I've talked to two people, one for blowing a red light downtown and almost getting hit- the car had to slam on brakes. He had some choice words, but actually caught up to me at the next red when I then explained that the driver- not to mention him- probably didn't plan on being in a bike - car accident today. The other was some guy on the lakewalk that was endangering everyone- and when he blew past a (probably) 6 year old and his mom on bikes nearly hitting the boy- I caught him and talked to him explaining that kids are very unpredictable, but apparently "he's probably just better at predicting people then I am"... Perhaps, but somehow I doubt it.

I wrote a long blog post ( http://bikingduluth.blogspot.com/2008/07/whats-wrong-with-people-or-why-i-hate.html ) about these and another incident- and ended that some people are just a-holes who only care about them selves (and sometimes not even themselves- judging by their riding) and you can't change an a-hole.

I've always been a fan of the idea of having bicyclists attend training and be licensed like anyone else who operates a vehicle on a roadway. The should also have to carry insurance as I had a teenage biker run into my car parked in front of my house causing $200 damage to my car and I ended up having to pay for the repairs.

I DO NOT recommend wearing a chimp mask while biking.

this happens in the cities all the time. people just fly through stop signs. the worst is when people are going the wrong way on a one way on a bike (in the bike lane) or biking on the wrong side of the street on a 2way road. usually people w/o helmets. grrrr. i've said things and have been ignored or have been told to eff off. i don't bother telling them anymore. however, i do try to tell kids to adjust their helmets if they are wearing them wrong. kids tend to listen. i always do it if the kid is w/ a parent. the parent usually appreciates it too. they just assume throwing on a helmet protects the kid. they do, but but not if it's sitting on the back of the kid's head.

What a morbid video! I love it.

I'm the non-confrontational type, so I probably would have just given him the stink eye and muttered hatefully about him to my friends later. And maybe tried to distance myself from him so that people wouldn't think I was with him. But I think you did good.

Have to admit that I usually skip hand signals (how many drivers notice/care/understand?) but I otherwise try to be a decent, well-behaved bicyclist, wearing a helmet, riding on the road, obeying traffic lights and signs, etc.

I abide by very few traffic laws when biking, though never blatantly blow through red lights. However, if there are no cars coming I don't see any good reason why I shouldn't be able to bike through it. I mean, one of the reasons I'm on a bike in the first place is so that I don't have to abide by stop signs.

I effin' despise the stop sign.

I actually laugh at the suckers on bikes who wait for red lights to turn green when there are no cars coming.

But really, what society totally needs is another bureaucratic entity to regulate our lives. In fact, I'd take it a step further and require every person born to take human being class and once they passed that class to require them to purchase human being insurance.

Wouldn't that be awesome?

It would seem to be a great way to create the ultimate law abiding society.

We could even have a Department of Human Beings that could regulate how we acted at all times, made sure we had the proper human being insurance, just in case we dinged up someone's car, and cracked down on any punks deliberately screwing up our society by acting in an unhuman (or is it inhuman) way.

Now wait a minute...

Anyway, I'm all for more government.

All kidding aside though, I'm totally for renegade biking and, for that matter, walking in the middle of the street.

agreed mark, totally agree.

I know a doc who works ER and he refers to guys like Mark as "problems that will eventually take care of themselves." He also calls summer time "head-injury season."

I tend to follow a spirit-of-the-law approach when I'm riding--I'll slow way down for stop signs, but won't put a foot down if there's no traffic, and so on.

I hate people who ride against traffic though. They're worse than people who ride on the sidewalk.

A. Ignored him (after all, he's an adult; let him take his own risks)

Trying to convince someone who refuses to follow safety rules that they are endangering themselves is like telling a ax murderer that they are breaking the law.

I'd have ignored him and hoped that nature would take its course and that he would quickly be removed from the gene pool before he could reproduce. In fact, I'd be tempted to go get my car and HELP nature take its course.

("Sorry officer! He just blew right through the stop light and I couldn't avoid him!")

