About wearing a machete while riding a bicycle

[His Highness the Wise TibetanMonkey, Most Humble Philosopher]

On Sunday, July 7, 2013 5:12:22 PM UTC-7, Wise TibetanMonkey, Most Humble

I would like to come out with a machete to defend myself against mad
drivers.

And I think I speak for all of us when I say we really wish you'd try it.

There was an occasion when I driver spit in my face where I'd have used a
machete.
And he was wrong in blowing the horn trying to play vigilante where I was
legally riding a bicycle. I gave him the finger and he was adamant to beat
me up. It's not the kind of fun I look forward to.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A little courtesy goes a long way. In this example, "legally" riding your
bike in the middle of the lane, thus needlessly slowing down people, makes
you and other bicyclists look bad.
Now, had you moved over and let these folks get to where they were going,
you wouldn't have to worry about fingers or spit or horns or vigilantes.
Instead you decided to be a pain in the ass, and were rewarded for your
efforts.
Try courtesy. It works miracles.
CS

No it wasn't the case at all. Actually it was before this particular incident, but I had accommodated to the right when this vigilante came blowing the horn from the other lane, warning me of a mysterious sign that says, "Walk bicycle across bridge."

See, these engineers don't give a damn about writing a sentence that makes sense. The sidewalk is very narrow and riding a bicycle on it is very dangerous. So I was riding my bicycle to the right of the road and this beast comes out of nowhere and starts blowing the horn.

Then the bully sees a good opportunity to act his aggression and I become the next victim. It's often the case that bicyclists are the victims of aggression --which they may not act against their wives.

Again, I place the blame on our engineers rather than the bully. Now they have started placing bike lanes that don't connect and painting bikes on the road --sometimes right on blind curves.

In other words, the roads remain "no man's land" and I'm walking to minimize the conflict. I leave the machete home.


--------------------------------------------------------

http://webspawner.com/users/BANANAREVOLUTION

[His Highness the Wise TibetanMonkey, Most Humble Philosopher]

The roadway on the bridge is not sufficiently wide for automobiles and
bicycles, so they hav e decided that they want bicycle operators to be
pedestrians on the bridge so they put up a sign telling you to walk. There
is nothing about that to a reasonable person that is confusing. Walk your
bike across the bridge. Get your sorry ass out of the traffic lanes so the
traffic can flow.

The situation is not like that at all. Two lanes of traffic in each direction and two feet of sidewalk where you could not even walk a bicycle.

So much beauty wasted, except for the ones that feel suicidal enough to ride a bicycle...

http://www.biscaynetimes.com/index.php?id=798:dazzling-views-and-no-tolls&option=com_content&catid=42:park-patrol&Itemid=226

And you do NOT fare better if you walk. The narrow sidewalk ends with an abrupt step and you find yourself walking through the grass --or mud if it rained. So if you must appreciate this beauty you better buy Real Estate in that affluent community. The monkeys are not welcomed.

You live in a very congested area where they built roadways that were more
than necessary when they were built, but not nearly enough to carry the
traffic now. When the road was new, there was perhaps 100 cars per hour, now
there are several hundred cars in the hour. Roads in my community have more
traffic in an hour today than there was in the entire day when the road was
built.
When you plant your ass in the middle of the lane and force automobile
traffic to slow from 45 to 10, you can bet your last dollar that people will
be annoyed.

Sorry, my speed is the speed of life. I'm not in the rat race. They can overtake on the next lane.

Your solution, everybody should ride a bike everywhere they go, is simply
not a workable one. YOU are the one that must make accomodations because YOU
are the odd man out. You drive your bike 5 miles to work, whatever, but the
guy blowing his horn because you are mucking up traffic has been on the
highway for an hour and a half to get to work. He's out there everyday, day
after day, mile after mile, trying to get to work. You are clogging up the
highway by riding your bike in a traffic lane on a bridge that is not wide
enough to allow for you and for a car, so the powers that be erect a sign
that tells you to be a pedestrian for a while.

The math doesn't add up: ONE MORE BIKE = ONE FEWER CAR

Let the drivers understand that.

You are the idiot in this picture that you repeatedly paint. You should go
to the store and buy a clue.

It's all bullshit. It's about the one dollar toll and the cops ambushing to catch unsuspecting drivers. In other words, it's a trap.

"You don’t even have to pay the one-dollar toll. Cyclists ride free, and even drivers can avoid the toll by parking and walking. The best parking (and it’s free) lies on the mainland side at North Bayshore William Lehman Park (rated here in 2009 at 3.5 trees), located next to Biscayne Bay at 123rd Street in North Miami."

[His Highness the Wise TibetanMonkey, Most Humble Philosopher]

~zap~
Bear spray. I keep it in the bike's drink holder, primarily to defend against dogs chasing after me.

How about pepper spray. That's what I use as a pedestrian.
Anyway you should never be totally defenseless in the jungle. Lots of junkies and crazy people around.

You know, the idea of bear spray is great! You must be prepared for anything and everything in the jungle. Big bears, sneaky snakes and mosquitoes beware!
I have another great idea (philosophers always got great ideas): I was just attacked by the evil viruses! But guess what, Windows 8 has a reset button...
What will happen next? If the world had a reset button. I think it does, we just got to find it.
But Firefox seems like a bunch of monkeys --nonprofit-- who are willing to save the world. Who's behind the viruses? Profits of course! So it's war and the medical industry.
(to be continued)

Seriously, bad driving in Germany would be much better than here. They have both speed cameras and no speed limits and that's awesome. The best part is that they have passing lanes instead of everybody struggling to pass.
The revolution plans to bring order to the roads while allowing for the very fast and the very slow.

On paper, you could take a seriously flawed society such as Venezuela or America and make it a seriously civilized nation where driving is taken seriously:

[Germany is] a country that takes its driving very seriously. This is understandable when you realize that a German driver’s license costs [over $2000], after a minimum of 25-45 hours of professional instruction plus 12 hours of theory...

German and European traffic law has a few variations that North American drivers may not always be aware of. For instance, it is illegal to pass on the right on the Autobahn. Slow moving vehicles must always move to the right, and faster vehicles may pass on the left only. The only exception is when both lanes are moving slowly (under 60 km per hour, 35 mph), as in the frequent traffic jams (Verkehrsstaus). In such cases drivers are allowed to pass on the right, but at a speed no higher than 20 km per hour faster than the traffic in the left lane.

http://www.german-way.com/driving.html

***

You may say you can leave the machete home and concentrate on driving or simply riding a bicycle. And best of all, you can escape civilization in a web of hiking trails that crisscrosses the nation. In other words, it's nice to be civilized. In many ways, our nations are just Banana Republics.

But such is my humble opinion.