Sometimes I think I find excuses not to go riding because I don't want to deal with all of the above.
I used to ride ALOT. I mean commute to work even in the winter and basically use any excuse I could to ride. Now I am exclusively the weekend warrior and I don't commute or ride in city traffic.
I am fortunate enough to live just a couple stop signs/lights from the foothills here, so I can "get my fix" in less then an hour total (from kickstand up to kickstand down) and about 45 total miles. A commute to work is far more dangerous (and much less fun) than a blast up to the foothills. The risk is higher than the reward primarily due to the sheer number of cagers encountered (and exactly what you listed in your post, ESPECIALLY THE MORONS THAT JUST CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT BEING ON THEIR PHONE FOR THE 15 MINUTES IT TAKES TO GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B.)
Weekends are scary in my neck of the woods (HWY9, Bear Creek, HWY35), so I tend not to ride unless I must. Too much testosterone on the road for me. I used to be part of that crowd and saw some crazy stuff including one death from a rider that could not keep in his lane on a corner and hit an old school Suburban head on.
Some friends and I play hooky once a month for a weekday ride. Much more enjoyable during non-commute times. Less of the •••••• cagers, but more tourists. At least the tourists are usually more polite and use turnouts because they are uncomfortable on the mountain roads.
For those who feel the need to pass in a no passing zone because they feel sandwiched between vehicles, there is another option that will give you better safety. While you can't control the guy on your tail, you can give yourself more room, and that will give the guy on your tail more time to react because you have more time to react.
My father-in-law, in his later years of driving became one of those who would drive slowly, then drop the hammer when someone tried to pass. This was on curvy roads in AR. Pretty scary being in the vehicle with him. Me, I've gotten to where I'll slow down a bit as someone passes. It make it easy on everyone involved. If they caught up to me, they are probably traveling faster than me. Duh!
I WANT all the cars that want to go faster than me to be ahead of me, getting small.
I want all the cars that want to go slower than me, to be behind me, getting small.
My ideal, is when I am pretty much alone, with no cars close to me at all.
That's just not possible, so I do a little work to allow people faster to get by, as smoothly as possible, and to pass the slow ones, as safely as possible.
That doesn't mean I love the aggressive jerks that pull up on my tail when I'm smoothly passing other cars, at extralegal speed, mind you. I will pull over to let them pass, but if they insist on being so close behind me that a Smart car won't fit in the gap at 70+ mph, The only safe thing to do is to slow down, back down the line of cars, and pull in behind the last car in the train of tailgating sleepers, and let the insane, rude, cretin pass me.
Enraged beyond belief, every time.
as Sifo points out, you CANNOT control the other drivers, the only action you can take is to make sure you have enough room in front of you. That is the bottom line.
The "polite" thing to do, OTOH, might involve cutting someone else off to get out of the insane one's way, or speed up to a very unsafe speed, and get out of his way.
I'm off for a quick run down the expressway on an errand. I will drive so as to pass safely, stay out of packs of the driving sleepers, and be as courteous as safety allows.
In case I've not made it clear, the elderly homicidal maniac in the vid squids posted needs to be incarcerated to protect the rest of humanity.
I don't really care if it's in the General Prison Population, preferably one with a near 100% ethnic whoever he hates, or in an institution for the Criminally Insane.
I'm not vindictive, I just want that kind of flaming lunatic off the road.
Patti. Its so funny that you think the perp is elderly and he's only a few years older than you. You old curmudgeon.
By the way thanks for filling in the board in on your defensive riding technique. Everybody here needs to know what you know because without you telling us what we need to know we would never know the knowledge that you know you need to give us.
Yes, that guy needs to be put away. And his license revoked permanently (in all states).
I have a feeling what he intended to do was just jump out in front of the cycle to scare him, but timing was bad and he hit him. Either way I'm fairly positive looking at the video that he intended to jump lanes because he was mad at being passed.