I agree with Sonya, I'd have given him the evil eye and stayed far away from him so no one would think we were together. When I am driving, I usually stay far away from bicyclists who aren't wearing helmets, they're usually the ones flouting the rules of the road, almost causing accidents. BTW, a friend of mine was riding his bike in Chicago, and passed a parked car as the occupant opened the car door -- right into my friend, who landed in the hospital.

I am a nasty and vindictive person (but not confrontational), so my reaction would have been to silently pray he gets whacked by a car and that I am not around to see the carnage (and not the poor schmuck who hits him).

"Being of a personality type that shies away from risky illegal activities unless they serve a good cause, I stopped for the light and waited for it to turn green before proceeding."

Anyone who feels that riding your bike through a red light or stop sign constitutes "risky, illegal activities" sounds like they belong sedated in a dark corner of Lakeshore Lutheran Home, shielded from the dangers that the rest of the fun-loving, criminal populace pose.

The rest of you losers should also lighten the fuck up a bit (maybe loosen the straps on your bike helmets).

wow, you people REALLY think that not wearing a helmet is reason enough to be run-down and eliminated from the gene pool? good lord. did i miss something? are they not wearing helmets while drowning puppies in lake superior or chasing after children with sticks? i mean come on!

Yeah, it's a problem we need to change for a safer future.

I've read recent 'letters to the editor' from bikers upset that motorists don't share the road. I'm not a biker but can honestly report that some drivers have NO respect for bicycles. That's got to change. Bikers (and people on foot!) will become much more prevalent as America finally (finally!)
sacrifices and controls our consumption of oil.

For people already on bikes, way to go...We can learn from your brand of smarts.

But every day, sometimes several times a day, I'm sharing the road with a bike and I witness how stop signs and traffic lights are just ignored. Like those laws aren't for bicycles.

Let's make a citizen's pact to share the road and obey the laws.

Somebodies gonna get killed if we don't!

Yeah, it's a problem we need to change for a safer future.

I've read recent 'letters to the editor' from bikers upset that motorists don't share the road. I'm not a biker but can honestly report that some drivers have NO respect for bicycles. That's got to change. Bikers (and people on foot!) will become much more prevalent as America finally (finally!)
sacrifices and controls our consumption of oil.

For people already on bikes, way to go...We can learn from your brand of smarts.

But every day, sometimes several times a day, I'm sharing the road with a bike and I witness how stop signs and traffic lights are just ignored. Like those laws aren't for bicycles.

Let's make a citizen's pact to share the road and obey the laws.

Somebodies gonna get killed if we don't!

It would be fine if the bikers blowing through stop signs without slowing or looking were just to keel over and out of the gene pool, but unfortunately most of the drivers who run over folks like Mark and cando are probably disturbed by it.

People like eco eco put Lenny Bruce in jail.

I consider them the real danger to our society.

Mark and I will race you.

Laughing my old ass off at the Bruce reference, young Mark. After checking your link, tell me--are you still just a fuck-up or have you reached the annoying stage?

Choice A.

I don't really believe a tongue lashing helps at all coming from one person. The guy may get really mad and pull a knife on you... or a bicycle multi-tool ;)

Being a pretty avid cyclist, I do the half-obey thing. If there's a light and no traffic at all, I'll slowly ride through it; with traffic, I'll be extra wary because there might be a vehicle to my right taking a right that fails to see me. At a stop sign, I generally do the partial stop, because I don't like to unclip and am only partially good with the track stand. I'm adamant about using hand signals in traffic, though, especially with left hand turns.

Even though I can ride a smooth fine line and have no problem brushing up against someone at 25 mph, my biggest fear is hitting a pedestrian (be it jaywalker or just someone on a bike path). Extreme wariness going on there.

In junior high, my friend and I thought it was fun to go racing recklessly through downtown like those bike messengers in NY depicted in film during the 80's; jumping on and off sidewalks and what not. I ran straight into a business lady wearing a white skirt. Made a nice tire mark from crotch to hem. She was certainly of bad mood, even if she wasn't prior to that.

As for the wearing of helmet depicting one's demeanor or attitude about riding a bike, I wouldn't go that far. Certainly, children should wear them.

