Mebbe he shouldn't be standing in the fucking bike lane when an oncoming cyclist is approaching... Just a thought.

Regardless of whether or not he was leaning into the cyclist's path, how do you promote bicycle safety by standing in the middle of the bike lane?

Physics defying? Not even gravity defying.... I do that very same move monthly just before I wipe out and tear up my face and elbows on the pavement after some douche swerves into the bike lane. Try it when you're wearing a shoulder sling and a 6"x6" lymph soaked gauze pad on your face.

Actually, to practice road ride, you MUST ride in a group. There is a huge group etiquette and not to mention learning to pass, take over, draft, follow etc can only be learned by actually doing it.

Most road groups like that ride on long stretches away from town. It's not like it's the end of the world to pass them, safely mind you, by waiting a good 30 seconds.

But you're right, roadies are lame. Fat Tire for life!

BTW, should be noted that most cycling experts will attest that most cycle lanes are more dangerous than not having them. Between all the road debris and poor maintenance, it's sometimes the worst place for us to be.

Which means I should also point out, that cycle lanes does not mean we're required by ANY law to use them. They are basically a courtesy for slower solo riders. In Florida they tried passing a requirement law, and it hit a lot of walls due to liability issues. If a cyclist is in the bike lane and there's an obstacle, and they hit it and get hurt, the city/state is completely 100% liable for any injuries or deaths.

And typical non-cyclist response. Nothing new to see here either.

All I see is a bunch of assholes who honk at me, try to hit me on purpose (one intentionally ran me over), and hundreds of people a day with absolutely no respect for someone else's life. And all that happened while in the bike lane. Oh, the guy who ran me over? He hit me because I WAS obeying traffic laws. Both the person behind him and the officer both concurred.

So yeah, nothing new to see here, right?

Politically, it's interesting; the Conservative Canadian provincial government forced liberal Toronto to merge with the surrounding conservative suburbs---Ford campaigned against bike lanes, mass transit, and taxes---and said he'd be "fiscally responsible"--(does this sounds familiar?)---Astonishingly, because the suburbs sort of hate liberal, progressive Toronto--he still has significant political support...

The same guy did the New York Bike Lanes video:

Skaters are just people who enjoy a sport. A skate park is a TERRIBLE place to let a tiny kid run around. It's like letting them run around on a bike lane.

Edit: I didn't realize it was a normal park. Knowing that, the skater did make a dumb ass mistake.

I grew up in an area where we didn't have a skate park but we always went to a business during their closed hours (the ones that allowed it) or buildings that had been abandoned. In most towns, places like malls and public parks would get the cops called instantly so I don't see why they even tried skating there.

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>> ^bovan:

I assume that was bike lanes which werent separated from the road?
Also, here in Norway.. people let you across the street if you want across.. noticed when I lived in Geneva that it was pretty much like playing Frogger, so I'm aware that things may be more dangerous in other countries..
>> ^Ryjkyj:
I know two people personally who have been riding their bikes in the bike lane when a truck drove up behind them and smashed the back of their head with an extended mirror.



I live in Portland, Oregon.

WTF bikes are the future? No, do not think so.

July Temperatures starting on the 18th and going to today(Keep it sort of short) In F and C.
101F 38C
105F 40C
107F 42C
101F 38C
98F 37C
97F 36C
101F 38C
101F 38C
98f 37C
103F 39C
105F 40C
103F 39C
106F 41C
106F 41C
107F 42C
104F 40C
102F 39C
103F 39C
104F 40C
104F 40C
101F 38C
108F 42C
101F 38C
100F 38C
105F 40C
104F 40C
106F 41C
101F 38C
91F 33C Rain and lightning.
Its about 22 miles or 35 Km To work. There are no bike lanes. The last person I knew who rode a bike to work spent 5 months in the Hospital after being hit by a drunk driver. Driver was an Illegal with no Insurance. I drive a 98 Honda Civic HX POS. But the AC works great.

I assume that was bike lanes which werent separated from the road?

Also, here in Norway.. people let you across the street if you want across.. noticed when I lived in Geneva that it was pretty much like playing Frogger, so I'm aware that things may be more dangerous in other countries..

>> ^Ryjkyj:

I know two people personally who have been riding their bikes in the bike lane when a truck drove up behind them and smashed the back of their head with an extended mirror.

I know two people personally who have been riding their bikes in the bike lane when a truck drove up behind them and smashed the back of their head with an extended mirror.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Very interesting, *quality video and discussion. I would say there is probably some under-reported aggression and violence in Japan- but in general a whole hell of a lot less than anywhere else I have lived. In 3.5 years there- never saw a fight, never saw any violence that I remember - there was one crazy guy who was running around yelling at people - but that's it. Violence by Yakuza does happen, but it seems aggrandised from films. I think Yakuza are mainly loan sharks, brothel owners and black marketeers.

For whatever reason, violence is baked into the US culture - tied in maybe with a rugged frontier individualist spirit. Americans love their guns. My family too. My dad always carried a nickel-plated '38 under his car seat, which he called his "merging assistance device".

