Buffalo & Doozerie - The mild musings of two grumpy old men!

CramCycle

NeedMoreGears wrote: »

Answers on a post card......

Not what I would say but the tone and general vibe I would like to emit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-v1TTUyhM

doozerie

NeedMoreGears wrote: »

'know what you mean - been there done that.

There must be a stock put down out there - not too clever so that your intended recipient won't understand it (and there is a risk of that given the folk you'll need it for) - and yet just perfect for conveying your contempt/vague disappointment with the world/it doesn't really bother me. Perhaps a version of the Simpsons' "Meh!".

My starter for ten is "Really?" and then cycle off. But there has to be (much) better out there.

Answers on a post card......

I find that a disapproving shake of the head works well. It seems to tap into the child in the other person, maybe reminding them of when they tried and failed to impress someone in authority, like a parent, only to be looked upon with scorn and pity and perhaps disappointment. Or at least, it often brings out a similar response, along the lines of "Life is SO UNFAIR! I HATE YOU!" but dressed up in more adult language. You get to stand back, preferably from a distance, and watch them self-destruct. Throw in a "tut tut" to speed the process along.

Not that I always have the calmness to limit myself to just a shake of the head mind you, sometimes I just can't stop less than friendly words from pouring out of me. That rarely works as well and is usually a lot less satisfying.

doozerie

Apart from the usual nonsense (shoaling cyclists, cyclists ignoring red lights, drivers who haven’t figured out how to use their indicators yet, etc.) my commute this morning was largely uneventful. I was still in lighthearted mood by the time I turned onto the last 50m stretch of road. I only had one right turn into my workplace remaining and I was there.

The car in front of me was taking the same right turn but stopped to allow a van to reverse out. I indicated my right turn and stopped behind him, a car stopped behind me. The van pulled out and drove off in the opposite direction. The car in front instantly turned right, across the path of a cyclist coming the other way. Huh? Why? The driver had plenty of time to see the approaching cyclist while waiting for the van to move, just chose to completely ignore him.

I stayed where I was, waiting for the cyclist to pass before I turned right, then I noticed the car behind me rolling right up to my back wheel with no hint of stopping. I had to turn right immediately behind the other cyclist to get out of the car’s way. Cue a wotdafuq? gesture from me, some dismissive gesture or other in return.

Time and again I am reminded of the fact that to some people, everyone and everything else (on the roads or otherwise) is an obstacle somehow unfairly put in their way and which they feel some kind of natural right to ignore or generally shove around to convenience themselves. Consequences are irrelevant, apparently, they are coming through and if you don’t clear a path for them then too bad for you. They share a lot in common with Bart and Homer Simpson in terms of basic common sense and maturity:

(Bah, linking direct to a timed point in youtube video isn't working, the relevant clip starts 52 seconds in)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOy2vnrWYXY

spyderski

Tonight, for the third time in the past few months, I asked a cyclist stopped by the side of the road were they ok. She replied "do you have a pump?". For the third time in a few months, a cyclist turned out to have no pump, and no spare tube.

For the third time I used my own spare tube, and a Co2 cartridge to fix this riders puncture.

Cyclists who don't carry pumps or tubes also seem unable to wash their bikes, meaning for the third time this year I got home from a 90min spin looking like I had ridden Paris-Roubaix. My new bar tape also looks like it has been on the Pavé for 250km.

All this begs the question - how many fu**ing idiots ride around without the means to fix a puncture? The next time I offer to help someone who has not bothered to bring a pump & a tube, I will be leaving them at the side of the road to think about what they've done wrong.

FFS.......

Darkglasses

spyderski wrote: »

Tonight, for the third time in the past few months, I asked a cyclist stopped by the side of the road were they ok. She replied "do you have a pump?". For the third time in a few months, a cyclist turned out to have no pump, and no spare tube.

For the third time I used my own spare tube, and a Co2 cartridge to fix this riders puncture.

Cyclists who don't carry pumps or tubes also seem unable to wash their bikes, meaning for the third time this year I got home from a 90min spin looking like I had ridden Paris-Roubaix. My new bar tape also looks like it has been on the Pavé for 250km.

