The Cities Thread

Discussion in 'Politics & Current Events' started by That Phat Hat, Sep 12, 2012.

  1. SoFla Metro

    SoFla Metro Member

    Jul 21, 2000
    Ft. Lauderdale, FL
    All very good points. However, I would note that there are really three urban centers in South Florida (Miami, Ft Lauderdale/Boca Raton and West Palm Beach)
     
  2. GiuseppeSignori

    Jun 4, 2007
    Chicago
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I thought the Poles were all still in Greenpoint? ;)
     
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  3. minerva

    minerva Member+

    Apr 20, 2009
    Denver, CO
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  4. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
    Who gives a ******** about small towns? They're mostly just good for flying over.
     
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  5. Matt in the Hat

    Matt in the Hat Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 21, 2002
    Brooklyn
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  6. minerva

    minerva Member+

    Apr 20, 2009
    Denver, CO
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    you're missing out on a whole lot if you're flying over them.
    but I don't think the rest of us who have discovered the hidden beauty of small towns really mind your attitude.
     
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  7. minerva

    minerva Member+

    Apr 20, 2009
    Denver, CO
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    1) no.
    2) if you want talk about how great of a small town that shithole Ithaca is, start another thread. :D
     
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  8. That Phat Hat

    That Phat Hat Member+

    Nov 14, 2002
    Just Barely Outside the Beltway
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Japan
    Small towns are where you find druggies and rapists and out-of-wedlock children-havers. ******** them.
     
  9. Matt in the Hat

    Matt in the Hat Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 21, 2002
    Brooklyn
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  10. That Phat Hat

    That Phat Hat Member+

    Nov 14, 2002
    Just Barely Outside the Beltway
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Japan
  11. Barbara

    Barbara BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 29, 2000
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Mostly I'm just scared shitless that I'm going to accidentally kill one.
     
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  12. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Me too.

    Downtown Lincoln, NE used to suck for cycling when a Husker game or some other even brought in lots of out-of-town traffic. Lots of asshole drivers who thought that cyclists were being difficult for not getting off the road and onto sidewalks--riding a bike on the sidewalk is illegal downtown. But that doesn't stop morons who don't live there from yelling at locals to "get on the damn sidewalk and out of my way."
     
  13. guignol

    guignol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 28, 2005
    mermoz-les-boss
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    accidents never happen barb!

    that's actually a great link that explains much. what i want to add to

    is that inhabitual would be a better term than emotionally charged. motorists recklessly engaging in dangerous behavior is too mundane for those events to mark us the way stupid bicycle tricks do, if for no other reason than there are so many more cars than cyclists. in the bicycling to work thread i've made a spurious and anecdotal "statistical analysis" comparing the incivility of the two modes of transport.

    what falls outside of the affect heuristic is another kind of bad faith on the part of many motorists who obviously have a hard time accepting that cyclists exist at all, as in these recent examples: this morning a fellow tried to cut me off at a traffic circle and the near collision brought us both to a stop. his attitude was obviously that he had had the right of way (when the opposite was clearly and undeniably true). another recurrent (and very telling) example is in a certain street i go home by: there is a traffic sign that means "watch for bicycles on the street" that at least once a month earns me abuse from someone who insists on interpreting the sign as "bicycling forbidden". the most amazing is that it seems the more these motorists intellectually realize their own stupidity is at fault, the more vehemently they will berate the cyclist they have nearly killed, thus very literally adding insult to injury.
     
  14. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    Hated 'em ever since I came to a 4 way stop. Stopped, started again. The bicyclist barrelled through his stop sign, screeched to a halt in the middle of the intersection, jumped of his bike, screamed ******** YOU! at me while holding up his middle finger.

    He was the worst but many have been bad. I've been to Amsterdam, those people are fine. American bikers will burn in hell.
     
  15. Barbara

    Barbara BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 29, 2000
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    They aren't any more rude, as a group, than American drivers. It's just that you can see the bikers better.
     
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  16. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
    I'm an urban bicyclist.

