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To Hunter McCleary: Bicycles Must Share the Road Too
Posted by: Just Another Two Wheeler ()
Date: July 15, 2013 05:35PM

To Hunter McCleary:

This post is in response to your letter published in Fairfax Times. I have six bicycles in my garage, where they will generally stay this week due to the heat. But when I am out on the road biking with my family, we do my best to stay out of the way of the cars, trucks, and buses.

Unfortunately, people like you would rather complain than give up your "right" to slow down traffic so that you can pedal wherever you want.

My advice to you:

Plan your route to avoid high-traffic roads, high-speed roads, and roads without sufficient shoulders. Yes, there are a lot of them around here, especially in Vienna, but most can be avoided.

Ride in a column with others, never side-by-side.

Ride all the way to the right, and pull off when traffic needs to pass.

These are the same rules I teach my children. They work well to keep them safe, whether it be biking to school, into town, or to Wolf Trap Park.

Show drivers more courtesy than they show you. That way you won't need the $150,000 of taxpayer money to create a system for bicyclists to tattle on drivers who don't meet your standards.

Thank you for your cooperation. Together, we can all share the road.

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Re: To Hunter McCleary: Bicycles Must Share the Road Too
Posted by: Hunter McCleary ()
Date: July 15, 2013 05:36PM

My response? FUCK YOU and your bicycles!

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Re: To Hunter McCleary: Bicycles Must Share the Road Too
Posted by: Tray von Martin ()
Date: July 16, 2013 03:47PM

Once again another liberal who wants the rest of us to pay for his pet project. McCleary if it's so important to you then you go raise the funds on your own and pay for it.

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Re: To Hunter McCleary: Bicycles Must Share the Road Too
Posted by: ErNo ()
Date: July 16, 2013 04:10PM

"Ride all the way to the right"

Thats not always the safest way to ride - it can invite cars to pass in the lane, when there is not enough room. In places with lots of parked cars, it can lead to being doored. In many cases its safer to take the lane, at least for a short section.

The way to ride a bike thats most convenient for drivers is not always the way thats safest for bikers.

Oh, and I am pretty sure it is legal to ride 2 abreast.


"Plan your route to avoid high-traffic roads, high-speed roads, and roads without sufficient shoulders. Yes, there are a lot of them around here, especially in Vienna, but most can be avoided."

all over fairfax, not just Vienna. And many cannot be avoided.

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Re: To Hunter McCleary: Bicycles Must Share the Road Too
Posted by: thanks Hunter ()
Date: July 16, 2013 07:56PM

Thanks original poster for bringing this piece to better attention:
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article/20130712/OPINION/130719640/0/fairfaxTimes&template=fairfaxTimes
I wondered what happened to that form to report aggressive drivers. There sure seems to be no shortage of bad driving around here. Hope that program can come back. Even if it doesn’t add points to a person’s license, it may help slow some individuals up.

I used it once to report on a teenage pickup driver who drove through a parking lot erratically and at high speed during a Boy Scout-sponsored flea market. I went over to talk to the young man and tell him he ought to calm his driving with so many kids around. He didn't give two figs for my comments, but his face changed when I told him the vehicle owner would get a letter from the police through the aggressive driver report program. I can only presume the boy's parents lectured appropriately.

I think it is rather odd that Fairfax County police would still be willing to send similar letters to drivers who are seen littering through this website:

http://www.cleanfairfax.org/laws-and-ordinances/report-a-litterer/

I'm more afraid of aggressive drivers than litterers.

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