Innocuous things that make you irrationally angry (a list thread)

Laurel - yes. And yes, they are super hard to bike next to. And see my posts on other threads about the spate of bus-and-cyclist fatalities that led me to lock my bike up forever.

I can see both sides of this situation, definitely. I like iatee's "no cars, bikes forever" urban planning strategy, personally. Well, I would also want buses, but then buses could have their own lane over to the side and bikes could take the full traffic lane all the time.

Also, the hundreds of other bikers seem to do fine without biking like this guy, so what makes him special?

I wish I had bookmarked a great article or blog post I read last year about why bike lanes are basically a bunch of bullshit that makes both cyclists and drivers less sage and worse off. Time to go exercise some Google magic.

I read something similar. Did it include something about mayor in TX, I think, removing bike lanes?

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6027/5987943412_06fc309f2f.jpg

The first protected bike lane in Chicago. Would this help? That may actually get me back on a bike again, if there was one all the way down Diversey to the lakefront. Or a bike skyway.

Where is that?

Kinzie Street between Milwaukee Avenue and Wells Street.

"less sage" = "less safe" obvs. Although both might be true.

xp It might have . . . it was a really great piece.

I mean the gist is that it reinforces among drivers that bikes don't belong "on the road," so they should always just stay in the bike lane, then they encounter a cyclist making a left and get all IA and do something dangerous. Whereas cyclists grow to believe they can just be protected from traffic and don't learn the skills necessary to ride among cars.

This isn't the place for this maybe! (But sometimes cyclists' stuff is read by cyclists only and motorists' viewpoints not read by cyclists) This for the standard road lane cycle lane:

1. Take cyclists down the inside left of traffic, where drivers aren't necessarily expecting to see cyclists.

2. Often the worst road surfaces, with glass and grit and drains, plus potholes.

3. Make cyclists feel safe when in fact they're not, can cause some drivers to think that the cyclist should only be in the cycle lane, even if it's not safe to be there.

4. Lanes (especially in the UK?) peter out when they're most needed, ie when there's least road space.

5. Curbside riding leaves very little room for maneouvre in the case of a problem.

6. Taxis and buses frequently pull into cycle lanes. Parked cars often obstruct them - encourages weaving in and out of the main lane.

Those just off the top of my head. All this said, good cycling infrastructure can encourage not just the fit and physically courageous to cycle, keep everyone safer, reduce cars on the road (due to encouraging more people to cycle), which is better for both cyclist and motorist.

The arguments that the more cyclists that are on the road and use the road lanes hold true to a certain extent, but as I say, I think they often ignore the fact that a lot of people feel a great lack of confidence when cycling in any sort of traffic, so good infrastructure is to be encouraged. Bad infrastructure actively dangerous tho.

Sorry! Will shut up now.

It's only a little longer than a half mile, but it's the thought that counts. xpost

Oh, and studies show that cars give cyclists LESS room when there are bike lanes painted on, believing that the white stripe is a magic barrier or something.

Vauxhall Bridge. Lethal.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=vauxhall+bridge&hl=en&ll=51.488198,-0.128253&spn=0.010809,0.01929&sll=51.520624,-0.152537&sspn=0.010801,0.01929&hnear=Vauxhall+Bridge,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=51.488261,-0.128405&panoid=Ra3jZmACHFg1OPj7YXmgIg&cbp=12,110.87,,0,18.73

Only safe place to be is in the lane. Right, will shut up now. Got work to do.

The street I work on is getting protected bike lane. Rahm said he was going to build a number of them.

yeah chicago's getting pretty serious about it

I can see both sides of this situation, definitely. I like iatee's "no cars, bikes forever" urban planning strategy, personally. Well, I would also want buses, but then buses could have their own lane over to the side and bikes could take the full traffic lane all the time.

ftr my priorities list is like "mass transit >>>>> walking >>>>>>> bikes >>>>> (x infinity) cars".

infiniti does make a decent car

That sounds good, iatee. Sign me up.

Finding out when I got home last night that I still don't know the name of the estate that I have had to walk through for the last few years to get to the bus stop. Realised this morning that the only place it has the name up is at the entrance & I normally come in from a different direction since there's a park I can walk across that way.
A person in another nightclass out of the blue offered me a lift to this place I semi recognised the name of but couldn't place. Possibly this was offered because of the weather last night being pretty rough.
Could also be me not being able to think straight cos of lack of sleep cos something was worrying me the night before. I said I live in 'name of larger area' and person who offered left. I'm now kicking myself and hoping I can apologise for my ignorance if I see her next week.

