Bikers on Roads

[CySmitty]

Phaedrus it's kind of funny you say that. From my POV I hate riding my bicycle on bike tails. In my opinion they are the stupidest thing ever. I have almost be killed too many times by people that don't know how to ride a bike straight.

Riding my bike here in Taiwan makes me really dread coming back to the states. It so much easier over here. The cars are actually looking for you.

 

[Phaedrus]

Phaedrus it's kind of funny you say that. From my POV I hate riding my bicycle on bike tails. In my opinion they are the stupidest thing ever. I have almost be killed too many times by people that don't know how to ride a bike straight.

Riding my bike here in Taiwan makes me really dread coming back to the states. It so much easier over here. The cars are actually looking for you.

I rode in Europe. Roughly analogous.

But riding on country roads in Iowa seems to be fairly high risk. Just don't get the pollyanna attitude most bicyclists here have toward riding in Iowa.

 

[dmclone]

Here is my opinion on the situation, if the speed is under 45mph than I'm fine with bikes sharing the road. Any road with a speed limit of 45mph or over should not allow bikes. Similar to how there is a minimum on interstates, there should be a minimum on rural roads. A lot of people talk about bikes in Europe but most of the time those bikes are being ridden in areas with low speed. There is just too much of a difference in speed for bikes to ride safely on fast roads. It's not just bicycles, if a grandma is doing 20mph in her Buick than she also should be ticketed.

 

[ekim121]

They weren't riding single file? It's too bad someone had to get hurt, but common sense tells you that if you are exposed on an open road with thousands of pounds of metal traveling at high velocities, you gotta look out for yourself just a little bit. Take some responsibility.

You conveniently omitted the part where they mentioned being in a pace line. Do you know what that is? More than likely the rider who was hit was pulling, which means riding at the front of the line, and was peeling off/falling to the back of the line when he was two abreast with the rider writing that piece. Riding in a group at the pace they were riding is like a reverse Indian run. One person takes a stint at the front, then rotates all the way to the back and so on throughout the ride as its about 25% more strenuous to be in front.

Additionally, the greater point is that the cyclists have the same right to the road that a tractor headed to the field would have. I would think its nearly certain that the farmer pulling the tanks wouldn't have flipped out about being stuck behind a tractor until the next straight stretch of road.

 

[kilgore_trout]

"We're very frustrated. We're very frustrated because this is the third friend of mine who's been hit this year," said Ruhtenberg.

Bikers Plan Rally After Weekend Crash - Des Moines News Story - KCCI Des Moines

Note to self: Biking on the open road is astonishingly dangerous.

 

[Phaedrus]

You know the cool thing about German laws? The theoretical guy in the tractor has to pull over at the first opportunity to let faster traffic pass. Otherwise, if he's hit from behind, he gets nailed for at least part of the fault.

No such sanction for bicyclists, who often choose the road over the bike path mere inches from the road.

 

[redrocker]

Why is it we accept slowing down and passing safely for a tractor but not for bicycles? Tractors take up the whole road....damn be to the tractors too?

Go ahead and run into a tractor or a combine and see what happens to you:wink:. I think you will come out on the bad end of things.

 

[Clonegrad07]

SHARE THE ROAD! We pay taxes too and having a bike on the side of the road isn't bad. You're in a car... get over and be attentive.

It's dumb if these guys weren't riding single file on roads, but you all need to understand that the road is for anyone who wants to use them. Are you going to tell people who are walking or running on the road to stop too? No! Share the road.

 

[dmclone]

SHARE THE ROAD! We pay taxes too and having a bike on the side of the road isn't bad. You're in a car... get over and be attentive.

It's dumb if these guys weren't riding single file on roads, but you all need to understand that the road is for anyone who wants to use them. Are you going to tell people who are walking or running on the road to stop too? No! Share the road.

If you just ride bikes you don't pay gas tax.

 

[Cyclonesrule91]

The other day I am driving somewhere and a couple bikers pull in front of my turning off a side street and then stay in the middle of the road like they own the damn thing and would not get over to the side of the road so people could pass. They deserve an *** kicking.

I don't know what happened in Winterset but I am sure there are 50 versions of the story. If the guy was pulling two NH3 tanks up or down the hills in that area and they were full, if he was going up a hill he might have problems getting them up hill depending on what he had for a truck. Maybe they were going down hill and with all the weight that load can be a big problem to stop when you have two tanks weighing 8-12 ton combined pushing a 6000 lbs truck down the hill while trying to brake and do so controllably. Maybe that explains the horn and flying by so fast, but go ahead and assume he was an ******* farmer pissed off at the world.

It is motorists job to respect the bicyclist I agree, but the bicyclist need to show common sense and need to respect the automobiles a whole lot more.........because the odds are not in their favor of winning the outcome just like what happened here.

Use common sense instead of going 25-30 mph on a road with a 55 mph speed limit and all the while act like your entitled to the whole thing.

 

[clones_jer]

If you just ride bikes you don't pay gas tax.

yeah, he lives in Iowa and ONLY rides bikes - good one.