All this begs the question - how many fu**ing idiots ride around without the means to fix a puncture? The next time I offer to help someone who has not bothered to bring a pump & a tube, I will be leaving them at the side of the road to think about what they've done wrong.

FFS.......

Fair play for helping them out. I have a pair of latex gloves in my saddlebag for when I have to deal with mechanicals on the fly, so I don't have to worry about my white bartape.

As for your question - absolutely loads of people ride with nothing to fix a spare! I don't know what they're thinking! I ride with about 5/6 people regularly, and literally all of them ride with no pump/co2, so they'll be borrowing mine in the event of a puncture. I guess the upside of a pump is that there's no cost of use.

doozerie

While cycling home from school today with my wife, my daughter clipped a kerb with her front wheel and took a header off her bike. She grazed her elbow (her first road rash) and scraped her finger too, she was absolutely miserable unsurprisingly.

A complete stranger stopped his car and got out to offer help. He then went back to his car, retrieved a box containing a brand new kids art set, and gave it to my daughter. He told my wife that he has a stock of them, but that does absolutely nothing to detract from a genuine act of kindness and generosity.

When my daughter got home the first thing she did was to show me her elbow, the next thing she did was to tell me that a kind man had helped her and given her a present. His actions helped her cope with a traumatic experience at the time, and it lingered as a positive aspect of an unfortunate incident in her memory afterwards, and the art set kept her distracted from the discomfort of the road rash that evening.

I tend to find myself posting moany stuff in this thread quite often, it makes a pleasant change to post about a stranger that deserves nothing but praise and my sincere thanks.

Zyzz

I wouldn't mind a new art set, any chance I could cycle with you next time doozerie?

CramCycle

My new stereotype of the day is old red bicycles. I add the caveat of old in as my bike turns out to be Red. It could be all red bikes but this morning it seemed to be just old (pre 1995) red bicycles. At Donnybrook/Beaver row, straight through on Red, luckily the guy at the front stalled (whether in response to the cyclists or not is unclear). Then a little further into town there is a light with a left turn or straight on. It went Red, I stopped, so did the bus behind me but a guy on an old Raleigh tourer barreled through when the traffic coming out (onto a t) had a green. Luckily the driver seen him and stopped but he didn't slow/wobble/swerve out, I thought I was about to see a stretched imprint of his face on the road. To balance things out, I seen about 7 cars parked on the yellow box in Donnybrook with a Garda watching them and then further up the road several cars using the bus lane to skip traffic between junctions. Buses and motorbikes were lovely to ride with today, mopeds less so as they kept undertaking myself and the tourer motorbike who were waiting in traffic and then were unable to partake in a merge or overtake. Pissing everyone else off.

Rant over

doozerie

Zyzz wrote: »

I wouldn't mind a new art set, any chance I could cycle with you next time doozerie?

Bear in mind that the bar has been set pretty high. I'd need to see blood and heart-rending doe-eyed misery. That may get you a new art set, anything less gets you a "helpful" poke with encouragement along the lines of "What are ya doing? Get up! You're not dead!".

buffalo

Coming down Portland Row this morning, car traffic pretty much bumper to bumper, I spotted a child's head bobbing and weaving between the cars. Two cyclists ahead of me in the cycle lane, think there were a couple behind me too, rolling downhill. Head disappears, I slow it down. It pops out ahead of me, peeking around whatever vehicle, I give him a nod and a 'go on', and he escapes to the footpath.

It was only then I spotted the lollipop man in the middle of the road, biting his nails. Judging from the reactions I usually get from lollipop men and women, I think most of them never expect cyclists to stop. What on earth he was doing letting a child cross when there wasn't a clear path, cars and vans obstructing vision and line of sight, and plenty of cyclists coming along the inside, I don't know.

Usually at this particular crossing, they use the pedestrian crossing as well, but he hadn't this time. And he didn't accompany the child to the far side either, which would be prudent. It's a bleedin' disgrace Joe.

