Recent Comments

1. almost 13 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   @Frank Alexander: In most jurisdictions, it is illegal to use your horn to harass someone. In all jurisdictions, it is legal for bicyclists to ride in the road. Maybe you should have bothered to pay attention in driver’s education. That way, you might actually know the rules of the road.

2. almost 13 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   @aterpster: I stop for stop signs. I saw over dozen motorists roll stop signs today. You’re just making excuses.

3. almost 13 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   @naturally_easy: Bicyclists don’t break the law any more often than motorists do. Every time I’m out on the road I see hundreds of motorists speeding as well as dozens rolling stop signs and right on red. The majority don’t signal lane changes. I regularly see them not yielding to pedestrians at crosswalks and uncontrolled intersections. I could go on and on. The big difference is that motorists kill a lot of people; an average of almost 90 per day in the U.S. Bicyclists almost never kill anyone other than themselves and even that’s pretty rare. 630 bicyclists died on the roads of the U.S. in 2009. Well over 28,000 motorists died in that same year as well as about 4400 pedestrians IIRC.

   You’re just reaching for excuses to hate someone who is different from yourself.

   For the record, I do obey the rules, both on my bike and in my car. Yes, I even signal. I am a trained vehicular cyclist. Look up Bicycling Street Smarts on the web. Safe cyclists know how to be highly visible and predictable and stay out of dangerous situations. Safe riding techniques are not obvious. You have to study them to know them.

4. almost 13 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   @TheTrustedMechanic: You claim that a motorist going that slow would be cited for impeding. In fact, they would not be cited if they were moving at a reasonable speed for their vehicle. There is legal precedent for tractors and heavily loaded cargo vehicles going up steep hills being exempt from maintaining a speed greater than they can reasonable attain/sustain or faster than they can operate safely. Do you notice a lot of bus or garbage truck drivers getting pulled over and cited for impeding? It doesn’t happen. Nobody is required to go faster than is reasonable and safe for their vehicle.

5. almost 13 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   @Steve D088: You are completely wrong. Your fuel taxes and registration fees contribute to the roads but they don’t come close to covering the costs. Everyone who pays general fund taxes pays for the roads in the U.S. That is true in every single state — even California which has some of the highest fuel taxes in the U.S. In California, billions in sales tax go to the roads.

   By law, bicyclists have a right to use the road in all 50 states. What is so difficult about moving over to pass a bicyclist safely? It’s easy. Why are you being so childish and making up excuses based upon mere guesses?

6. almost 13 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   As for the comic strip: I have been driving for over 32 years and I very rarely see bicyclists outside of bike lanes. However, I frequently find people complaining on the internet about bicyclists being outside of bike lanes. Why am I not seeing it if it’s happening so much?

   I ask people where they are seeing this and when I got to Google maps street view to see the spot the describe, 99 times out of 100 there is no bike lane. Usually there is a shoulder. Sometimes there is not even that. A shoulder is not a bike lane. Bike lanes have bike lane symbols in them. Shoulders that do not have bike lane symbols in them usually do not have them for some very good reason. Often they are too narrow or they end abruptly or have other dangerous circumstances for bicyclists.

   On the rare occasions when I do see bicyclists disregarding an actual bike lane, there’s usually a problem in the bike lane like broken glass or other hazardous debris or bad surface damage. Bicyclists are legally permitted to leave the bike lane to avoid hazardous conditions.

   The real problem here is that people who hate bicyclists in the road believe that they themselves own the road and that bicyclists are invading their space. The law says the opposite of that. Bicyclists have as much right to use the road as motorists do. You should have learned this in driver’s education. I know that I did when I took the course in 1979. The laws since then have only become more favorable to bicyclists, not less.

   I have yet to encounter one single bike hater who actually knew the rules of the road as they apply to bicyclists. Bicyclists have a legal right to use the road even those the haters insist that we don’t. The haters have even less understanding road and bicycle safety and seem to cling to the delusion that bicyclists have zero width and that 0.1mm is a safe passing distance. They also never know how the roads are funded.

   All of this ignorance would not be so bad if not for the fact that they have the incredible arrogance to think that they are experts in all of these subjects even though they know that they haven’t really done their homework on any of them.

   I do my homework. I have studied the laws in detail. I have studied road and bicycle safety far beyond what people who just barely work hard enough in driver’s ed to pass have done. I have even done a fair amount of research into road funding.

   Look up “Bicycling Street Smarts” in your favorite search engine. It’s a quick easy introduction to real bicycle safety. UK/AU and other people from left hand drive countries should look at the “other versions” link at the top of the page for the left hand drive version.

7. almost 13 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   @Andrea@home: First off, the U.K. doesn’t have a road tax, so you are lying there. The U.K. has Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) which is a tax on emissions. Electric car owners don’t have to pay VED because they have zero emissions. Bicycles wouldn’t have to be VED even if they were eligible because they have zero emissions. Check out ipayroatax dot com for the full story.

   Secondly, I don’t believe your story about the truck driver. Have you ever tried to ride a bicycle at 4mph? It’s very unstable at speeds that slow. That’s walking speed for me. Most healthy adults walk at around 3mph. Even out of shape people on cheap slow bikes typically ride at around 10mph. Those types of people don’t ride in the middle of the lane though because they usually have not received the safety training that teaches them that keeping to the edge of the road is dangerous. The types of riders who ride in the middle of the lane are those who have safety training and understand the dangers of edge riding and they are also typically people who ride a lot, and the slowest of them tend to ride at least 15mph most of the time. The younger fitter ones are typically riding at over 20mph and some over 25mph. The pros cruise at over 30mph. That’s over 5 times the speed of your story.

   I also don’t believe your story because of the 2-3 miles part. Safe places to pass always open up more frequently than that.

   You either made up the story from thin air or grossly exaggerated the details to make the bicyclist look worse. You’re a liar.

8. almost 13 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   @CopperPin: You are completely wrong. Bicyclists pay a lot for the roads. You make the very wrong assumption that your fuel taxes and registration fees cover the costs of the roads. In reality, they don’t even come close. You need to do your homework instead of making up pseudo facts and pretending that they are the truth.

   The fact is that general fund taxes that everyone pays cover a very large percentage of the costs of the roads. It varies somewhat by country and by state/province but the fact is that the roads are expensive and registration fees and fuel taxes don’t even come close to covering it.

   Even if you you were correct, the law says that bicyclists have as much right to use the road as motorists do. It does not recognize your silly delusion that your reg fees and fuel taxes give you more right to the road.

   Furthermore, threatening someone with your car is assault with a deadly weapon. It is a violent crime and you can do jail time for it. Meanwhile, moving over to pass a bicyclist safely is one of the easiest things to do in driving. It’s so trivial that it almost doesn’t even qualify as an inconvenience. Why are you whining and throwing violent tantrums over it you giant crybaby?

   I have been driving for 32 years and have driven a wide variety of vehicles all over the country in all sorts of conditions and it has been rare that I have had to slow down for a bicyclist at all. I have had to change lanes quite a few times. So what? I have had to do the same for other motorists dramatically more times.

   Grow up you pathetic whining crybaby.