On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 15:13:59 GMT, Jim Behning
wrote:
You live in the desert where there are many blind turns and lots of
bicyclists out on Saturday and Sunday mornings? The few deserts I have
been to are sort of deserted and the roads are pretty straight unless
going through some canyons. Since it is the desert the population
appeared to be about a house every 20-30 miles. How much traffic can
you encounter in your desert?
Yeah, I live on the outskirts of a city that people built in the desert.
They wanted to mine the ores nearby and found a reasonably green area
between the Catalina and Tucson mountains, along a river bed. Rocky hills
plus river bed = winding roads. The city of Tucson is around 800k people
this time of year (snowbirds + college students + gem & mineral show
attendees + permanent residents)
You feel that you never cause inconvenience to anyone. If I walk up to
the checkout counter at the grocery store and you are in front of me,
I feel you should move out of my way because I am going to have to
waste 5 minutes waiting for the checkout person to scan your Oreos,
Lays, Budweiser and other food. If people are using the roads for
their legal use then you don't have a lot of room to fuss. Heck I bet
you waste at least 5 minutes a day listening to your wife complain.
How often are you allowed to tell her to shut up because she is
wasting your precious time?
Obviously the point was wasted on you. You obviously feel that a
conveyance that can at best, travel about half the speed of normal traffic
has every bit as much right to use as much of the road as it wants to
regardless of who it inconveniences.
.... snip
Roads were built for horse and buggy traffic. They were paved along
the way. Maybe you need to move up to Indiana, Ohio or Pennsylvania
where you have the Amish on the road with their buggies trotting at 20
miles an hour and pooping to boot. Then you can fuss about not being
able to pass. The interstates were built for emergency wartime landing
strips for air defense planes with the original specs for so many
miles of straight sections so large planes can land. I bet a lot of
interstates cannot accomodate those fighter planes now. ANother reason
was of interstate traffic which they do a pretty good job of. Heck in
some less populated areas of the country they even allow cyclists on
the interstates. I bet that wigs you out when you are cruising through
your desert on the interstate.
If they are on the shoulder, well away from cars, doesn't bother me a
bit.
In actuality, the inconvenience is only a secondary consideration in this
whole discussion. My main issue is frankly the safety issue. It just
seems totally irrational to me that people, for enjoyment, put themselves
in a position where they are doing half the speed of the prevailing
traffic, put themselves in situations where they may not be seen by that
traffic, and are the ones who are going to lose, and lose bigtime, if they
wind up interacting in a negative way with that traffic. I don't want to be
the person that such an event happens to; the circumstance where one must
make a a split second choice between driving over a slow-moving bicycle 2
feet into the right lane on a curve or swerving left into the oncoming path
of another vehicle and causing a head-on collision --- that bothers me.
At the same time, other folks who have riding hobbies somehow manage to
pack up their vehicles or animals and drive someplace that accomodates
those vehicles in a safe manner.
I've said my peace on this issue.
Mark & Juanita wrote:
On Wed, 09 Feb 2005 14:22:24 GMT, Jim Behning
wrote:
Mark & Juanita wrote:
On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 22:42:02 -0600, "Todd Fatheree"
wrote:
"Mark & Juanita" wrote in message
om...
On Tue, 08 Feb 2005 10:42:55 +0000, "Luigi Zanasi"
wrote:
... snip
I
.... snip
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The absence of accidents does not mean the presence of safety
Army General Richard Cody
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