& today standing in a queue at a supermarket till keeping a reasonable distance back from the person in front of me while some idiot keeps hitting me as he sticks things on the conveyor belt behind me. I mean if there is somebody between me and the person currently paying for their stuff, how far forward can I go? & possibly I'm annoyed cos I said nothing.

& later trying to get off a bus at a particular stop while the driver tries to drive past it. The bus stopping sign had lit up and there was somebody else wanting to stop at the stop, but I've had trouble with this driver before just not stopping at hailed bus stops.

& today I had had a night's sleep.

There's one bus driver on the route that I take home from the train station when I don't feel like walking who always ALWAYS misses my stop. I think I've talked about her on this thread before, the "passenger signals" driver.

Always seem to hit Mapco right at shift change.

I shouldn't be playing the lottery anyway.

Attachments not being accessible on webmail work email.

People who leave a work voicemail asking me to call them back without any indication of what they need.

God knows, I may have mentioned this already, but letting other drivers stuck in a bad traffic situation cut in front of you, then them doing something stupid that slows you down.

strangers who leave robocall messages with their name and number but don't say what business they're from or what they're calling about, or even whom they're looking for.

e.g., "this is john smith at 1-800-xxx-xxxx, with a very important message. please call back as soon as possible." (click.)

these are usually creditors, looking for someone who used to have our current landline number. i always let the landline go to voicemail, cuz most of the calls are for this deadbeat guy. but on the off chance that such a message is for me, i wanna know what the deal is.

Creditors are calling at my work phone for the woman who had my job two women ago.

I've been getting call like that about once a week for the last 3-4 months. I feel like I should call the number just to tell them they've got the wrong number but that would probably be more of a hassle than it's worth.

The guy who occupied my desk two or three lawyers ago still gets creditor calls, sales calls, and client calls. He was apparently running a side practice from his govt job and using that phone number as his business line. Which is pretty 0_o.

Hail and Ride sections on bus routes. What the fuck is the point of them? Ostensibly you are supposed to be able to hail/stop the bus anywhere, but in practice there are actually certain set points along the route where you can do this. Which are of course top secret if you don't normally use that route, so you get buses whizzing by ignoring you holding your arm out. I've got this crazy idea, you could mark the places where you can actually hail a bus, maybe with some kind of sign. You could call it a "stop" maybe.

People that walk around using their iPads as iPods. I've seen this a couple of times recently.

A guy at work does this. Something about it reminds me of 80's dudes walking around with their boomboxes

I saw a tourist once walking around taking pictures with his ipad.

It didn't make me angry though, more like mildly amused

I've seen the picture thing before, I can almost see the benefits of that for a big viewscreen. There's just something weird about carrying around a gigantic tablet to listen to music though. One thing if you are sitting at your desk, but walking down the street? Nah.

ia: i sold a book on amazon and got a $5 credit for expedited shipping. the cost to send it priority mail actually cost $13. guess who's eating that $8 difference?

ia: me using "cost" twice in one sentence. argh; i am my own worst copy editor.

Doesn't the current iPad 2 camera notoriously suck bad? Kind of weird to see it used for anything other than a quick snapshot or an application.

I always hated getting Amazon orders with expedited shipping.

Yeah that was my first thought - super shitty vacation pics (xp)

I have seen ppl walking down the street READING ipads. So tempted to trip them over.

I know two people who have been mugged while reading and walking, so I don't do that anymore. CONSTANT VIGILANCE.

I do enough of it for the both of us.

I had actually never seen someone use an iPad on public transportation until the other day, when I saw a dude on a crowded bus getting really into some game that looked like it was designed for preschoolers.

That's the sound a cow makes! YESSS!!

That surprises me, j. People on my bus (#8 Halsted) read on them quite a bit. One guy reads comics/graphic novels on them. I saw one guy playing a very active accelerometer controlled game. Fortunately the bus was pretty empty b/c 'bows were being thrown.

xp - lol

getting really into some game that looked like it was designed for preschoolers.

So, Angry Birds or something then?

monsters ate my condo

Maybe! I've never actually seen Angry Birds apart from the ubiquitous logo.

Or that one where you cut fruit up or something.