Sorry, dudes. I just don't have the blog fever this morning. Nothing's wrong or anything. Maybe I'll catch it later. I will relate an interesting incident that happened to me on saturday that I've already told to a lot of you in person.
Me and smiller had just eaten at the bagel shop way down on H street (it keeps changing its name, I don't know what it's called now-lets say Fly-By-Night-Bagels-it's better than Noah's though, which isn't hard) and had gotten on our bikes to ride further down H. A ruddy-faced blond lady of about 35 years of age was jogging on the sidewalk towards us. Scott went into the bike lane going the wrong way, but I stayed on the sidewalk, just starting to bike and slowly picking up speed. There was plenty of room for both of us and I was going very slowly, not whizzing by by any means. I was on the extreme outer edge of the sidewalk and I noticed that she hadn't moved over and indeed seemed to be trotting in my direction. As she came parallel with me she said "you're riding on the SIDEWALK" and she punctuated that last word with a weak-ass punch to my arm and kept jogging. I was dumbfounded and turned to watch her jog away. I quickly became incensed and rode my bike after her, cutting her off at the corner. In the heat of the moment I missed it, but Scott said that someone, perhaps this other guy riding his bike who had witnessed the incident yelled "beat her up!". I cornered her and started yelling that she was a fucking lunatic and had problems. She said, "you were riding the wrong way on the sidewalk" as if this were a punchable offense. Then she tried to shake my hand, as if in apology, although no apology had been uttered. I continued to repeat that she was a fucking nut and she began jogging away. The end.
Why do people hate bikes so much? Why would a jogger make this her issue? I'm sure cars try to cut her off when she's crossing all the time. Just yesterday I was riding my bike across one of the busy streets downtown in a mid-block crosswalk and this giant truck honked at me and when I looked over the passenger was flipping me off. Keep in mind that although I DID have the right of way, I had crossed way far in advance of this truck and there is no way they would have even had to slow down a little bit for me, although it would have been perfectly within my rights to bring them to a complete stop if I wished. What is wrong with people?
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31 comments:
The most disturbing part of this story is that you were going to that gross-ass bagel shop on H St.
-HC
That bagel shop is pretty good! Everyone bags on it but I can't figure out why. I mean, it's not great but it's a million times better than shitty Noahs. God I hate Noahs!! Those soft-ass bagels that are more just round bread & that crappy whipped cream cheese that shoots out everywhere the second you take a bite.
miller
As a runner, I hope you don't peg us all as such a-holes. We can all co-exist peacefully. It's a lot easier for a runner to get out of a bicyclist's way than vice versa.
Ugh. The bagels there are crumbly and gross ; they taste like something from a vegan bakery. After all this talk of bagels I am shocked that you would eat there.
-HC
I don't know, when was the last time you ate there? That doesn't sound like the bagel I had. And the garlic was really good. Not over the top strong but still good and it wasn't those hard crumbly pieces of garlic that bug me. I will say that I hate all soft-ish bagels. I like my bagels firm and not bready like a lot of store bought bagels. I don't know the ins & outs but I think the ones I like have been boiled. Like I said, it didn't blow my mind but it wasn't bad like you described.
miller
That's fucking nuts. Wow. Now you know how Larry David feels!
BREW
i'll second that. the bagel was fine (not crumbly) and the cream cheese was good.
Biking downtown is bad when you cant ride on the sidewalk because of the people and you cant ride in the streets because the buses bump your back tires. Only solution = gyro-copter.
Bagels:
I ate at that bagel shop when it was an entity owned by the same corporation as Noah's, and it had shittier bagels.
Bikes:
I love bikes and bike riders, but there needs to be mutual respect. I notice a lot of bike riders in downtown like to ride on the sidewalk, and some have no respect for pedestrians. Bikes have the same rights as any other vehicle on the road, but you don't see cars going against traffic while riding on the sidewalk. I have all the patience in the world when I have to wait for someone walking or on a bike when I'm in my car, but I've almost been plowed into while walking by oblivious bike riders and wanted to say "Hey..see the bike lane? USE IT!" not to say the jogger was justified in punching you.
Oh hey, yeah, there's the bike lane. Oh wait, now it's a right turn lane. Let me just get out of your way Mr SUV. Oh, yes, thanks for the polite honk. Other excellent uses for the bike lane include a great place for your garbage & recycling bins, your leaf pile and of course it affords a perfect place to double park. It never ceases to amaze me how much patience people have for cars/drivers & their myriad of irresponsible, dangerous hijinks but the second you get on a bike, watch as pedestrians & drivers alike suddenly know all the bicycling laws. Such as, if you're a driver, "get out of the road" and if your a pedestrian "you can't ride on the sidewalk". In my experience, the laws for cyclists aren't set up with a cyclist's safety in mind. There's a bike cop around my work who relentlessly enforces the "off the sidewalk" rule on me when I'm riding home at 5:00 PM up 10th St. There's no fucking bike lane on 10th, it's 3 lanes of rush hour traffic and there's NO room for a bike. I'm sorry - fine me. I'm riding on the sidewalk in that situation. Any injury that happens on the sidewalk between a cyclist & a pedestrian is nothing compared to getting hit by a car.
miller
Downtown, the sidewalk may be the safest place to ride because of all the people zooming down the three-lane one-ways who don't understand that, if cars are parked along side, a bicyclist almost has no choice but to take up a lane, legally.
Also, the sidewalk down parts of Capitol Park (at least from 10th West on N Street) is the official bike lane, not the street.
