Biking on the Road

Eveon said:
I have to say that I hate wearing a helmet. ( On a bike anyways). They really don't protect you. I mean they only cover the top of your head, and you're not going to land directly on top of your head, even if you do, your neck would be broken. It is very possible to land on your face, but even then your hands will most likely break your fall. The front of the helmet wont help too much. I personally think helmets are a scam for money. ( I think motorcycle helmets, etc are good, though .) Of course, this is just my opinion.
You seem a bit contradictory here. Mabye you think that bicycle helmets are scams? The sad truth is that you really should wear a helmet (and if you think bicycle helmets are useless and you're willing to soil a bit of your public image, wear a motorcycle helmet while riding a bicycle). It's insurance at the core, though not with the umbrella policy. The ski helmet case is just one example, and you want to wait until there's a famous case concerning bicycles too?
 
Eveon said:
Yes, I meant bicycle helmets are a scam.
They're no scam. They're just cheap and don't offer full protection. Still, they do offer a number of protection from angles. You could choose to wear one or take the small-but-fatal risk. No one's going to stop you.
 
When my dad was a kid he was biking and if it weren't for his helmet he would have died. The helmet saved him. They are not a scam.
 
The reason why people don't usually ride on the path is because you constantly have to swerve around people/lamp posts/etc and it's dangerous for both parties. It slows you down a great deal because you have to be extra careful. You're not going to average over 10 mph easily if you're travelling on paths.

Helmets have saved the lives of many people I know. If you don't want to wear one then fine, but I heavily recommend them.
 
As long as a biker is following road rules, I have no problem with them being on the road. Sure, I get slightly annoyed when I have to go around a biker, but I can't get made at them or anything. They have every right to be there. What I hate is when bikers think they own the road and don't have to follow rules. One time I was driving down this street that had stop signs at every intersection. And this biker in front of me would ride straight through them, not even slowing down. Well, I got ahead of him later down the road. I turned on my blinker to turn right at the next sign and stopped. Then when I started turning this guy speeds right through the sign and just about slams into the side of my car. I wish he would have, maybe he would have been more cautious after that -____-
 
I wish city gov'ts would pay to have bike lanes built along roads, or at the very least, sidewalks. I bike all the time and it irritates me that I have to ride my bike on the road when there is no paved shoulder or sidewalk because yes, it is dangerous. Cars swerve too far out of the way to avoid the bicyclist, going almost halfway into the other lane. As a driver, I don't get my undies in a bunch when I see a cyclist on the road because I can put myself in their shoes. I'm sure they don't like it any better than the car drivers.
 
Visit the Netherlands. Well, I wouldn't recommend going by bike, rather take a plane. We have bicycle paths on almost every road, and even if there isn't one, the cyclist is required to cycle on the right, as far as they could. In other words; just pretend there is a bicycle path, even if there isn't one. Perhaps an idea to introduce in the US? It would drastically lower accidents if cyclists are free to ride where they want. Also, it is banned to cycle on the sidewalk here. These rules might seem weird, but guess what, they work. On the other hand however, I'm quite sure we have more bicycles than people in the Netherlands, so it's somewhat logical that everything is organized well.

And we luckily we aren't required to wear those helmets, they make you look stupid :)
 
OHMAIGOD! Me and my buddy were just comming home from the pool, and there were people biking in the road, so her mom slowed down and told them to get out of the road. So they did, for a second. Then got back in the road. So she stopped and went at them, yes, with the car. One of them looked like they were about to cry. XD. We're now freaking out because they saw the turn we took to her house...END BIKING IN TH ROAD!
 
If some of these areas would actually take the time to make the streets more bike friendly, then perhaps less people would be biking in the road. The town I went to college in was quite bike friendly, and there were bike lanes everywhere. There was even a nice trail for walking/biking that I used quite a bit for exercise.

Now that I've graduated and I'm back home, I'm in a town that's not bike friendly at all. Heck, most of the roads here don't even have sidewalks, so if you're gonna bike, you're gonna be in the road. However, there's a towpath trail here as well, It's not hard for those of us in a car to slow down for a minute until there's a break to get around a biker. They are just as welcome in the road as cars are.
 
bacon said:
The reason why people don't usually ride on the path is because you constantly have to swerve around people/lamp posts/etc and it's dangerous for both parties. It slows you down a great deal because you have to be extra careful. You're not going to average over 10 mph easily if you're travelling on paths.