>> ^legacy0100:

I would have to partly disagree on this one. I believe high density does attribute to more aggression. Dr. Frans de Waal points out that high density alone does not always lead to aggression, and that there are other factors that attribute to reconciliation and peaceful coexistence. This much I agree with. However, this should not be used to throw away the immense impact over population has on human aggression.
He gives several different examples, one including about the chimpanzees in tight confined space. I find his claims very hard to believe. Chimps get very frustrated and show abnormal, anti-social behavior when they are in a tight confined space for a long period of time. Their hairs fall out, they bite their own knuckles or even each other. They show aggression to inexperienced moms and to their babies. It could be that Dr. de Waal may be omitting some factors in here. The chimps he is referring to may be from a zoo where they are put in small confined space when it's time to goto sleep, but then are let out to a bigger enclosure where they can run and play. This may be a bad example, but we don't really know because he doesn't reveal the source of his data. Perhaps his research did confine the chimps to a tight space all throughout the experiment. If so, then the duration of dwelling in tight enclosure is a big factor, but he didn't cite anything about that either.
I also would like to point out that there's generally a lot less food intake and physical activity in urban Japanese society. Your typical Japanese sushi portions can testify for that, as well as various hikikomori symptoms people suffer in overly populated Japanese cities.
Dr. de Waal says there's less crime in Japan, but this simply isn't true. He is overly reliant on only the statistics reported by the government, and he isn't are of the deep rooted cultural practices that mask these aggressions to the outside world. Dr. De Waal never mentions about the various odd symptoms and personal sacrifice everyone must make in order to maintain the order there. Violence is everyday life in Japanese society, including the fairly well known presence of Yakuza. Japanese people often get bullied by the Yakuza, but they do not report these events because for one, they are afraid of retaliation, and two, Yakuza has deep rooted connections with the government. Yakuza usually do not engage anyone foreign simply because it would get the embassies involved, and they do cannot exert any influence in foreign lands. So they only stick to bullying Japanese people, and stay clear of foreigners. Even in high school physical violence is rampant. Students fight or bully each other all the time, but it is not seen as a crime, but merely 'part of growing up'. Nobody reports anything, so the crime data remains low.
Compare this with cities in Netherlands. It is highly populated, but enjoys abundance of resources thanks to laxed attitude toward drugs and sex, which are themselves ways to alleviate aggression. People in Netherlands are also very mobile because of their well developed transportation infrastructure including extensive bike lanes, roads and trains. They are also in close proximity to larger open areas in Germany or France where they regularly escape to thanks to their abundance in resource, while in Japan people are very much confined to their own living quarters and their workplace, who usually cannot afford to take frequent vacations due to high expectation from bosses as well as fierce competition towards promotion. Imagine regular US/UK office space antics times ten.
Overall I find Dr. de Waal's argument only partially credible and would like to look into his experiments and his citations before acknowledging this as fact.
I remember Dag and his wife saying they used to live in Japan. I would like to hear their opinion about this issue and Japanese society being used as proof to this theory.

I would have to partly disagree on this one. I believe high density does attribute to more aggression. Dr. Frans de Waal points out that high density alone does not always lead to aggression, and that there are other factors that attribute to reconciliation and peaceful coexistence. This much I agree with. However, this should not be used to throw away the immense impact over population has on human aggression.

He gives several different examples, one including about the chimpanzees in tight confined space. I find his claims very hard to believe. Chimps get very frustrated and show abnormal, anti-social behavior when they are in a tight confined space for a long period of time. Their hairs fall out, they bite their own knuckles or even each other. They show aggression to inexperienced moms and to their babies. It could be that Dr. de Waal may be omitting some factors in here. The chimps he is referring to may be from a zoo where they are put in small confined space when it's time to goto sleep, but then are let out to a bigger enclosure where they can run and play. This may be a bad example, but we don't really know because he doesn't reveal the source of his data. Perhaps his research did confine the chimps to a tight space all throughout the experiment. If so, then the duration of dwelling in tight enclosure is a big factor, but he didn't cite anything about that either.

I also would like to point out that there's generally a lot less food intake and physical activity in urban Japanese society. Your typical Japanese sushi portions can testify for that, as well as various hikikomori symptoms people suffer in overly populated Japanese cities.

Dr. de Waal says there's less crime in Japan, but this simply isn't true. He is overly reliant on only the statistics reported by the government, and he isn't are of the deep rooted cultural practices that mask these aggressions to the outside world. Dr. De Waal never mentions about the various odd symptoms and personal sacrifice everyone must make in order to maintain the order there. Violence is everyday life in Japanese society, including the fairly well known presence of Yakuza. Japanese people often get bullied by the Yakuza, but they do not report these events because for one, they are afraid of retaliation, and two, Yakuza has deep rooted connections with the government. Yakuza usually do not engage anyone foreign simply because it would get the embassies involved, and they do cannot exert any influence in foreign lands. So they only stick to bullying Japanese people, and stay clear of foreigners. Even in high school physical violence is rampant. Students fight or bully each other all the time, but it is not seen as a crime, but merely 'part of growing up'. Nobody reports anything, so the crime data remains low.

Compare this with cities in Netherlands. It is highly populated, but enjoys abundance of resources thanks to laxed attitude toward drugs and sex, which are themselves ways to alleviate aggression. People in Netherlands are also very mobile because of their well developed transportation infrastructure including extensive bike lanes, roads and trains. They are also in close proximity to larger open areas in Germany or France where they regularly escape to thanks to their abundance in resource, while in Japan people are very much confined to their own living quarters and their workplace, who usually cannot afford to take frequent vacations due to high expectation from bosses as well as fierce competition towards promotion. Imagine regular US/UK office space antics times ten.

Overall I find Dr. de Waal's argument only partially credible and would like to look into his experiments and his citations before acknowledging this as fact.

I remember Dag and his wife saying they used to live in Japan. I would like to hear their opinion about this issue and Japanese society being used as proof to this theory.