So what do you guys do when you have a police officer tailgaiting you? Had one do that to me a few nights ago, could have maybe fit a small car between us and he was probably wondering why I was going within 5 mph of the speed limit. DUH, he'd give me a ticket if I went as fast as he was pushing me.
My father-in-law, in his later years of driving became one of those who would drive slowly, then drop the hammer when someone tried to pass.
That's kind of crap is playing with someone else's life and completely unacceptable. To purposely speed up as another car or bike is trying to pass, is essentially forcing the other vehicle to stay in the "lane of death" longer than need be.
It's not as blatant as the a-hole in TX, but it's in the same vein.
Whoever does that shit needs a good ass-kicking. This is on my short list of things that would make me "take it to the next level" kinda road rage.
Sifo, did you ever say anything to your father in law about this behavior? If so, what was his justification for putting other peoples' lives at undo risk of death.
Sifo, did you ever say anything to your father in law about this behavior? If so, what was his justification for putting other peoples' lives at undo risk of death.
Long story, but the short of it is that I'm very "restricted" in what am allowed to say in front of the in-laws. All of them. Basically, the peace is kept by staying silent. I did get my wife to agree that we would not ride with him anymore. He has since been moved to a permanent care facility due to Alzheimer's. At least he's off the roads. I have to wonder if his driving habits was an early sign of his Alzheimer's, which is known for aggressive behavior.
Geeze, you guys must live in mr rogers neighborhood, that kind of stuff happens all the time here in jersey, especially during rush hour. Always expect the unexpected. Does make for a less boring commute. (car vs car) (rarely with motorcycles but it does happen)
I see it all the time around home too. When it's done on narrow winding roads through the hills, with cliffs for shoulders, it take on a new level of dangerous though.
Texas nut is a good example of the mental illness issue...again. He didn't go shoot up a school, but it manifested itself pretty strongly for the two that were on the motorcycle. It's evident there is something amiss in the guy's head.
To say mental illness is tough to diagnose and treat is the understatement of the year. Appx. 2 out of 3 incarcerated people are believed to be mentally ill. Does that tell you something right there?
We used to have institutions for the mentally ill. As a society (mostly the bleeding heart liberals), we decided that institutionalizing the mentally ill was cruel, and should not be done. Now we leave them to their own devices. What does that tell you?
If I remember correctly, the mental institutions were shut down under Reagan's watch...
Not saying it is his fault per se, but after becoming president him and his fellow republicans blocked a bill that was supposed to fund the mental health organizations. It went downhill from there.
Both sides have fault in this issue. No one had/has the cajones to do anything about the situation for fear of political implications.
BTW: This all happened because of big pharma had developed a new sort of psychological drugs that were supposed to take care of most of the crazy people problems. The biggest issue is that we left the folks with mental development issues to fend for themselves as these drugs were not for them.
Due to current laws, the mentally disabled get their care through the public school system (even if they attend private schools), where there is no limit to what the school systems must spend on their education and care. This affects the amount of money spent on educating children with no issues and has caused more than a few schools to fall under state control.
Interesting article. A bit dated, but also spot on. The drug companies wanted to sell more drugs at the expense of the patients and general public. Surprise surprise, the politicians later defunded the community mental centers. We brought this situation on ourselves.
I watch every day as housewives tailgate inches away from the car in front of them to intimidate. Nice cars, commuting home from work, seeming zero awareness that they are gripped by road rage and being aggressively dangerous with no regard for human life much less courtesy of any kind.
In packs. Dozens of cars as close as NASCAR with a tiny fraction of the skill and None of the attention to surroundings.
One squirrel crossing the road can lead to a multi car pileup. Unavoidable. It's physics.
BTW: This all happened because of big pharma had developed a new sort of psychological drugs that were supposed to take care of most of the crazy people problems. The biggest issue is that we left the folks with mental development issues to fend for themselves as these drugs were not for them.
Due to current laws, the mentally disabled get their care through the public school system (even if they attend private schools), where there is no limit to what the school systems must spend on their education and care. This affects the amount of money spent on educating children with no issues and has caused more than a few schools to fall under state control.