Helmets have saved the lives of many people I know. If you don't want to wear one then fine, but I heavily recommend them.

This, I bike frequently and use it as my main way of traveling into town and if I were to use the side walk it would take literally 3 times as long to still arrive safely. I seriously don't understand the OP because all the bikes i have seen stay to the left (Australia) of the road and don't suddenly swerve into traffic without using clear hand signals.

Bwaaaa
 
My mom is constantly swerving out of the way for bikes, going into the opposite lane. It is usually on a mountainous road to church which scares me because it makes lots of turns. It is very dangerous for cars and bikes alike.
I have a story that was in the news that I will say later because it's long and I'm on my iTouch.
 
I used to wanna all the time, I thought it'd be so fun going down steep hills and on treacherous paths.

Then I stopped biking because life began again, and I'm a few sizes too big for my bike, but none the less, I still feel it woulda been fun. But, when I drive past people biking, I definitely merge over a little bit... but then I get scared I'll hit a car coming in the same direction. I just usually hope for that situation to never happen regularly. Haha.
WP
 
ZoruaSnivyluver said:
I usually bike on the sidewalk, but also on the curb, because cars shouldn't be on the curb, and people will usually be on the sidewalk, or in the grass.

How do you bike on the curb? Unless the curbs in your area are very wide, that doesn't sound like it would even be possible (for long periods of time at least.) Unless that's not what you meant...

Other than that, I think that it's fine for cyclists to be on the road as long as they're not being stupid and doing stuff like biking in the middle of the road, on the wrong side, or side by side on a narrow road.
 
I really don't think people should bike on the road. I mean in my neighborhood people can be so careless. I think riding on the sidewalk is much safer.
 
I personally come from New York, and while the boroughs are doing a somewhat decent job at listening to people's cries for bike lanes in new places (whether or not they actually happen is completely different, at the rate the city gets things done it could take 15 years to mark down 15 feet of extra asphalt -_-), ever since I've moved out to Long Island, there's so little infrastructure for things like bike lanes it's like living in the wilderness. And aside from biking for leisure, Long Island has laughable public transportation to begin with, so it's really unfair, especially for people who commute locally on bike or foot (the group is not small at all), to accept cars as the only objects that exist on the road. Trying to find bike racks is even worse. I walk/bike to and from school if I can't get a ride, and I bike around to run personal errands too, sometimes distances of 10-15+ miles roundtrip if I have to, and yeah sure, it might be scenic and calm for the first ten minutes in a residential area, but it's such a pain in the neck to be squished inches by cars moving at 30+ mph as soon as you hit a major turnpike (plus it takes forever to wait at the intersection in a 4+ lane road…), and I've came pretty close quite a few times, both at the faults of myself and drivers. Like this past Monday, I was riding home from Target, and the traffic was so bad at some points that I was out until 10PM, pitch-black in the middle of a lightning storm, hoping that people would at least notice my reflectors and slow down a tiny bit (because believe me, I'm not 1% that gutsy to be in perfect shape during a situation like that, haha). Albeit I don't bike in the road completely most of the time (I bike where I'm supposed to outside the white line), but it's still really close between the lanes and the rest of the road, like a foot or two on some roads, there's simply not enough pavement to go on. There aren't many sidewalks around where I live, but in more populated/trafficked areas where there are sidewalks, there's usually nobody on them, so I'll take sidewalks, cut across parking lots, and do whatever I have to in order to minimize the time getting from A to B. If I'm just riding around for the heck of it though, I'll just stay close to home where there aren't many cars, or sometimes I'll even take paths in the woods, so it's never really been a problem for me there.
 
I personally against biking and driving cars. I use public transportation for get to class and other places. Ever since I have started riding the bus and train, my life is improved very a lot. With public transportation, I'm really going places ;) lololol

always riding of the bus,
hatedisc
 
It was extremely annoying when this biker didn't know what he was doing and caused all the cars to back up an entire street.
 
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