Hey Leon-
do you really almost get clobbered by bikes pretty often? Cuz I honestly can't remember that ever happening to me. Of course, me memory's pretty bad ever since that bike rider ran over me that one time.
a cop got on me once for riding my bike on the sidewalk when he was directing traffic around a gnarly accident in the intersection of H and Alhambra. you would think he'd have more pressing things on his mind than yelling at me but he took time out to tell me that i should have been riding in the street right within the trajectory of the cars that had just smashed into one another probably minutes before i had arrived. it was heart warming.
ha. i meant to say "my memory" but that gives it some cockney flair.
A friend of mine was driving & got pulled over & the cop says "I see you have a previous offense - driving on the sidewalk". After a minute of confusion, he realized that he'd gotten a ticket for riding his bike on the sidewalk & that, since car & bike laws are the same, that it went on his record that he was driving instead of cycling. Absurd. The idea that bike & car laws should be the same is insane. Just think of the seriousness we place on drunk driving & compare it with how freely most of us bike home from parties & bars drunk. Lets just say none of my friends have ever tried to take my bike lock keys away.
miller
uneasy rhetoric - I ride on the sidewalk around the capitol whenever I don't feel like huffing and puffing down L St. I don't know how many times I've heard whispers about riding on the sidewalk there despite the signage about it being a bike route. It's funny that they whisper to themselves instead of the more direct sock in the shoulder.
On another note... I stopped riding on the sidewalk downtown when I was yelled at by some lady in a wheelchair. I felt kinda guilty, like I was rubbing my super-athletic abilities in her face or something.
ScottB
Smiller, just wait. Once you turn 16 and finally get your drivers license, you'll be a know-it-all-a-hole driver just like me! You kids these days!
So she clearly saw you, refused to move a little, and then punched you...I can understand if she hadn't noticed you and then looked up and saw a bike coming right at her that she would be startled and maybe upset. But to punch someone? That's fucked up. Maybe she was drunk jogging and that's why her face was so ruddy.
BREW
Only 2 more years - I can't wait!! We'll be taking road trips every weekend!
It's amazing how my usually sunny disposition fades the second someone busts on cyclists.
miller
Cool DMZ, you so snarky!
I also have had f-ed joggers give me shit while on my bike. They are all SUV driving state-worker-office-types and can't make sense of people who are riding bikes around town for actual transportation. You drive you CAR to get around and attack bike rider for exercise. duh.
Charles
ps I have an Mp3 of the Middle of the Road hit "Sacramento: a wonderful town" I am talking to ask my roomate about posting it on our server to be available to download. Do I have heckasac's permission to post a link to said Mp3?
As someone who honks at bicyclists and punches strangers quite often, I take offense to the tone of these comments. And don't even get me started on joggers. What are they running to? But more importantly...what are they running from? Think about it.
holy shit! post it!
Well, were you going the right way or the wrong way on the sidewalk?
I don't get jogging, myself. I'm more of a walker. To be honest, I've never really gotten bikes, either, but I'll take a bicyclist's side over a sociopathic, Jake LaMotta-wannbe jogger in a nanosecond.
And don't get me started on Sacramentans and their cars. That's one of the reasons I moved hundreds of miles away from Sac and never came back.
Honestly, I'd rather have the cyclist riding at me on the sidewalk, so I can see him coming. I don't like when they whiz up behind me. However, the whizzer-ups behind me are usually some punk-ass kids not Heckasac. I think a solution might be a bike lane on the sidewalk. Problem solved.
Ryan is working on it. I will have the link by the end of the day.
Charles
ps. what are they joggers running from? what do they have to hide. Many of the conservative blogs I have been on to lately call these joggers un-americain and supporters of terrorism. I can't disagree.
charles
Vehicle code section 21200 makes all traffic laws that apply to motor vehicles applicable to bicycles. However, VC 21202 requires a bicyclist moving at a speed "less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the the same direction" to "drive as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway" except when passing, turning left or right, approaching any place where a right turn is allowed or when essential to avoid a collision.
I think it's interesting to note that while moving violations apply to bicycles (including drunk driving)they are not suppose to be reported to the DMV (vc 1803(b)(6), so they can't count against your license.
jana.
Is that last part a new-ish law? When I went in to pay a ticket I got for running a red light on my bike ($400 - ouch!), I was asking if there was some sort of alternative to it going on my driving record (look, I may get a license someday ok?!) like taking some class or something & they told me that it would no longer be on my record once I paid the fine. It seems like I've herad otherwise in the past though.
miller
miller, my extensive legislative history research tells me this subsection of the law has been in place since 1969. they probably didn't know what they were talking about when they said it would go on your record untill you paid your fine, though I have heard of this happening to people, and then I guess your fucked, atleast that's my best legal opinion.
She seemed to be telling me (in her totally uninterested way) that bicycle offences no longer went on your driving record. My case number kept bringing up an error message when they tried to sign me up for a driving class and someone finally informed us that the class wasn't applicable to a bike ofense & that all I had to do was pay & my record was clean. I guess I'll find out some day if that's really the case. And Deeann, yeah, I definitely stopped running lights for a good 6 months! Til I started hanging out with Heckasac, that is.
miller
oh man. those H St. bagels are the WORST. and i tried one more time like two weeks ago.
and although i actually prefer riding my bike on the sidewalk, it does seem like the only time i am almost hit is when crossing the cross walks. yahoos just don't look. oddly, the streets are safer.
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