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A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

portsmouthctc.org.uk

171–180 of 194 posts

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A simple "mechanical bike horn" (no idea if that's the right term, but Google image seems to find the right thing when searching for that) might be what you want for pedestrians. I've never seen an air horn that looked usable before, so thanks for that. Looks nice for cycling in traffic.

On the left side of my handlebars I have a normal bike bell, good for pedestrians and fellow cyclists. On the right I have the air horn, good for drivers who can't hear the bell and emergency situations. I'd recommend having both a normal bell and air horn.

Yeah, bell is what I meant. Are there are any air horns that are controlled with something similar to a gear shifter (the lever thingy)?

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is shit. Duplicate stories are arbitrarily allowed to be submitted (exact same article/url), while sometimes it actually works and prevents duplicates. Oftentimes you see submissions for an interesting article languish in the 'new' section, but then a user re-submits the exact same thing ('duplicate detection' algo at work, lol) and it's on the front page in minutes. Whether that user is a 'power user', besties wi…

I think it would be more effort to write your vision of the submission process than what is probably there. The algos is presumably a straight up string compare with some url decoding, but any amount of idiotic GET key value pairs can screw that up. I find Occam's razor the best explanation for these kind of things - I suggest not taking it to heart too much.

> The algos is presumably a straight up string compare with some url decoding

Well, except it fails in some cases to straight up compare two strings that are identical, so there must be some other 'secret sauce' in the algorithm that makes it unnecessarily complicated and error-prone.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'll often give a few toots before approaching an intersection to increase the chance that I am seen. And it has probably saved me from some major crashes when I lay down the horn on someone. When are you doing this? When you go through a green light? Or is this when there's a chance for cross-traffic, say going through a yellow or red light? The only reason I ask is because whenever I'm in SF, at least half the bic…

A green light is one possibility, as are people pulling out into the street without looking. See this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17910799 I never run red lights or stop signs, and don't appreciate being associated with bad cyclists any more than you would probably appreciate being associated with bad drivers.

>don't appreciate being associated with bad cyclists any more than you would probably appreciate being associated with bad drivers.

Sorry you got that impression, but I was simply asking. Nothing wrong with getting more context, is there?

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people keep their motorcycles extra loud for this reason. It pisses people off, to hear an extremely loud motorcycle engine, but a subset of riders don't do it to be cool, but really to gain attention as a survival mechanism. An overlapping group do it for both reasons.

When people go blaring down my residential street at 10 PM at night I start to fantasize about stringing up a cargo net. I don't think that's working for them as a survival mechanism. (Context: I bicycle in Boston, so I know what the roads are like, although I'm sure it's somewhat different for motorcycles.)

On motorcycles you can be just a little bit more agressive, but selectively.

There's enough power to assert high speeds, and take the lead with quick acceleration, but due to the amount of surface area in contact with the ground, motorcycles have lower agility than bicycles, based on the weight that gets thrown around.

With most motorcycles weighing well over 200 pounds, depending on speeds, the usual turning radius cuts a pretty wide arc (not very maneuverable, ultimately), and stopping too short will throw you off the bike. You just lock up the tires, or peel out if you don't finesse the amount of force in play.

They can do more than a car, in terms of turning and stopping, but it requires agility, dexterity and practice. Whereas with a car you can just slam the brakes, and toss it in any gear, do whatever, and not even think about balance.

So, in a situation where you gain a feel for the attitude of some random car, and the driver is radiating the demeanor of a total dickwad, there are three choices. A. Stop, reroute, and go anywhere that fucker isn't. (the best, and most common decision, more than you might ever know) B. Clutch the transmission and rev loudly, to see if they know you exist, which often doesn't work because people listen to music and mostly try to ignore the world around them. C. When they inevitably don't respond to options A & B, release the clutch, and rev the engine to launch in front of that prick and blast off. Fuck the world.

