| rev:text
| - Before you flame me for one-starring this magnificent valley park, please note: this review is ONLY for the BICYCLE and BICYCLE-RIDERS in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. (And this park, for the record, is one of the three or four reasons I returned to Ohio. That's how much I love this place, and is also the reason I'm reviewing only the BIKES and BIKE-RIDERS in the Park. Clear?)
I know every little crook and nanny of this valley, from before it was anything other than a few scattered farming communities. Grew up canoeing down the polluted river downstream of the Akron Sewer... errr... "Treatment" Plant, worked night snow crew through high school at the Midget Hills of Boston Mills, know all the lakes, the lanes, the falls, the hiding places. Helped move some of the homes out for families that were run out... uh... "relocated" when the park came in. My family has lived in this valley since 1825, so yeah. It's my park.
Now, you Bikists? Hear this: I ride a bike, on trails, on the road, used to commute by bike so I know how tough it can be riding on the road. People in cars have little respect for bikes: they crowd you, they ignore you, they toss insults, and sometimes worse, your way. I get it. I'm one of you, for the love of Ivan Basso.
But the Bikists. Those people who are just SO certain that they, in a greater global sense, are doing the right thing, and that cars are doing the WRONG thing, that they disregard a few things. Safety. Courtesy. Common sense. The laws of both man and physics.
Riding two, or three, or more abreast.
Rolling blindly through intersections, stop signs, railroad crossings.
Blocking intersections (again, two or more abreast) waiting to make a turn.
Stopping in the middle of the road to adjust equipment, or sip water, or text message.
I'm not the guy out for a leisurely drive in the country. I'm working. I have to drive from job to job, and I have customers on both sides of the valley, as well as a few IN the valley. I don't honk. I don't crowd. When I pass I pass by getting way over in the oncoming lane, just in case you swerve or fall or decide to dismount in the middle of the road. (I'm using real-world examples I've witnessed so far THIS year. I didn't even honk waiting for the left-turning couple blocking the entire intersection through the traffic light change. But I do despise you both, you sanctimonious twits. )
I know, I know. That's not how YOU ride. Sure. You're the guy riding single-file, stopping at intersections, using hand signals. (When was the last time you saw a hand signal? Really?) Okay, let's just go with that. It ain't you, it's every other rider. But you're not off the hook. Because you KNOW these guys. You RIDE with these guys. You TALK with these guys, work with them, buy stuff at the same shops.
Here's what you do: Call them on this behavior. Explain that, unless the road is closed for a race, you can NOT ride in a peloton. Remind that, on the road, bicycles and cars follow the same laws. Suggest that my four-ton service truck trumps their carbon-fiber frame by a factor of thousands-to-one. Ask them to take their responsibilities and lives more seriously.
Thanks in advance.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)