I was driving down Washington Ave last night at about 12:10 am and went to make a right hand turn at a green light onto 12th street? (I forget exactly) anyway.... out of nowhere to the left of me (driver's side) there were about 10 bikes went flying past me and scared the bejezzus outta me....... I continued to try to make my turn and nearly ran down two other bikers who were speeding past on my right side! (I just barely glimpsed then outta my mirror and thankfully stopped) I am all for "share the road" but if I hit you on your bike don't whine to me about it.... I had a green light AND I had my turn signal on for about 1/2 the block..... how is it safe to not follow traffic rules or even for that matter just common sense... "hey i see this car is turning I might not want to pass him" or go on the other side!

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Ducky

Bicyclists must follow the same laws as motorists. If they violate the rules of the road and you hit them, you may consider it a freebie.

If you wish to take the roadkill home you must contact a park ranger who will tag it.

If you find that the roadkill is neither milk nor meat humanely euthanize the creature with your service revolver, which is required prior to procuring a philadelphia driver's license.

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Peter Cetera:
Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying

VERY interesting!

Is this further evidence of the mysterious Tuesday night pretzel ride that I've heard about?

__Jason

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Years ago we used to do the same thing from south street. We would then come back to the bar with tons of pretzels to dunk in our beer. Not exactly an atkin's diet, but fun.

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Peter Cetera:
Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying

that is very interesting. I have never heard of that before but since many seemed to have backpacks etc. it's a possiblility! I'll be sure to be on the lookout if I'm ever there at that hour again.


Oh yeah and If I do hit one of them I won't shoot them for roadkill..... I'll just take their pretzels and call it even!

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Ducky

that was definitely remnants of the pretzel ride. happens every tuesday night from 11:30 til whenever people disperse the factory. chances are, the riders are way more aware of you than you are of them.

I am truly sorry that a cyclist who does not follow proper rules did that to you.

I try to follow all traffic rules (even hand signals) when I'm out cycling. I find motorists are very appreciative of it too!

I think cyclists should have to have a license to ride a bike, and I have been a cyclist since the mid 1970s.

What percentage of drivers follow the traffic rules? 10%, 5%, 1%? The roads outside my condo both have 25 mph speed limits. I could probably count on one hand the number of drivers that actually obey the speed limit in any given hour. I don't have enough hands and feet to keep track of the drivers blowing through any given red light or stop sign in an hour around here. It seems to me that most drivers expect peds and bikes to do this whenever a car passes by.

Spoken like someone who frequently violates traffic laws on his bicycle because he thinks they don't apply to him and his superior mode of transportation. If they were so aware of him, why would they pass him on the right at an intersection while he has his right signal on?

Chances are, the riders will eventually get hit by a car, and then blame the car for not being aware of THEM and their reckless maneuvering.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. -George Carlin

Yeah I am usually all for defending the helpless bikers of Philly, but there is a large contingent of jerk-off bicyclists who just cruise with no regard for the rules of the road, their safety or the safety of those around them.

The other night coming home from 30th Street we were going down Christian I think and a biker just cruised through the light at 11th maybe and a car had to slam on his brakes while making a legal turn so as not to hit the biker. I get not wanted to wait at a light when no one is coming, you technically even on a bike you have to, but what ever if you stop and no one is coming go for it. But to just blow through a red light with out even slowing down while on a bike is stupid and dangerous to me as well as the biker.

I said that I hoped the guy got hit and learned his lesson and my wife yelled at me for wishing someone would get hit by a car. I only meant a minor accident not many broken bones or anything.

I thought maybe the guy spaced or something, but we caught up with him at the stop signs further down and he just kept going right through and if a car was coming he would just try and cut around them.

So for you good cyclists out there and there are many of you, you need to start administering some beat downs on these jerk bikers. I mean maybe I would get it if it was some messenger bike downtown, but it wasn't.

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"All of this will not be finished in the first one hundred days, nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

~John F. Kennedy