    I actually do think bicyclists are more rude for two reasons. 1) Cyclists have their blood and testosterone flowing so they're naturally more animated, and 2) every time a car blows through a red light or changes lanes without looking they're poised to needlessly widow a stranger; the intrinsic injustice of it all is maddening.
     
  17. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    Yep there's something confrontational about bicyclist/auto relations in the States. Which I think comes from the numbers being so unequal.

    The two wheelers get even in Barcelona. Oh do they get even. All those flipping scooters. They are like gnats buzzing around your car. They cut in from the left, from the right, between cars. It's exhausting driving there because you must look so carefully for fear of squashing one of the bugs.

    But it's actually a more polite atmosphere, because the scooter riders are supremely comfortable, they know they have numbers and don't feel threatened. And the auto drivers have no choice but to adjust. There are too many scooters, you can't go to war.
     
  18. ElJefe

    ElJefe Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 16, 1999
    Colorful Colorado
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I bike to work once a week to my job in Boulder from my house 10 miles away. I see far more cyclists who apparently think that stop lights and stop signs don't apply to them than I see motorists who act the same way.
     
  19. song219

    song219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Apr 5, 2004
    La Norte
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Vanuatu
    My hell is already being booked in advance by drivers who play with or talk on their phones/devices while driving. As a motorcyclist I used to pick out weaving drunks on the road. Now I watch the drivers who drift out of their lane while on the phone.
     
  20. minerva

    minerva Member+

    Apr 20, 2009
    Denver, CO
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    although I hate road cyclists when I'm driving on narrow, curvy mountain roads, for the most part I don't mind them. they usually get over as far to the right as they can when a car is coming. but from an urban bicyclist standpoint, cars completely ignore sidewalks in pulling out from driveways or crosswalks when pulling up to an intersection. most of the time, they go right up to the edge of the road or crossroad without even looking if bicyclists or pedestrians are crossing. when pulling out from a driveway, drivers also tend to only look for vehicular traffic from the direction it's supposed to be coming from, and don't look for bicycles or pedestrians coming from the other direction. the guy who ran into me about a year ago didn't even look directly in front of him (which is where I happened to be) when he stepped on the gas. generally, bicyclists have good reason to be outraged at drivers. I always try to make eye contact with drivers when I'm about to cross in front of them, and I'm amazed at how often I'm unsuccessful, because they're not even looking my way. but yeah, bicyclists also don't do much in the way of obeying traffic laws. but that's on them - if they get injured that way. however, I find that bicyclists tend to be much more situationally aware and alert than drivers. so when they're breaking traffic rules, they're not putting themselves in all that much danger. it's the drivers who are texting, being otherwise distracted, or blowing right through sidewalks when pulling out of a driveway that are the major cause of concern for bicyclists.
     
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  21. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    Reason there is simple. I paid $100 for running a red light with my car at Sheridan & Devon. (6:30 AM, hardly anybody on the road, no cop around -- the camera caught me, Rahm is such a sneak.) But the police don't enforce bicyclist infractions. So in that sense I don't blame bicyclists. They are not held to the rules, no surprise that they tend not to follow them.
     
  22. minerva

    minerva Member+

    Apr 20, 2009
    Denver, CO
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    as a bicyclist, I do that. but never as a motorist. but as a bicyclist, I can see much better if there is traffic that I need to stop for, and when there is, I stop. but if there isn't, then yeah, I don't feel the same need to stop at a stop sign as a bicyclist as I do when I'm driving.
     
  23. ElJefe

    ElJefe Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 16, 1999
    Colorful Colorado
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It depends on the place. Boulder has a lot of bicyclists, and Boulder PD has started cracking down on bicyclists who don't follow the law.

    You're not helping matters any.
     
  24. minerva

    minerva Member+

    Apr 20, 2009
    Denver, CO
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    yeah, I know. but with a bike, it takes a lot more physical effort to start (especially on my fixie) once you come to a stop, so unless I have to stop, I usually just slow down enough to have a look, and if there is no reason to stop, I just keep going. with cars, starting once you stop takes a lot less physical effort.
     
  25. ElJefe

    ElJefe Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 16, 1999
    Colorful Colorado
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    If you're riding a fixie and it's hard to start again once you stop, that's more or less on you.
     

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