Gas prices....look at them again. They were falling nicely. "Were" being the operative word here. Four days ago, I got gas for 3.93.9/gal and yesterday it was 4.15.9/gal, today it's even more IDB'd. http://kezi.com/news/local/246583 Someone's making serious bank at our expense. bendover Opie! We're being punked dudes.
Get ready for it folks, this Greek/Eurozone thing is about to throw the markets down the shitter. One financial guy I'm friends with put it best: "Pull out in May, and then go away..."
Right now, it's being blamed on "refinery issues". I'm glad I don't live on the West Coast, to which this spike is confined. For now. It's all because of BP again. They are the third largest refinery on the west coast, and they're shut down because of a fire, so they had to buy gas on the wholesale market to cover their contractual obligations, aka "the gas that commodities traders had already bought." Which reminds me, I am anxiously waiting for my new frame-fit airpump, rear rack, and M-Wave Daytripper panniers for my bicycle... I love my bicycle, even though I feel myself risking my very life every time, in this near-urban traffic. I have developed the mental art of extreme zen-like patience, waiting for the absolute safe time to cross lanes of traffic. 10 minutes standing in one spot is nothing for me now! and I STILL manage to get to the grocery store/library/wal-mart and back in 3/2 (yes three halves, not two thirds!) of the time it took me when I went by automobile. The fact that I carry fewer groceries is offset by the fact that more frequent trips cost nothing while improving my health.
Well...my kids can't get out of school fast enough for my liking right now! Once school and soccer are done for the kids for the year, I plan on biking or jogging almost everyday to work. I figure that should save me $80/week on gas for my Acadia. Although gas did drop a whole 0.7 cents/litre here last week! /sarcasm
Biking in an urban environment is dangerous, but in the urban-to-rural transition, the burbs? That shit is suicidal. I like my bike, but it's not feasible for commuting in my area at all.
I'm 2.9 miles from the office and it's a straight line with probably the least amount of lights I've ever seen on a "major" city road. Our office is just on the fringe of downtown, so if I go to the office early enough in the morning (like leave at 7:15am), I'll be there in no time at all because there's very little traffic that early in the morning, and I'll be able to leave early enough in the afternoon before rush hour hits. And if I die, well....my wife is wealthy and debt free.
I wasn't really joking about the "risking my life" part! For the most part, the roads from my house have wide paved shoulders and lead to side roads that are lesser traveled and still get me where I want to go. There are some pinch areas though, such as roads with narrow/no shoulder and vertical curbs, and multi-lane intersections, that can really stress me out during periods of high traffic. Zen-like waiting skills are a boon at times like this. My only real worry is the broken glass shards from the rednecks tossing their empties out the window, and from the fender-benders in the area. I have kevlar-belted Maxxis Overdrive tires, but still... Oh, and speaking of insanely dangerous, doesn't this look like an awful accident impatiently waiting to happen? This thing isn't a joke or a one-off, either! It's an actual production model cargo bike!
It's a West Coast thing. Denver is higher than it should be as we usually have a surplus that they can't move to other states but prices are still dropping around here.
Here, it's not so much bikes as it is ATVs (Quads) and people rolling them over. The latest: a group of people in northern saskatchewan are on an ATV excursion, with kids in child seats (meant for cars) strapped to the back of the ATVs, and of course, one of the ATVs with a child flips, pinning the child under water in a ditch. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...hild-atv-upside-down-slough-crash-120510.html I 'd rather NOT bike with my kid attached. That's why I'm teaching my kids how to ride their own bikes.
The Amish are starting to look like they have the right plan man. Horses are dirt cheap right now too. I could move my tools around in one of these: Just throw a lumber rack on that puppy, and I'm good to go! :wink:
Gas prices here haven't changed, infact they've gotten a little lower. $3.79 for 87. Bicycles are great and all, and I have no problem with riders if they follow the rules of the road. Which brings me to say that probably 4 out of 5 bicyclists I see on the road, do not. They go right through 4 way stops, ride down the center line, some actually ride in the lane of traffic like they are a fucking car. Infact just the other day, I was sitting in the left lane at a stop light, on a 4 lane boulevard. I look at the lane to my right, and some stuck-up hipster type pulls up on his bicycle, stopping short of the light, directly in the lane. A truck pulls up behind him and taps the horn, he looks back with his snobby face and shakes his head in disgust at the driver. The driver of the truck didn't give any response, just kept looking forward. The guy on the bike turned forward for maybe 10 seconds, then turns back around and says "I don't need to please you... I don't need to please you"; the driver of the truck again does nothing. Light turns green and he starts taking off, and since I was in a good mood I said "get out of the road asshole!" to him. At that point he looked at me in disgust, but I figured maybe if two people acknowledged he was in the wrong, that he would move over to the shoulder. Didn't happen.