People just really don't like to give other people choices, so you wind up doing a burnout in front of them, because they keep stepping on your toes. Hurts me more than it hurts them. Such is life.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A green light is one possibility, as are people pulling out into the street without looking. See this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17910799 I never run red lights or stop signs, and don't appreciate being associated with bad cyclists any more than you would probably appreciate being associated with bad drivers.

>don't appreciate being associated with bad cyclists any more than you would probably appreciate being associated with bad drivers. Sorry you got that impression, but I was simply asking. Nothing wrong with getting more context, is there?

[deleted]

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A green light is one possibility, as are people pulling out into the street without looking. See this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17910799 I never run red lights or stop signs, and don't appreciate being associated with bad cyclists any more than you would probably appreciate being associated with bad drivers.

>don't appreciate being associated with bad cyclists any more than you would probably appreciate being associated with bad drivers. Sorry you got that impression, but I was simply asking. Nothing wrong with getting more context, is there?

> Nothing wrong with getting more context, is there?

In principle, no. But you didn't need to add the part about cyclists breaking the law. Many if not most cyclists would find that offensive.

Over the years I've heard many drivers suggest that the reason I don't get respect on the road is that I probably break the law. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be suggesting that I might be using my air horn so frequently because I run red lights and stop signs and want to stop traffic that has the right of way. When stated that way, the suggestion seems ridiculous. If a driver said that they needed to use their horn frequently, I wouldn't suggest that they might be road raging at everyone or something similar, even if I thought that were likely or true. I'd just ask for context without any assumptions.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#178

Transportation cyclist here. This is a great article, but it only indirectly touches upon one of the most effective tools a cyclist could have: an air horn. I have an Air Zound air horn and I feel much less safe riding without it. I'll often give a few toots before approaching an intersection to increase the chance that I am seen. And it has probably saved me from some major crashes when I lay down the horn on someon…

Few weeks after installing really loud air horn, it became apparent that:

- it's impossible to effectively use horn and brakes in emergencies;

- one starts to rely on the horn clearing the way instead of slowing down, which is suicidally dumb;

- horn is used after-the-fact, which needlessly raises the temperature.

The only sensible use is to alert far-away pedestrians that are obviously going to do something stupid.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#179
post #178

Transportation cyclist here. This is a great article, but it only indirectly touches upon one of the most effective tools a cyclist could have: an air horn. I have an Air Zound air horn and I feel much less safe riding without it. I'll often give a few toots before approaching an intersection to increase the chance that I am seen. And it has probably saved me from some major crashes when I lay down the horn on someon…

Few weeks after installing really loud air horn, it became apparent that: - it's impossible to effectively use horn and brakes in emergencies; - one starts to rely on the horn clearing the way instead of slowing down, which is suicidally dumb; - horn is used after-the-fact, which needlessly raises the temperature. The only sensible use is to alert far-away pedestrians that are obviously going to do something stupid.

Fair points.

I never had the second or third problems. I don't use the horn on pedestrians unless strictly necessary, nor do I honk at people as revenge.

The first point was a challenge at the beginning, but I think I've done fine using both the brakes and the horn at the same time. I can think of any least one instance where both were necessary to avoid a crash. I'm certain my worst case stopping time has increased at least a small amount, but it's a worthwhile trade-off in my view.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#180
post #38

This is sound advice. The only time I've made contact with a moving car as a cyclist was when I was going past an off-ramp. The weird thing was that I thought the driver "saw me". It was late morning, no problem with visibility. From my POV, she was looking right at me. In fact, she was looking "through" me. She simply was expecting other cars and a person on a bike was not what she was looking for. Human attention i…

Off-ramps exist on separated-grade highways, which by definition exclude bicycle traffic. What were you doing on such a highway?

He wasn't.

Also, in my state at least, bicycles are completely legal to ride on the shoulder of the interstate and similar divided highways with the exception of about 20 miles of urban highway. Very few cyclists do so since it is still a dangerous and unpleasant experience. Personally, I have done so once when I made a couple of wrong turns on unfamiliar backroads. A 2 mile ride along the highway got me back to a spot I knew rather than risk getting even more lost farther from home.

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