Al
There is no personal attack on anyone. I think the whole of drivers in general are tired of the bikers pretending they own the road and everyone else is SUPPOSED to be inconvenienced by them. It is a mentality issue we are dealing with here. While you may not see these issues because you are keen on your surroundings while on your bike, I assure you that you are the exception and not the rule.
Mike made a very good point, that basically there is an ass somewhere right now driving something. Two wheels four wheels or eighteen wheels. We all know that. Good point Mike!
I supposed when we see these people we are just aggravated by the fact that the overwhelming majority of them have no respect for the road rules that we as motor vehicle drivers have to follow.
I will also admit it really isn't fair to lump everyone who enjoys a passion, no matter what it is, into the same group. See religion in Websters. I think that people in general would be more apt to accept these "road hogs" if they were bound by some sort of set of rules. You and I both know the biking community has been fighting that for many years.
Take for instance this example.
I am driving in rush hour traffic in my F250. Bumper to bumper traffic everywhere. Everyone stopped at a red light just trying to get home. Myself being the first one up to the red light drive right past a police officer sitting stopped at the light, I of course drive right through it. I do not have my seat belt on as it is "uncomfortable". I have not registered the vehicle since it was new, because it isn't fair that I have to pay taxes every year when I paid sales taxes when I bough it. My truck also is not inspected, has bald tires, smokes up and pollutes the whole intersection. Now while in the intersection two drivers have a terrible wreck trying to stop because I have run the red light. Unfortunately three people are killed in the wrecks. I of course could care less as I "own the road" and keep going. Once I get across the intersection I drive 2.3 MPH in the middle of the road. When someone tries to pass me I get over even farther in the middle of the road. Heck, I am almost in the turning lane weaving back and forth across the road to make sure no one can get around me. There is a bridge coming so I feel for my own safety I must get out and push my truck across the bridge so I won't fall off of the bridge. Whew, I made it. I them get back in the truck and drive my regular speed of 2.3 MPH.
Now, I will also admit that is a bit extreme but stay with me here. Do you think the police office at the red light would give me a ticket?
Now substitute the F250 for the majority of people on bicycles on the public roads.
That is why people are pissed off at bikers today. This is a true story that happened around me in Keller, Texas. Do you think the bicycler got a ticket for impeding traffic, running a red light, causing an accident where three people, two of them children lost their lives? No sir, he went on his merry way.
Everything above is true. Except of course bicycles do not have to meet the same requirements that vehicles do and they of course cannot smoke or burn
oil as a worn out automobile would.
Again, I would like to make clear this isn't a personal attack on anyone. It is a heated topic that is going on in most every city around the country. It is in places like Club Cobra that we can voice our issue with our fellow brotherin and hopefully come to a reasonable solution to a given problem.