Funny Pics II: The Revenge

[BoloOfEarth]

39 minutes ago, aylwin13 said:

As long as the @#!%%$*&@ drivers keep their %%$(##$% cars out of them!

 

I can't believe how many people use the line of the bike lane as a guide for their vehicle. 

 

In fairness, I see a lot of bicyclists doing the same thing, as if their wheels need to be on the line, not to the right of it.  Although this is the Ann Arbor, MI area, where pedestrians have always laughed at crosswalks, bicyclists seem to outnumber cars lately, and drivers are, well, Michigan drivers so the expletives noted above most likely apply as well.

[Cygnia]

[Old Man]

2 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

In fairness, I see a lot of bicyclists doing the same thing, as if their wheels need to be on the line, not to the right of it.  Although this is the Ann Arbor, MI area, where pedestrians have always laughed at crosswalks, bicyclists seem to outnumber cars lately, and drivers are, well, Michigan drivers so the expletives noted above most likely apply as well.

 

IME the bicyclists who do that are afraid of being doored.  Or they're inconsiderate assholes.  One or the other.

 

I'm slightly more sympathetic to idiot cyclists, who are suicidal, than to idiot drivers, who are homicidal.  Not that this excuses anyone.

[Duke Bushido]

4 hours ago, L. Marcus said:

Bike lanes are your friends!

 

We have more miles of paved road than any other nation, and quite possibly the least amount of bike lanes. 

 

It's maddening, particularly if you understand that a bicycle _is_ a legitimate vehicle (and  by and large, as a nation, we don't.  We have a similar problem with viewing motorcycles as "toys.")   But if the  bikes could stay to the side and obey actual traffic laws, we can make it work. 

 

This, of course, goes back to the fact that for the most part, even the people riding them don't think of them as vehicles.   

[archer]

I don't have a lot of experience in cities which have bike lanes. But when visiting Colorado Springs, they seemed to have taken already very narrow city streets and to have painted a bike lane on either side.

 

I don't know how drivers are supposed to stay in their assigned lanes because they're so small.

 

Also, many of the streets have a steep slope from center to the sides. So the bike lane is slanted very steeply in many places. 

 

I like the idea of bike lanes. But I think you have to design the streets from the start to make them work rather than putting them on streets where having them looks actively dangerous.

 

https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2013/01/13

[Cancer]

Well, the tendency of US auto manufacturers making vehicles whose models invariably get larger from year to year, because thers's more profit in big cars than small ones, is no small cause for this problem.

[dougmacd]

4 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

In fairness, I see a lot of bicyclists doing the same thing, as if their wheels need to be on the line, not to the right of it.  Although this is the Ann Arbor, MI area, where pedestrians have always laughed at crosswalks, bicyclists seem to outnumber cars lately, and drivers are, well, Michigan drivers so the expletives noted above most likely apply as well.

 

As a cyclist who prefers not being hit by cars, I'll note "Far too many cyclists, motorists and enforcement officers believe that cyclists need to ride as far to the right as possible, in order to allow a motorist to use the same lane. Neither history nor law support this."

https://cyclingsavvy.org/cycling-law/

 

As someone who doesn't want to derail a humor thread, do you seriously think cyclists are going to stop just because it gets cold?

 

 

Doug

I'll commute as long as it's dry and above freezing... and not a pandemic.

[Cygnia]

[Ockham's Spoon]

My two cents on the bicycle debate, in the form of a comic just to keep the thread on track:

 

 

I used to bike to work, but after several near misses and incident that left me with several stitches and a bad case of road rash I have given it up 🙁

[Duke Bushido]

2 hours ago, dougmacd said:

 

As a cyclist who prefers not being hit by cars, I'll note "Far too many cyclists, motorists and enforcement officers believe that cyclists need to ride as far to the right as possible, in order to allow a motorist to use the same lane. Neither history nor law support this."

https://cyclingsavvy.org/cycling-law/

 

Two things:

 

This is from the link you provided:

 

Quote

The legality of defensive driving

Bicycle-specific laws vary from state to state. A few states have no law governing bicyclist position within a lane. Others have a variation of a law known as “FTR” or far to the right. The language may vary slightly from state to state, but most are similar to the original UVC version:

UVC 11-1205: Position on the Roadway

a) Any person operating a bicycle or a moped upon a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic … shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following conditions:

1. When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.
2. When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or driveway.
3. When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions including but not limited to: fixed or moving objects; parked or moving vehicles; bicycles; pedestrians; animals; surface hazards; or substandard width lanes that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge. For the purpose of this section, a “substandard width lane” is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and motor vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.
4. When riding in a right-turn-only lane.

b) Any person operating a bicycle or a moped upon a one-way highway with two or more marked traffic lanes may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of such roadway as practicable. Same exceptions apply.

 

 

 

Which suggests some precedent for riding to the right.

 

_However_, law or not, knowing that you're sharing a lane with engine-powered multi-ton vehicles traveling at speeds which very few human-powered machines can sustain, I would think more cyclists would want to at least pick a track and stay there as opposed to dance around like an eel on a hot skillet.  Or...  well, you know:  not wear your ninja suit when riding two hours before sunrise precisely on top of the dotted white line.

 

 

2 hours ago, dougmacd said:

 

As someone who doesn't want to derail a humor thread, do you seriously think cyclists are going to stop just because it gets cold?

