| Subject: | Alfalfa shrine - finishing up |
| Date: | 05/30/2003 02:47 AM |
| From: | Pat Sagers |
|
This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. ----=_NextPart_ST_11_22_10_Friday_May_30_2003_27982 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" First, I'm not addressing the issue with bicycle haters or those who feel annoyed everytime they see a cyclist on the road. Somebody wrote a good response to the Alfalfa Mkt road some time back. He pointed out how this road is really an accident waiting to happen. It's outside of city limits with no posted speed limit. Add to that it's windy and hilly in many spots, but not all. Having driven it a number of times myself, it's easy to find yourself upwards of 60 mph on it. Many of the drivers on this road are towing large trailers of horses, motorcycles, boats, 4-wheelers or fifth wheels. They are going too fast as it is and I've noticed many spots on the road where vehicles did not negotiate the turn correctly and ended up in the ditch. On the other hand, many portions of the road are straight and flat with good views around and beyond the riders. The problem is that the road, though a nice bicycle route, is dangerous. There are a lot of spots on the road where even if the vehicle wanted to slow to a safe speed to pass the riders they have very little time to react and no place to maneuver. The traffic is sporadic, so you can ride along for more than a minute without a trace of a vehicle and then out of nowhere one blows past at break-neck speed. It's the same with riders. I can ride that road for days without ever seeing another cyclist. I don't like riding that road one wide well inside the white line, let alone 2 or 3 abreast. I guess my point is to recognize the inherent dangers of the roads you ride and make provisions to stack the odds in your favor. Automobiles are expected not to run us over, but they are also expected to drive within the speed limits, not run people over, not run off the road, not roll their own vehicle nor run head on into other vehicles. We are expected to use common sense and sometimes give up our 'rights' to the road because it places us in unnecessary danger. Pat Sagers Systems Engineer Orcom Solutions, Inc (541) 389-0120 x1554 voice (541) 389-8267 fax NOTICE: This communication may contain proprietary or other confidential business information of Orcom Solutions, Inc. If you are not the intended recipient or believe that you may have received this communication in error, please reply to the sender indicating that fact and delete the copy you received. In addition, you should not print, copy, retransmit, disseminate, or otherwise use the information. Thank you. ----=_NextPart_ST_11_22_10_Friday_May_30_2003_27982 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1170" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=029474617-30052003><SPAN class=451072518-30052003>First, I'm not addressing the issue with bicycle haters or those who feel annoyed everytime they see a cyclist on the road.</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=029474617-30052003><SPAN class=451072518-30052003></SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT size=2><SPAN class=029474617-30052003>Somebody wrote a good response to the Alfalfa Mkt road some time back. He pointed out how this road is really an accident waiting to happen. It's outside of city limits with no posted speed limit. Add to that it's windy and hilly in many spots<SPAN class=451072518-30052003>,</SPAN> but not all. Having driven it a number of times myself, it's easy to find yourself upwards of 60 mph on it. Many of the drivers on this road are towing large trailers of horses, motorcycles, boats, 4-wheelers or fifth wheels. They are going too fast as it is and I've noticed many spots on the road where vehicles did not negotiate the turn correctly and ended up in the ditch. On the other hand, many portions of the road are straight and flat with good views around and beyond the riders. The problem is that the road, though a nice bicycle route, is dangerous. There are a lot of spots on the road where even if the vehicle wanted to slow to a safe speed to pass the riders they have very little time to react and no place to maneuver. The traffic is sporadic, so you can ride along for more than a minute without a trace of a vehicle and then out of nowhere one blows past at break-neck speed. It's the same with riders. I can ride that road for days without ever seeing another cyclist. I don't like riding that road one wide well <SPAN class=451072518-30052003>inside </SPAN>the white line, let alone 2 or 3 abreast. </SPAN>I<SPAN class=029474617-30052003> guess my point is to recognize the inherent dangers of the roads you ride and make provisions to stack the odds in your favor. Automobiles are expected not to run us over, but they are also expected to drive within the speed limits, not run people over, not run off the road, not roll their own vehicle nor run head on into other vehicles. We are expected to use common sense and sometimes give up our 'rights' to the road because it places us in unnecessary danger.</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=029474617-30052003></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV></DIV> <DIV align=left><STRONG><EM><FONT face=Arial>Pat Sagers</FONT></EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV align=left><STRONG><EM><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></EM></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>Systems Engineer</FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>Orcom Solutions, Inc</FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>(541) 389-0120 x1554 <EM><FONT size=1>voice</FONT></EM></FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>(541) 389-8267 <EM><FONT size=1>fax</FONT></EM></FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML> <BR> <BR> <P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">NOTICE: This communication may contain proprietary or other confidential business information of Orcom Solutions, Inc. If you are not the intended recipient or believe that you may have received this communication in error, please reply to the sender indicating that fact and delete the copy you received. In addition, you should not print, copy, retransmit, disseminate, or otherwise use the information. Thank you. </FONT></P> <BR> <BR> ----=_NextPart_ST_11_22_10_Friday_May_30_2003_27982-- |