CramCycle

Light goes green this morning and as I push off, the bike beside me stops, then so do I, then so does the car behind us, as a Jeep just rolls through, at not greater speed than an atypical jogger, rolls through the junction. Stops at the edge of the Yellow box (inside of it). The cyclist beside me has a puzzled look, the car behind toots the horn and the guy in the jeep just turns and does this:

Valentine1

CramCycle wrote: »

Light goes green this morning and as I push off, the bike beside me stops, then so do I, then so does the car behind us, as a Jeep just rolls through, at not greater speed than an atypical jogger, rolls through the junction. Stops at the edge of the Yellow box (inside of it). The cyclist beside me has a puzzled look, the car behind toots the horn and the guy in the jeep just turns and does this:

Thats the standard response from most motorists when they block the yellow box, We've all got to get to work mate.

browsing

buffalo wrote: »

Coming down Portland Row this morning, car traffic pretty much bumper to bumper, I spotted a child's head bobbing and weaving between the cars. Two cyclists ahead of me in the cycle lane, think there were a couple behind me too, rolling downhill. Head disappears, I slow it down. It pops out ahead of me, peeking around whatever vehicle, I give him a nod and a 'go on', and he escapes to the footpath.

It was only then I spotted the lollipop man in the middle of the road, biting his nails. Judging from the reactions I usually get from lollipop men and women, I think most of them never expect cyclists to stop. What on earth he was doing letting a child cross when there wasn't a clear path, cars and vans obstructing vision and line of sight, and plenty of cyclists coming along the inside, I don't know.

Usually at this particular crossing, they use the pedestrian crossing as well, but he hadn't this time. And he didn't accompany the child to the far side either, which would be prudent. It's a bleedin' disgrace Joe.

There's a spot along the canal where there's a lollipop lady too. I'm aware of it now but on my first occasion coming across it, kids had just crossed the road from the front of a stopped car so I had slowed in case there were more. Only when I got along side the car did I spot the lollipop lady. Before that I hadn't seen her. Mental, as she obviously can't see any cyclists in the bicycle lane when she grants them "safe" passage.

Raam

Can lollipop people legally stop traffic?

07Lapierre

Raam wrote: »

Can lollipop people legally stop traffic?

Yes. (as long as they are stopping traffic to allow Kids to cross the road to get to school)

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1961/en/act/pub/0024/sec0096.html

Raam

07Lapierre wrote: »

Yes. (as long as they are stopping traffic to allow Kids to cross the road to get to school)

Dang, so close.

MB Lacey

browsing wrote: »

There's a spot along the canal where there's a lollipop lady too. I'm aware of it now but on my first occasion coming across it, kids had just crossed the road from the front of a stopped car so I had slowed in case there were more. Only when I got along side the car did I spot the lollipop lady. Before that I hadn't seen her. Mental, as she obviously can't see any cyclists in the bicycle lane when she grants them "safe" passage.

I see her everyday - on the left of the canal just after Dolphin's Barn.
She hardly ever gets any crossers, she always looks a little bored, she might have been hoping for some drama and did actually see you cycling along :P

NeedMoreGears

Speaking of lollypop people (as you do).....

My next door neighbour, who is quite a petite woman, was a lollypop lady for years at the local school. The amount of crap she had to put up with from cars, cyclists, pedestrians was unreal. She did give me a good laugh one day when a car attempted (slowly to be fair - but still pretty stupidly) to move through the crossing point as the kids began to cross. The roar out of her and the fact that put the end of the lollypop right on front of the windscreen caused the driver to stall. You could see the driver praying for the ground to open up and swallow him as the kids cheered thier hero on*.




* ok the kids cheering bit may not be entirely accurate but the rest is

mathie

"I was shocked to discover that anyone who’s not a registered sex offender can become a lollipop lady. The only people who should be able to command a vehicle to stop should be the army in times of national emergency, and traffic lights – and yet we are handing this power over to people who are little more than retired dinner ladies. It has to improve. Or stop."

CramCycle

Valentine1 wrote: »

Thats the standard response from most motorists when they block the yellow box, We've all got to get to work mate.

The funny thing is that if people only realised its their counterpart who done the same maneuvre as them just up the road is the reason that they are stuck like that int he first place. If everyone could at least attempt to follow the rules, traffic would not be the sole destroying experience that it has become.

Valentine1

CramCycle wrote: »

The funny thing is that if people only realised its their counterpart who done the same maneuvre as them just up the road is the reason that they are stuck like that int he first place. If everyone could at least attempt to follow the rules, traffic would not be the sole destroying experience that it has become.