 

I don't know where you live, but I see it every year.  The same guys who are comfy pumping pedals at 109degrees in 98 percent humidity seem to be considerably less comfy doing it in 26 degree weather at 30 percent humidity.  The only two types of people still riding around here when it cools off are serious "this is my vehicle" enthusiasts, who-- year round-- tend to ride a whole lot smarter and more predictably than the masses.  These folks don't bother me at all, as I've never felt that they were putting themselves in danger or creating a traffic issue: they ride like they have brains.

 

I think we have four of those guys in this entire county, though.

 

The other type is the guys who are riding on the sidewalk in their steel-toed work boots, waiting for their DUI suspension to pass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, dougmacd said:

 

 

Doug

I'll commute as long as it's dry and above freezing... and not a pandemic.

 

 

Above?  Really?   Seriously:  I'm not a bicycle expert.  I just figured with the right clothing, etc, you'd stay comfortable.  I do it on my motorcycles down to well below fre---

 

Oh!

 

You live in an "ice on the road actually happens" state, don't you?   

 

 

That makes sense.

 

 

[Duke Bushido]

3 hours ago, Cancer said:

Well, the tendency of US auto manufacturers making vehicles whose models invariably get larger from year to year, 

 

 

Smaller.

 

they get smaller from year to year.  Not just measurably, but _visibly_.  Fortunately for bicyclists, there's a considerable amount of "narrower" involved in that.

 

When I bought the Leviathan, I had been driving a truck that had three full "butt sculpts" in the bench seats.  The Leviathan has two, and a half-one between them.

 

The last time I went truck shopping (I try to replace my truck every twenty years, wether it needs it or not   ), a "full-sized" truck had exactly two butt sculpts and just barely enough room to fold an arm rest between them.

 

Seriously: I don't know if you have the chance regularly, but lay a tape measure across any vehicle that has been in production for years-- they are all much narrower than they were, and getting moreso.  It goes back to the imperative to increase mileage, etc; I get the value of that.  But I don't get the value of a "crew cab" that won't actually fit a crew.  😕

 

Another way to think about it (as far as trucks go):

 

When you were a kid, the wheel wells inside the bad were _massive_.  An adult could sit comfortable on one.  Today, they are barely a flare in the inner wall of the bed.  At once time, you knew you had thirteen inches of "space" in front of and behind that wheel well should you have a stack of plywood or drywall in the bed.  Today you have (depending slightly on brand) about five inches of space there.  You also don't have 52-1/2" between those wheel wells the way you used to.  In the seventies, that dropped to about 50", depending on brand, 49.5.  In the nineties, that dropped to 48.75.  Today, if you have one of those plastic bed liners, you're going to catch grief wedging 48" sheet goods in there.  They'll fit, but you'll work for it.

 

When we bough the wife's car-- last year?  Has it been two years yet?-- I was actually truck shopping.  I was so disgusted by what was passing as a "full sized truck bed" that we just bought her car.   I'm going to have to trade up for a plan we have down the road, but for now, I just can't reconcile the fact that a full sized pick-up truck is slowly (and stupidly) becoming taller than it is wide.  I say "stupidly," because I buy them to work out of.  When you decide the bed needs to go from 16-18 inches deep for 28" deep, it gets harder to reach into them.  Then, for whatever reason, the floor of the bed needs to come up to my hips.....   It makes it extremely difficult to work out of them, and I'm just a smidge over six foot tall!  It's ridiculous.

 

 

Oh-- sorry.   Anyway, cars are getting smaller, and have been since the late seventies.  Compare the "midsized" Ford Granada of old to a freakin' Cadillac today.  It's sad.   It's the whole reason the SUV craze happened:  people come in the same size they used to, and were tired of wedging themselves into increasingly-more-cramped cars to go wherever they needed to go.

 

 

 

[Cancer]

I'll look.  It's been half-dozen years since I've shopped for a car.  The fraction of vehicles on the road that are SUVs is noticeably higher now than it was then, which I notice in my sedan as the clear sightlines in traffic become an increasingly infrequent thing, once overall vehicle count on the road is controlled for.

 

And as a former Ranger owner, I Do Not Like the latest thing to bear that name. 

[Duke Bushido]

7 minutes ago, Cancer said:

I'll look.  It's been half-dozen years since I've shopped for a car.  The fraction of vehicles on the road that are SUVs is noticeably higher now than it was then, which I notice in my sedan as the clear sightlines in traffic become an increasingly infrequent thing, once overall vehicle count on the road is controlled for.

 

And as a former Ranger owner, I Do Not Like the latest thing to bear that name. 

 

 

Heh heh heh....

Have you seen what they've done to the Bronco?   

 

Here's a hint:  They built it on that new Ranger.

My last Ranger was a '74, back when it was simply a trim package for a full-sized Ford Truck (just like Explorer and Expedition, actually).

 

 

[Old Man]

[BoloOfEarth]

I apologize for adding to the bicycle debate, which I agree has no place in a Funny Pics thread.  And further discussion should be moved to a different thread.

 

In the spirit of this thread...

 

[Starlord]

[Lord Liaden]

It needs to take a stand.

[Pariah]

I'm two-tired to keep up with this debate any more.

[Pariah]

[Cancer]

Not sure that counts as funny.  That could be the flagship start to a new thread titled "QFT".

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[Starlord]

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[Ternaugh]

21 minutes ago, Logan.1179 said:

 

Which brings to mind this:

 

 

[dmjalund]

38 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

 

Which brings to mind this:

 

 

"Video Unavailable"