Share the road?

First I need to say that I have nothing against bicyclists. I ride a bike for fun but not for commuting. I'm just not completely green yet I guess.

I don't even mind sharing the road with bicyclists. They need to get places too. I do have a problem though with the bicyclists that don't feel the rules of the road and sharing don't apply to them.

Here in Washington most cities have designated bike lanes on the right side of the road next to the curb. I see them all over in my daily commute to and from work. Most bikes stay in their lane.

There's that occasional biker that rides in the road outside of the bike lane and holds up the car traffic because they think the lane designated for bikes doesn't apply to them somehow. These people are the same douche bags that will most likely end up a fixture in the grill of the Paisley's Subie. I did it before on a road trip with a few birds that didn't get out of the way soon enough. It's not called and Egg Crate grille for no reason folks!

There's a specific corner in our commute that has a free right and at least once a week there is one of these bike douches keeping us from making that free right because they're sitting on that corner waiting for the light to change. Move over!!! You're on a piece of light weight aluminum/titanium/carbon-fibre tubing that barely weighs 12-15 pounds and you can't move over a bit to let a 3000 lb car make a free right turn!!!!

Bicycles at lights is another issue. There are some (again the hardcore commuters) that don't wait for the light to change. They just cross the intersection when it's clear enough for them to go. Never mind that a car could come out of nowhere and toss them like a small boulder launching out of a catapult. Dumb asses.

A few years ago we had a bike come up on our right at a light and into the left turn lane and when it turned green, cut off the first car in line to make the light. Well when we made it through the intersection the Paisley put the window down and yelled at the biker that he should really obey the rules of the road. He wasn't going to have any of that. Next thing I know there's an angry biker coming up on my six to sweep up on my left and actually stuck his arm in our car and threatened us for telling him to obey the road rules!!! What a prat!!

Of course I pulled over and followed him at the snails pace and called the police. Do you know what those doughnut eating c***stains told me to do?! Pull over and wait for an officer to come to me! I told the dispatch that I could hand the phone over to my wife to let them know our direction of travel while I followed our biker, but they didn't want us to do that. I mean really. Use your common sense. It's not like bikes have license tags on them or that this biker was just going to provide me with his personal information as he's leaning in the car and threatening us. WTF!

Then there are the car slappers. You know, the ones that come up next to car and yell and slap the car when they think the driver hasn't shared the road or given proper right of way to the biker. What ever. I can promise that the first biker that slaps my car will be the last biker to slap my car.

I am a careful driver and I look out for bikes. This comes from being someone that has ridden motourcycles and knows just how dangerous it is out there for two-wheeled traffic.

If we're all careful then no one has to get rude and no one has to get hurt. I see it this way.........if bicyclists want to have cars share the road with them so bad then they should make sure that they are obeying the rules of the road and not pissing people off.

I think that bicyclists should also be paying for maintenance and up keep of the roads they use too. Gas is getting high (Washington state has one of the highest gas taxes in the nation, thank you) and the tabs for our plates are getting expensive as well.

There has actually been talk here in the Emerald City of imposing an annual $25 bicycle tax. Hey I can't make this one up. Read the article.

Seems ridiculous. I realise that we are in a severe economic recession right now, but taxing the shite out of us isn't going to solve that problem. On the other hand if bikers are paying a licensing fee annually then maybe they won't be assholes on the road and then whine about not be treated fairly.

Another Moment of Silence

The world has lost another great tv/film legend.

Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalban y Merino
November 25, 1920
January 14, 2009

Thanks for bringing us rich corinthian leather and being a thorn in Kirk's side.

Honesty for all

I didn't receive this award. The wife did this from another blogger and suggested that I should do it as well. So this little bit of honesty will bring some insight into my world for those of you that don't personally know me.

Write a list of ten honest things about yourself.

*I'll try to put some things in there that not many of my closest mates know about me.

1. When I was 18 I stole a sailboat from one of the local marinas with two other friends for a 4 hour joyride and when we brought it back, we helped ourselves to a wide variety of alcohol from other boats on the way back to the car.

2. As a kid I puked in church on some lady sitting in front of me.

3. I worked for a cemetery for one night as a telemarketer selling grave plots.

4. I was in the 1989 inaugural parade for the first President Bush (and so was the wife and my sister in law).

5. My best mate and I rode our bikes to the school in the middle of the nite one time, stripped off our underwear and hung it on the flagpole.

6. All my DVD's and CD's are in alphabetical/chronological order. When opened all the disc are facing upright and I know if someone has been messing around with them before opening them. It's very important that all the media stuff is in proper order.

7. I fed a teacher Ex-Lax chocolate chip cookies.

8. I've posed as a park ranger (uniform and all) with a classmate and we used our "borrowed uniforms and park ranger truck" to drive around to different parks in our area and confiscate alcohol for a party when we were not old enough to legally buy alcohol.

9. I worked on a zombie movie as boom mic operator, portable sound mixer operator, carpenter, production assistant, exec producer, casting extra, facilitator of zombie extras.

10. I'm becoming addicted to tattoos and want to start working on a sleeve.

*side note to the 1st truth: we did not drink and drive. It's worded a bit funny and could be taken that we did. We hid all the alcohol in the car (good thing too since our cars were searched that nite) and drank our treasure when we got back home. As someone who has been hit (head on) by a drunk driver, I do not endorse driving under the influence of anything at any time!

I too am not going to tag anyone. If you read this and want to do the meme feel free. Leave me a comment so I can go check out your post!