerous, period, even when you’re not a jackals peddling in a shoal of 15 in the middle of the lane.

No. You’re dangerously wrong and this attitude gets cyclists killed.

I don’t cycle anymore, but I was a serious competetive road cyclist as a teenager. I competed in nationals several years in a row, and swept my state championships multiple years. This is an area where I am knowledgeable, and road safety is something I continue to be passionate about.

Here is the most critical piece of information: Bicycles are considered vehicles and have as much legal right to use the roads as cars do.

Would you be saying this if you were held up for work by a snow plow? By a slow moving tractor? By a truck with an oversized load? My single lane, tree-lined, winding country road is used by amish horse and buggy drivers, should they be disallowed?

Let me repeat that: Bicycles have as much right to the road as motor vehicles.

Just because other options exist, does not mean they are all equally good. Many larger roads are more dangerous, and large groups of cyclists can become a danger to other groups using a bike path, ASSUMING you have paved bike paths and not trails. Also, the speed limit on most bike paths is 16mph, and with dogs and toddlers effective safe speeds are often slower. When I was training for races, that was simply inadequate for everything but my recovery/low aerobic days. Yes, seriously. People whipping through bike paths at 18+mph are a serious danger.

A lot of thought goes into choosing an appropriate and safe route for riding. And yes, there are cyclists who do obnoxious or dangerous things, but the majority of the time the problem is the drivers not considering the possibility of other types of vehicles being out.

Cars have a sense of entitlement to the roads, but they are not yours exclusively.

Seriously, look in your state driving handbook.

If cyclists are routinely making you late for work, leave earlier. That’s it.

Yes tumblr user cennedi. I realize that Americans have the right to be shithead assholes and that they exercise this right gleefully on a regular basis. I also, miraculously, have the right to describe shithead assholes as such.

I also want to point out that I, like, live here and I know what the road conditions are like on account of, you know, living here. Which is not something that can be said of the shoaling bike tourists who treat my home and commute like their personal Tour de France.

I’m not saying that country roads aren’t dangerous. As a driver in a rural area now and a former cyclist, I’m very aware of the dangers of rural road conditions from both perpectives. But cyclists are not being assholes by using the roads. They’re just not. I deal with touring cyclists on my road now not infrequently, and I just… slow down and pass appropriately? Without getting pissed at them for using the state-funded infrastructure that we all rely on?

Organized rides and races sometimes took me on roads that I would have preferred not to use, and you have to make the best of it. Or the safest route still contained portions that were less than ideal. Sometimes when you’re covering 100 miles in a day (centuries are the most common organized ride) you spend some time on less than ideal roads ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Still have a right to use them, and cars still need to learn to share the road.

It’s great that you were an athletic teen prodigy and all, I’m sure you’re very proud, but I’m afraid I do not see your quest for the shinty gold sports medal to be nearly as sympathetic as farmers driving tractors and farm equipment who are just… going to work.

If you can’t do a sport without driving in objectively dangerous places and demanding the locals take 20-40 minutes out of every day on the off chance that they’ve got to work around you… maybe your sport sucks ass and you should find a new hobby?

Let me redirect you to the original post: there is no way to safely pass, for miles. That’s the entire fucking problem.

buddy if this is happening frequently enough for you to complain about it leave earlier. that person may be nice, but guess what, i’m not. you both have the right to be on the road, maybe there’s a certain area that you can only bike to, maybe it’s pretty, maybe they just wanna bike on a goddamn forested road, but guess what, they can. if your so pressed about it, leave earlier or find a different way to work

man what the HELL kind of life do you lead in which “complaining mildly about the commute to work on your blog” is some kind of extreme act of desperation 

For once I’m actually rlly pissed off. Glum u need to get off ur high horse and shut the FUCK UP.

How about you start cycling huh? Its healthier and best for the environment. Get over yourself. You’re putting EVERYONE in danger with this sort of attitude. While cyclists can get killed via assholes like you, other drivers behind you can get hurt too because you are impatient and pathetic. Srsly grow the fuck up, leave ur home earlier and stop whining about people being healthier and doing an activity better for the fucking environment which effectively helps my generation and the future generations from having to fight as hard to save the fucking planet. Holy shit.

Legally all bikes are considered vehicles, including manual sport bikes. If you cant get ur shit together and accept that then u shouldnt be driving period.

I’ve lived rurally all my life. I used to bike as a hobby a couple years back. Not every area has the privilage of having bike lanes and paths, hell we are only JUST getting bike lanes and paths now where I live after god knows how many years (And let me tell you I am so excited to invest in a bike and start biking around because now I dont have to worry about drivers like you when the construction of the paths are done!)

You obviously dont care about others on the road, and I hope to god no one gets hurt because OF YOU.

The hell?

Look. Bud. I can’t take your eyeballs out of your skull and make them read for you. I can try chopping my post into little baby pieces in case that’s easier for you to digest:

1. I live in the woods. I live too far away from my workplace to bike there. There is no public transportation. If I biked to and from work every day, I would spend 3+ hours every day commuting.
2. Even if I were physically capable of that kind of activity, the roads around here are too dangerous, and I would prefer not to die. I did not learn to ride a bike until I was eleven because there were no paved areas safe enough to practice on.
3. I am not driving recklessly. I am not mowing down bikers left and right. I am observing the speed limit, paying attention to my surroundings, and trying to commute to and from work as safely as possible.
4. My commitment to “driving safely” is WHY I get stuck behind wide squadrons of recreational tourist cyclists, rather than attempting to pass them illegally.
5. Recreational cyclists are not saving the environment. They’re just driving to a scenic location in order to exercise. When they are done, they put their bikes in their cars and drive home.
6. Something being legal does not make it less annoying.
7. Strangers self-righteously treating “me complaining about my commute” instead of silently adding another unproductive ~half hour to my work day as though I’m out here engaging in recreational homicide is also annoying.
8. May an excessively long black cat cross your next path, extremely slowly, without letting you pet it.

Do you know who started the push to build and pave roads in the United States?

The League Of American Bicyclists

You don’t like cyclists using the roads? YOU find somewhere else to drive. They were there first.

hello what is wrong with you

Originally posted by 9reactions99

You are quite right. My post was sloppy and lazy, and I do apologize.

It was the League Of American Wheelmen, as they were known at the time. League Of American Bicyclists is merely the modern name they operate under.

Sincerely, who gives a fuck?