i need to rant for a moment here

[godream]

Dear People Who I Don't Know Who Beep At Me:

It's possible you mean well. Maybe you're trying to be friendly, or funny. You're not, okay? I'm sorry. But try to see it from my point of view. What I see is tinted windows and a couple thousand pounds of metal. SUVs are, like, the natural predators of bikes, and I get that lower-on-the-food-chain panic. Come on, you're coming up from behind me on random back streets, I can hear you coming but I can't see you, and then you honk? Please.

Beeping at me when I am pulled over on the shoulder of the road turning my bike upside-down to try to force the chain back onto the gears (I discovered, twice, that it's possible to put a bike into the equivalent of neutral while riding) and noticing how flat my tires are and thinking about how much I wish I had my license or stay-at-home parents with nothing better to do, and wanting to be home already because I'm worried it's going to start raining? It's just insult on injury. Screw you and your truck too, jerk.

Sincerely,
me

[Of course, if you're reading this entry, then it's inapplicable to you. But I needed to get it out of my system. I feel much better now.]

Comments

[shaktool.livejournal.com]

I didn't know what you meant by "beep" until the eighth sentence, until which I thought it WAS pretty funny.

[godream.livejournal.com]

LOL!

I want to have something equally amusing to write in response, but I got nothing. Uh. "Beep!"? :P

[majin157.livejournal.com]

Right. Looking at this from the car's perspective (I've never been much of a biker), you're encountering wildly unpredictable people moving (relatively) slowly, sometimes in lines of as many as six people. You have to veer into the oncoming lane to get around them, and in Sudbury, you can't often see far enough ahead to make certain it's safe.

I think it'd be perfectly reasonable to "beep" them out.

And good to hear from you again. It's too bad I haven't got any pictures of myself online. Yet. (I just got my computer back.)

Me as a mad scientist (http://pictureposter.allbrand.nu/pictures/majin157/Rob3.jpg.html).

And out of costume (http://pictureposter.allbrand.nu/pictures/majin157/Rob2.jpg.html).

[shaktool.livejournal.com]

No, no, you're supposed to keep your rage pent up inside until you get home, so you can play Grand Theft Auto.

GTA is like a blessing. Without it, we'd have to let out all our rage on bikers. Godream, you probably owe your life to the wonders of running over people in GTA. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the rate of motor vehicle accidents took a nosedive when GTA was released.

On the other hand, if people stopped beeping at bikers, then the bikers might get too confident and start getting out of line. Today, I saw biker going down the middle of a lane on a main road. Before you know it, bikers will be blowing red lights while flipping us off, and then stopping to take a breather in the middle of an intersection. Wow, it never occurred to me how important it is to beep at bikers. Well, now I know.

[(Anonymous)]

And knowing is half the battle.

-G.I. Joe

[godream.livejournal.com]

In the interest of fairness, I think there needs to be a video game involving running over cars with bicycles. My mountain bike and my brother's old matchbox cars strategically arranged in the driveway just aren't enough for me.

So you have to be deeply angry to play GTA well, huh? And here I thought I was just bad at it. Of course my strategy in games I don't know well involves heavy button-mashing, which works less in driving games than fighting. :P

That last paragraph is totally my utopia. Besides, I thought according to MA law pedestrians had the right of way even if they're square-dancing in the middle of the pike, and though bicyclists are nothing like pedestrians I feel we deserve the same consideration, seeing as we're actually propelling ourselves by our feet, or something of the sort. ... Of course, you're not actually in the state, are you? Darn. There goes Evil Plan #59276.

[godream.livejournal.com]

"Can't often see far enough ahead" goes both ways: it's difficult to avoid cars when you have no idea whether or not any are around. And I've gotten the beep *more* when biking alone and behaving in (so far as I can tell) a perfectly sane and rational and utterly predictable manner. -- Not, of course, that this is a pet peeve topic which I am quite easily provoked to argue about or anything. :P

Love the mad scientist picture!

[majin157.livejournal.com]

Would that be the censor-type beep, or just the regular kind?

Oh yeah. When you eventually get to college and are walking around campus on foot, bicyclists are pretty bad. They're completely silent coming up on you, unlike skateboarders, and go pretty fast. However, for some reason, they're entirely oblivious to their surroundings, and, if you aren't careful, might crash into you. This does more damage to you than it does to them.

The bicycle, then, seems to be an invention that both inconveniances people in vehicles both larger and smaller than it. Until I'm riding one around, I shall disaprove of it.

[godream.livejournal.com]

Would that be the censor-type beep, or just the regular kind?
Oh, the regular kind. I admit I only get the censor ones when I'm doing something stupid, like trying to cross Hudson. Goodness knows why I'd do a silly thing like that. :P

They're completely silent coming up on you, unlike skateboarders, and go pretty fast.
Ooooo, stealth bicyclists! A zillion years ago when my dad used to take me and my siblings on bike trails, we were taught to call "passing on your left!" or whatever in order to cut down on the surprise value, which I do do sometimes when I feel like being a dork, but a considerate dork.

The bicycle, then, seems to be an invention that both inconveniences people in vehicles both larger and smaller than it. Until I'm riding one around, I shall disapprove of it.
I'll bet I'd hate to get you started on motorcycles. :P

[majin157.livejournal.com]

As a complete coincidence, I want a motorcycle. The only problem is that if I get one, I'll be disinherited. And disowned. And quite possibly disembowled.