Big pharma is only a single cog in the wheel. In fact, they are NOT the ones who set the policies that we are talking about. I'm not even sure how much they care about the actual policies. Do they really care if people are taking their drugs as free people on the streets, or as patients in an institution? I don't really think so.
No doubt there was the hope, and even belief, that these drugs would allow us to get the mentally ill safely out of institutions. In certain cases, that might even be feasible. In reality, this was an intersection of new drugs, a desire of some to not lock up the mentally ill, and the desire of some to cut federal spending. Of course, I'm not sure that federal spending should have been there in the first place.
Yes the article I posted was a bit dated. I see that as a good thing in this case. It eliminates the possibility of re-writing history, that tends to happen to promote the politics of today. The point was that the political pressure to eliminate the mental institutions had been there long before Reagan signed any federal documents to help make it happen.
Nice cars, commuting home from work, seeming zero awareness that they are gripped by road rage and being aggressively dangerous with no regard for human life much less courtesy of any kind.
One of my good friends wife is just like that. She is usually a mild mannered lady but put her behind the wheel and she transforms into a lunatic complete with trucker-mouth. She doesn't even realize how she is driving. And if someone gives her the same treatment (ie tailgating her) OMG its the end of the world.
And to your other point about agresssive driving by less-than-stellar (female) drivers, you are soooo correct. And dont forget most of them are on their Iphones whilst tailgating a couple feet from the car in front or speeding 20 over in their Expedition because they are late to the Starbucks to meet the girlfriends. It's a miracle there aren't more accidents/deaths out there.
I just noticed that the rudest tailgating types used to be type A men, but now are about equally women. I haven't done a serious survey. So I could be wrong. That's just my impression.
I have tried the past few days to glance over and check the sex of the folk tailgating especially badly, but when I'm passing/being passed by these clusters of suicidal steel and humanity, It makes me nervous to spare that many milliseconds instead of being hair trigger on lane changes and braking.
"Professional driver" imho really means the Big Rig guys far more than myself and the other local traffic. But I have spent a bit of time thinking on the subject, and done a little research.
Time. Tailgating denies you the time to stop or avoid the guy in front of you. Physics, simple. real. It really makes no difference if your reaction time is Quicksilver fast compared to slow old me, it takes nerve impulses X time to go from eye to brain ( really short ) and from brain to leg. A few tenths of a second... variable, but not much.
Reaction time, the decision making process, is highly variable. Both from person to person, and from one attention state to another of the individual.
Bottom line, if you are too close, and 2 seconds is marginal, you are going to hit the car in front of you, if he brakes at all.
I also have a thing against riding in "wolf packs" as they were known in the 1960's. Clumps of cars passing each other, caused by passed individuals speeding up, and passing folk slowing down, ( both, perhaps, in an unconscious effort to minimize speed differential, and ego... ) plus"traffic waves". A subject to themselves.
I tend to embrace the stealth approach in daily driving, not being an obvious speeder and being courteous ( not cutting people off, not obviously racing to the front ) But there are times.
A few years ago I had a loud ( Wileyco ) slip on "muffler" bolted to my Cyclone. There's a nice stretch of X-way near me where you have good sight lines where the road curves around a rest stop. Once out of the Rest stop ( or at that point on the curve ) you can see a considerable distance, and have trees between you and the next "no u turn" police radar hang out. So it's a nice place to check the jetting or ignition with minimal hassles... and space to slow before possible radar contact. However, on a windless, still day, you could hear my Cyclone rev up and fill the valley with noise. The nice State Trooper hanging out his window with laser pointed at me as I mellowed by at the speed limit certainly did. At least his gestures seemed to indicate that.
Sifo - minor point; the changes made to allow many marginally insane (my words) people out on the street rather than forced institutionalizing them happened while Reagan was CA governor. Yes, it was largely due to blind faith in the cost-effectiveness of drugs as opposed to keeping these people institutionalized.
You can imagine how well that has worked out since 1971.