Lastly, I think the people running autos should pipe down a bit. And the whole being hit by an opening car door happens pretty frequently and has nothing to do with disregard for the law.

One more thing that popped into my head, though I may have brought this up before on PDD. My cycling coach from ago ran into a motorist and decided to confront the guy, because he had almost been run off a steep canyon. The motorist calmly reached into the cab and grabbed a loaded shotgun.

Moral: best not to lecture the traveler, even with good intentions.

Mark, if the main reason you ride a bike is to flout the man and his stop signs, might I suggest you take up a different illegal hobby, one that doesn't involve creating road rage that endangers others? I'm thinking, for instance, of climbing skyscrapers--it's almost as dangerous to yourself when you do it without a rope, and people actually get a kick out of watching it, rather than getting annoyed.

I agree with the "spirit of the law" idea; having clips myself, I frequently do the coaster stop. I figure I can slow down at least as much as most cars actually do without putting my foot down, plenty slow to check and make sure I have the right of way. If there's a car (or other biker) that got to the intersection first, I'll wait my turn, even if it means a full stop. And like you said Big E, I can't stand seeing people ride against traffic. It just grates.

On a side-note, I'm surprised others besides Zoyx and Sonya haven't commented on the video. If you haven't watched it, I recommend it - highly entertaining, disturbing, and potentially bed-wetting-nightmare-inducing to those of the 10 and under set.

See, here's the problem with you sanctimonious cocksuckers: you take yourselves way too seriously.

Here's another problem: when replying to posts (which, I might add, are pretty easy to reference since they're right there above you) you do yourself a disservice by not responding to things actually written.

For example, rediguana, you say that "if the main reason you ride a bike is to flout the man and his stop signs" yadda, yadda, yadda.

But, see, I never said that at all. I said ONE of the reasons I ride a bike is that I don't like abiding by stop signs, but I never said it was THE reason I ride a bike, nor did I ever utter anything about "flouting the man." Riding a bike, for me, is not a matter of rebelliousness, but in fact a matter of mobility. In a car, you gotta stop at stop signs or you'll get a ticket (probably an expensive one). On a bike, you may have to, but if you don't, the chances of getting a ticket are pretty effin' slim.

Let's keep this going.

If you'll go back to my first two sentences, you'll see that I wrote:

"I abide by very few traffic laws when biking, though never blatantly blow through red lights. However, if there are no cars coming I don't see any good reason why I shouldn't be able to bike through it."

Hmmm, "NEVER blatantly blow through red lights." The observant reader will also notice that I don't mind going through an intersection if "there are no cars coming."

So, I go through red lights if there are no cars in the intersection, barely stop at stop signs and, prior to 2003, engaged in sodomy on a regular basis in a state that technically prohibited it.

Apparently, this sort of behavior makes me the Prince of fucking Darkness in some circles.

But anyway, I can be flippant at times, sure, and that riles certain personality types up, but something endemic to these message boards that riles me up are people attacking other people for what they believe them to have said or even what they want them to have said, instead of critiquing what they actually said. This, friends, is just plain lazy.

Much of this goes back to something that I wrote earlier and it goes something like: lighten up a bit folks!

And, in response to eco eco, I'm clearly an annoying, fucked up cocksucker.

Though not nearly as annoying as that Danny guy.

I like Mark.

I like Danny.

Mark, if you pay attention to our respective tones, I think you'll find that you are the only one on this thread attacking people. Please refrain from using offensive words such as "cocksuckers."

As for your nitpicking semantic arguments, I wasn't aware this was a peer-reviewed blog that required perfect anal accuracy. I was responding to the "spirit of the post" (much like respecting the "spirit of the law" when biking), and trying to be amusing at it. But if you want to make a federal case out of my attempt at humor, I wave the white flag and concede your point. I really just don't care to continue this silly argument.

I'll let our resident Lenny Bruce scholar, eco eco, take things from here.

Not to change this interesting conversation but has anyone heard if the "bicycle train" is running again to Two Harbors in September for the bike ride back to town?

I think everyone should just head to that punk rock pizza parlor for some Aesop Rock this evening. Bike or no bike.