Because he wasn't wrong. Unless things are different in Chi-town bicycles, have the same rights on the road.
So a bicycle can ride directly in the driving lane of a 45mph road? Doesn't sound right to me. I know residential streets are okay, but I thought main roads were off-limits; that's why they have bike lanes. I think I'll have to look this one up...
i know right, falling prices during summer is unheard of, i was jumping with joy! Then today, 3.90 for premium, i was like.. WTF happened? They dick around with us for the hell of it. Glad i only live 5mi from work. I told myself, i dont care how good the job is, im not driving more than 10miles to work, EVER. I hate driving, i hate paying at the pump, and i hate putting pointless miles on my car. I spend $10 a week on gas, that gives me a quarter tank.. thats all i need, unless i have an emergency. a quarter tank is IT, if im out of gas, then oh well, i just stay my ass at home. FUCK EM.
The highest price place in town, which, by the way, is the station all the city owned (police, fire, building dept. etc) vehicles fill up at.
i don't know WTF happened either, but prices here jumped from 3.69 to 3.89 back down to 3.69 within 24 hours.
If there's a bike lane they should be in it, however to make left turns they'll have to cross over into traffic. And 45 mph is the speed limit unfortunately, not what traffic should be going, and MattDev or someone who's more into biking than myself should jump in here but pretty sure bikes on the road can rock at least 25-35.
Left turn lanes are the bane of bicycling! At high-traffic intersections, I will do right turns to go to a place to do a left turn more safely, then come back to go straight ahead. My new bike rack and panniers just came in today... before my airpump, which was shipped two days before this, and from Illinois instead of Kentucky. I do have to wonder where my airpump went. New rack is higher up and lighter than the old rack, and that with the pannier design keeps my heels from bag-whacking while I peddle. Parts of the construction of that rack, I find a tad "iffy", but I hope it won't be a real problem, calling for some "thereIfixedIt" love...
Bike laws here in Ohio are that bikes are to obey all of the normal traffic laws, stop lights, signalling, etc. And are to "take the lane", which in the Ohio revised code is described as being in the lane but as far to the right as is safe. So Smersh is probably right, the guy had every right to be in the lane like that. Had he pulled further to the side the truck, and you, and probably everybody else would have crowded in beside him causing a safety issue. Like it or not the guy has a right to be there... That said, bike laws are horribly out of date. Here in Ohio at least they were written at a time when the competing mode of traffic was the horse and buggy. And of those laws the guys that ride bikes around here at least don't know or don't obey. Blowing stop signs, riding up on the sidewalk and going through the crosswalk, riding 2-3 (or 4!) side-by-side, etc. And then you get douchey behavior like the guy you described. If the bikers obeyed the current laws I wouldn't have such a negative attitude toward them. And it's apparently pretty universal, which is why you see stuff like this: [video=youtube;UgA6Uo1n17w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgA6Uo1n17w[/video]
Whine? just wait until Brown gets his way. the diference between here and there is only taxes. Minimum 5.50/gal in store for cali. with 15% more income tax (I just pulled that figire out of my ass but given the state deficit, it's realistic enough) and a big bump in sales tax. For those of us that are suckin small tits, that kind of extra outgo has to come from something else like groceries. Glad I don't live down there.
If that is true, then yes the laws do need to be revised. I always thought that any vehicle driving on a public road had to be registered. The majority of bikes I see locked up outside buildings and such do not have registration. Oh, which brings me to another story... driving downtown today, a bus was trying to move from the shoulder back on to the road. Was about to merge, 2 guys on bikes rode up on the side so he had to stop (extremely dangerous), and then proceeded to ride through the red light. Made me think about this thread. I'm keeping my stance with: law or not, my car is heavier, bigger, and faster, keep the fuck out of my way.
