XPost: or.general, or.politics   
   From: dhomuth1@comcast.net   
      
   On 17 Aug 2006 13:23:42 -0700, "UffDa!"  wrote:   
      
   >   
   >lein wrote:   
   >> It wouldn't be if the bike rider obeyed laws for changing lanes   
   >> (signaling, waiting until it's safe to do so).   It would be no   
   >> different than when you drive a car and see debris ahead which requires   
   >> you to change lanes (debris such as a stopped trimet bus)   
   >   
   >Well, it's disconcerting because he flipped unexpetedly.  That's one of   
   >those freak things.  He clearly did not expect it.   
   >   
   >So, if I pass with a foot or two of room, I could be pressing my luck   
   >(and his!).   
      
   Whenever you drive, you're pressing your luck, assuming a bunch of   
   things:   
      
   * The driver can see   
   * Isn't on the cell phone   
   * The car is in mechanically good condition   
   * A yellowjacket doesn't fly through the window   
   * A tire doesn't fail (as one of mine did two weeks ago)   
   catastrophically   
   * The idiot two cars ahead of you doesn't do something stupid   
   * (fill in with your choice of idiocies and happenstances)   
      
   Bicycle riders are no more and no less involved in such things than   
   are cars.   
      
   Strangely, though, drivers seem to become more annoyed when they have   
   to watch out for a bicyclist than they do for the other fools on the   
   road around them.   
      
   I have not (yet, anyway) come across a bicyclist talking on the cell   
   phone while pedaling down the road.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)