I recall being stuck on the Harold's cross road one morning and pounding my hands on the steering wheel in anger because someone had cheekily pulled out from a side road causing me to miss a green light. Two things occurred to me that morning,

Firstly my reaction was solely a result of the frustration of the traffic, completely over the top and out of character for me. Secondly I had done exactly the same thing myself a few hundred meters further back down the road, I was a complete hypocrite.

That was over two years ago and I have either cycled or walked to work everyday since, my commute is a joy now.

eeeee

doozerie

Valentine1 wrote: »

Firstly my reaction was solely a result of the frustration of the traffic, completely over the top and out of character for me.

In a similar vein, sometimes when I caught up with slower moving cyclists ahead on my commute and found that there was no space to safely overtake quickly, I used to find myself muttering to myself things like "ah c'mon!" and "fcuk sake". I'd find myself considering various stupid forms of overtake and justifying the potential risks involved to myself as being okay because I was running late or some other self-serving nonsense. It took an effort of will to acknowledge to myself that I was demonstrating the same impatient and aggressive attitude towards those cyclists that I criticise some other road users for demonstrating towards me. I was being an arse.

I make more of an effort now to not be such an arse, it remains an easy mindset to fall into. We all make mistakes but what really worries me are those people with such little self-awareness that they don't (or won't) recognise this dangerous mindset in themselves when using the roads, they seem to impose no boundaries at all on their own behaviour.

Most people make a conscious effort to be safe and responsible road users, when they make mistakes they learn from them, which reflects well on them. People that choose to make no effort at all, and choose to demonstrate no empathy whatsoever, show themselves to be fundamentally horrible and flawed individuals.

CramCycle

Valentine1 wrote: »

I recall being stuck on the Harold's cross road one morning and pounding my hands on the steering wheel in anger because someone had cheekily pulled out from a side road causing me to miss a green light. Two things occurred to me that morning,

Firstly my reaction was solely a result of the frustration of the traffic, completely over the top and out of character for me. Secondly I had done exactly the same thing myself a few hundred meters further back down the road, I was a complete hypocrite.

That was over two years ago and I have either cycled or walked to work everyday since, my commute is a joy now.

I rarely drive nowadays but find I am a lot calmer than I used to be, alas my daughter has already picked up my bad language and judgements of people and I fear I have encouraged the circle of hate even though I no longer let it annoy me to a worrying degree. I usually now run out some dry sarcastic quip and let the smug satisfaction overwhelm any annoyance I feel or else I think of one later and rue my slowness as previously discused.

EDIT: I had a story here but have deleted it as there is no way to explain how stupid and irrational I behaved

As Louis CK said, what the hell, when is that justifiable. I felt like that guy in dog day afternoon, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore".

On an unrelated story, in Stillorgan last week when I see a woman and pushchair trying to get over the road in moving traffic, at the entrance to LIDL, she sort of tempted fate a few times by jutting the pram out into moving traffic. Then turned and walked across a car turning out with no clear warning (car stopped obviously). It was horrifying. I ran over, it was frightening. Turned out that the pram had her gym bag in it, and my moral indignation where I was about to ask for ID so I could report her to the Gardai or social services was unfounded. In hindsight I should have just read her the riot act for being a moronic prat but the lack of a child in the pram just filled me with relief so much that I casually strolled past after running up to her.

Not even closely related but it did make me think of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcE9ppYolK8

mathie

I was out at the weekend for a spin and on my way back home I saw a guy in front of me a few hundred metres off.
I continued at my normal pace and gained on him quickly enough.
As I passed I decided I'd try my first ever friendly wave (I've not been cycling long and was told recently I should do it when I pass someone)

Within about 30 metres he overtook me going flat out and then took a sharp turn in front of me.

Does that annoy anyone else or is it just me being a grumpy old fart?
Did my friendly wave backfire?

CramCycle

mathie wrote: »

I was out at the weekend for a spin and on my way back home I saw a guy in front of me a few hundred metres off.
I continued at my normal pace and gained on him quickly enough.
As I passed I decided I'd try my first ever friendly wave (I've not been cycling long and was told recently I should do it when I pass someone)

Within about 30 metres he overtook me going flat out and then took a sharp turn in front of me.