I don't get what's so hard? You wouldn't clip Grandma in the car in front going 20 in a 55. Just pull around them - IN THE OTHER LANE - like any other legal pass with any other type of vehicle.

And Phad, tractors at fault in Iowa? comeon now.

everybody, shut your eyes and calm yourself for a second. A bike is just a small slow moving car driven by people that are way to into spandex. Just pull in the other lane with significant space available and where passing is legal. Make the pass, then forget about it or you're all going to die of stress. And maybe, just imagine the guy on that bike is a fellow Cyclone with a wife and four month old at home and he'd like to make it back to see them - slow down just a little bit. Much as I'm sure you slow down if there were kids playing in a yard near a roadway.

everyone can be friends. ... well unless you're a Somali pirate.

 

[Gink]

Iowa laws says you must go entirely over the center line and leave the lane to pass.

So it really shouldn't matter how much of the lane the bicycles are taking up.

You have to leave the lane to pass.

 

[clones_jer]

Iowa laws says you must go entirely over the center line and leave the lane to pass.

So it really should matter how much of the lane the bicycles are taking up.

You have to leave the lane to pass.

Assuming you meant "shouldn't matter", and yes - well put.

 

[dmclone]

So if a guy was walking down the middle of a rural road where the speed was 55mph you wouldn't say "WTF is that guy doing"?

It's not about bikes for me. It's about the speed difference. I don't think mopeds that can only go 40mph should be on 70mph interstates, do you?

 

[Clonegrad07]

yeah, he lives in Iowa and ONLY rides bikes - good one.

I don't get what's so hard? You wouldn't clip Grandma in the car in front going 20 in a 55. Just pull around them - IN THE OTHER LANE - like any other legal pass with any other type of vehicle.

And Phad, tractors at fault in Iowa? comeon now.

everybody, shut your eyes and calm yourself for a second. A bike is just a small slow moving car driven by people that are way to into spandex. Just pull in the other lane with significant space available and where passing is legal. Make the pass, then forget about it or you're all going to die of stress. And maybe, just imagine the guy on that bike is a fellow Cyclone with a wife and four month old at home and he'd like to make it back to see them - slow down just a little bit. Much as I'm sure you slow down if there were kids playing in a yard near a roadway.

everyone can be friends. ... well unless you're a Somali pirate.

Listen more to this guy.

 

[Gink]

You can think WTF but you would still have no right to hit him.

Mopeds and bicycles aren't allowed on the interstate and I have never seen one on them.

If you have problem handeling the speed difference then you probably are going to fast for the situation.

So if a guy was walking down the middle of a rural road where the speed was 55mph you wouldn't say "WTF is that guy doing"?

It's not about bikes for me. It's about the speed difference. I don't think mopeds that can only go 40mph should be on 70mph interstates, do you?

 

[dmclone]

BTW-I don't think people should ride close to bicycles or intentionally do anything to danger them. I'm just saying that by riding a bike at 15mph on a 55mph road you're putting yourself at a lot more risk. I know from my experience I've went over a hill at the speed limit and had to jam on my brakes to avoid bicycles. If I would have been 20 seconds earlier there is a good chance I would have hit them.

 

[dmclone]

You can think WTF but you would still have no right to hit him.

Mopeds and bicycles aren't allowed on the interstate and I have never seen one on them.

If you have problem handeling the speed difference then you probably are going to fast for the situation.

If bikes should be allowed on 55 mph roads than mopeds should be allowed on the interstate. Now doesn't that seem dumb? In reality the moped on the interstate is probably safer than a bicycle on a rural 55mph road.

As far as driving too fast, if I'm on a 55mph road should I always drive 25 just in case there is a bicyclist on the other side of the hill? Maybe we should just change the speed limits to 25mph on all roads?

I agree that the way things are right now bicyclists have the right away. I'm saying that they shouldn't on certain roads because it's not safe.

 

[Gink]

Interstates have a minimum speed of 40 MPH. Which is why bicycles and mopeds are not allowed.

Other roads do not.

You simply need to look up the road to see if bicycles are ahead. If you don't have to time to brake before you see bicycles you probably are staring at your hood ornament.

If bikes should be allowed on 55 mph roads than mopeds should be allowed on the interstate. Now doesn't that seem dumb? In reality the moped on the interstate is probably safer than a bicycle on a rural 55mph road.

As far as driving too fast, if I'm on a 55mph road should I always drive 25 just in case there is a bicyclist on the other side of the hill? Maybe we should just change the speed limits to 25mph on all roads?

 

[dmclone]

Interstates have a minimum speed of 40 MPH. Which is why bicycles and mopeds are not allowed.

Other roads do not.

You simply need to look up the road to see if bicycles are ahead. If you don't have to time to brake before you see bicycles you probably are staring at your hood ornament.

Correct, they do have a minimum and so should other roads. There were minimums when the speed limit was 55. Why is there not a minimum on 45 mph roads?

As far as looking up the road, I know that Iowa is flat but there are these things called hills.