From: INVALID_SEE_SIG@example.com.invalid   
      
   In the previous article, Adam H. Kerman  wrote:   
   > >But the fact that e-bikes can go a lot faster is one reason I am   
   > >wary of many modern gadgets - and why I don't buy them.   
   >   
   > That, and why aren't healthy people riding bicycles for exercise any   
   > more?   
      
   This might just be Cranky Old Man Yelling At Cloud ... but I think   
   it's way, WAY more dangerous on the road for cyclists now than it was   
   30 or 40 years ago. In the 70's I rode on a shoulderless two-lane   
   county highway, 13 miles each way, to and from school. (Not in the   
   winter; this was Minnesota.) I never had a close call. Drivers often   
   gave me a friendly courtesy honk from well back and then gave me a   
   wide berth when able. I had no lights, vest, etc.   
      
   Then, in western Florida in the 1980s, I rode a couple hundred miles a   
   week on two-lane highways and had a *little* more trouble -- angry   
   honking, that sort of thing. Never anything especially scary.   
      
   In the 90's in SE Michigan and later in the 90's in SW Michigan,   
   things got progressively worse over time. Again, maybe I'm just   
   cranky, but I am convinced that drivers are way, way worse and way,   
   way more aggressive and obnoxious and just plain stupid than they were   
   when I was younger.   
      
   Even (especially?) in NYC I've seen this. I used to bring my bike here   
   when visiting and I would ride up Second Ave at 4 pm and ... well, it   
   wasn't exactly *smooth* or easy, but it was very do-able. Now that I   
   live in the area, and I see NYC traffic shenanigans often, I wouldn't   
   even consider trying that. The taxis are bad, and they've always been   
   bad, but the Uber/Lyft drivers are worse than them by a wide margin.   
   Just horrible. And they spill over into urban New Jersey. (Lots to be   
   said about the changes in NJ vis-à-vis NY over time, but I'll let that   
   go for now.)   
   --   
     _+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am   
   _|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also   
   \      /  baldwin@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it.-T. Lehrer   
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)