Does that annoy anyone else or is it just me being a grumpy old fart?
Did my friendly wave backfire?

Its a mixed bag, some will take it as patronising possibly (not sure why) even though your just saying hello, I usually say something like "nice day for it" or "morning", showing its not an attempt to be all macho and prove anything more that, we just happened to cross paths.

Of course if someone overtakes me i put the hammer down and once past then take the next turn so they don't know that my heart is about to explode :P (only joking, if someone overtakes me, its usually a good time to slow down and let them get far away as they will only make me feel slow)

Lyaiera

I've never had a hello directed at me. I had one "On yer right." And I didn't know what was going on and almost swerved into him. I've been overtaken plenty of times, it's always a little disappointing, especially when I'm in lycra and they're in shorts and t-shirt. Still, I'm losing my belly (after a two month break where my sleep cycle went to rubbish.)

DaithiMC

doozerie wrote: »

In a similar vein, sometimes when I caught up with slower moving cyclists ahead on my commute and found that there was no space to safely overtake quickly, I used to find myself muttering to myself things like "ah c'mon!" and "fcuk sake". I'd find myself considering various stupid forms of overtake and justifying the potential risks involved to myself as being okay because I was running late or some other self-serving nonsense. It took an effort of will to acknowledge to myself that I was demonstrating the same impatient and aggressive attitude towards those cyclists that I criticise some other road users for demonstrating towards me. I was being an arse.

I make more of an effort now to not be such an arse, it remains an easy mindset to fall into. We all make mistakes but what really worries me are those people with such little self-awareness that they don't (or won't) recognise this dangerous mindset in themselves when using the roads, they seem to impose no boundaries at all on their own behaviour.

Most people make a conscious effort to be safe and responsible road users, when they make mistakes they learn from them, which reflects well on them. People that choose to make no effort at all, and choose to demonstrate no empathy whatsoever, show themselves to be fundamentally horrible and flawed individuals.

My fear is that many people drift into that kind of thoughtless, mindless state without realising it themselves and it becomes an habitual norm for them. I am not so sure it is a mindful lack of empathy. I believe that more than any other time in their life people need strict rules in traffic, they need to be lead and we absolutely cannot entrust our safety to the judgement of others because there is such a wide range between mindful and mindless behaviour. It may sound a little totalitarian but I notice how simple things can change behaviour and cause people to become disproportionately stressed to the point they become abusive.

It may be a trite observation but I noticed a while back when the road was resurfaced outside my estate onto the Goatstown Road and the "yellow box" was no longer at the junction how many more times people just blocked the junction and it caused all sorts of beeping, yelling, gesticulation, etc. When the box was repainted normal service resumed so my take on this is that rules are an absolute requirement.

In relation to rules I think that the Government should use more public funding to continue to make people aware of the rules. I seem to remember more TV advertisements in relation to the "Green Cross Code" and "Rules of the Road" and while I note the RSA adverts are there they don't seem to be as effective when placed in contrast with what I see daily in terms of behaviour of traffic (my definition of traffic is pedestrians, cyclist, motorcyclists, cars, vans, trucks, buses, etc.).

Lumen

Lyaiera wrote: »

I've never had a hello directed at me. I had one "On yer right." And I didn't know what was going on and almost swerved into him

This is why I never call "on your right" unless I'm in a bunch of experienced cyclists.

It can easily be misheard as "go right", or just induces some sort of panic. People don't expect to be instructed to carry on doing what they're doing already.

CramCycle

DaithiMC wrote: »

It may be a trite observation but I noticed a while back when the road was resurfaced outside my estate onto the Goatstown Road and the "yellow box" was no longer at the junction how many more times people just blocked the junction and it caused all sorts of beeping, yelling, gesticulation, etc. When the box was repainted normal service resumed so my take on this is that rules are an absolute requirement.

I always found this behaviour amazing, in most other countries there is the principle of an implied yellow box. That is, at junctions where you would expect to see a yellow box, you should behave as if there is one regardless of wether it is there or not. You will be fined and treated the same as if the yellow box is there. Considering how hard many drivers appear to find the concept of the yellow box though it does not surprise me.