Forget all the reasons it won’t work and focus on the one reason that it will.
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I am freaking out here. Three days ago I was playing with my hair, pleased that even at my advanced age my hair is still pretty thick (well, thick as it ever was given that it's always been super fine). Yesterday and today I've been pulling it out in frustration and anger.
SWARM - the first aggravator.
You've probably seen the YouTube video of the motorcycle thing this past Sunday? If not, it's at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13DzHnlaiNs. Watch at the beginning. The biker runs in the SUV's lane, right next to him, and is turned toward the driver's window. Then he pulls in front of the SUV and hits the brakes, looking back the whole time, to make sure he gets hit. Yep, as planned, the SUV bumps the bike, and stops. The SUV is then swarmed by bikers. If you listen carefully, you can hear helmets hitting the SUV. (It was later reported that the SUV's tires were slashed at that time.)
The SUV driver tries to get away. You can see him swerving to get around bikers. That big bump was when he drove over a motorbike - and the rider. That rider has two broken legs and a broken back, is now in the hospital in an induced coma, may never walk again.
Note where the SUV gets stopped in traffic further on, and a biker tries to open the door, but the car gets away. Later the SUV gets stopped again. A biker starts hitting the window with a helmet - note it's the same sound we heard back in the beginning. The video ends before the mob breaks the window, opens the door, pulls the (Asian) driver out, and kicks the shit out of him.
The driver's wife and 2-year-old son were in the car with him.
There were more than 200 911 calls reporting these guys, including one from the panicked SUV driver himself, and from other drivers and people along the route.
These assholes had no concern for anyone else on the road. Most of those bikes did not have plates, were not street-legal, and of those riders who were detained or arrested, most of them were not licensed. They paid no attention to niceties like lanes or speed limits or safe distances. Some other assholes expect us to have sympathy for the guy who got run over, and want the SUV driver charged with hit and run. Well, the injured guy's driver's license was taken away from him in the late '90s, he's not allowed to get it back for several more years (gotta wonder about how bad that is) and (I believe) he's never had a motorcycle license, but STILL he's had something like 15-17 traffic citations since losing his license. (How is that guy not in jail?!) So he wasn't even allowed to be there.
So, no, no sympathy. You got exactly what you were asking for, fella. Maybe now you'll stay off the streets.
If you haven't already seen it, please DO watch the video. Imagine what that SUV driver was feeling. Would you have done anything different? Tell me in the comments.
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A guy called into the local radio station today, and he was saying that he knows what was going on. He said the mob was taking over the highway for tricks - that's why there was a camera. He said to notice that as they passed on-ramps, there were more bikers sitting on the ramps, who then joined the ride. What they were doing sitting on the ramps was preventing vehicular traffic from entering the road. They very much resent vehicles who don't exit or at least pull over and let them have the road. The SUV driver had the audacity to not get off their road.
And riders wonder why drivers hate them.
And you have to wonder about the arrogance and intelligence of people who would post that video on YouTube, like they're proud of it or something. Complete assholes. Any of you who know me have never heard me say that word, ever. But sometimes, it just fits.
[I am aware that at least three readers of this blog ride. I do hope none of this applies to you.]
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5 comments:
I have occasionally found myself in the midst of a mob of a hundred or so mob-mentality bikers just like this bunch, on route 287 in NJ, and on route 9 in upstate NY. I slow down, move into the right lane or onto the shoulder, and let them go by. This SUV driver didn't "give" them his lane, and that's the only thing he did "wrong", and it pisses me off that some people won't put the quotes around the "wrong".
These people give bikers, who already have a less than stellar reputation, an even worse name.
The most courteous driver I've been with, in a car or on a motorcycle, is the fella I've been riding with lately. His road manners are impeccable and that makes me feel safer, too.
I've also found myself in the midst of a hundred or so of heavy-bike riders - you know, the Harleys, the guys with beards and tattoos and leathers, the Hell's Angels types (there were occasional gatherings just south of my country house, at the fairgrounds) - and those folks tend to ride in formation. Two or three across, in one lane, all together, no weaving. They are comparative ladies and gentlemen (except for insisting on making as much noise as possible). I have no problem with them (except for the noise).
Bikers like that make it unsafe for good riders on the road, due to the "mob mentality" of drivers who then have no respect for riders, It's a terrible, ongoing cycle. Thankfully I don't ride enough to have ever been in a bad situation with a driver who was disrespecting me just on general principle. I try to stay far away from other cars when I ride. It's a scary world out there when you're not encased in 3 tons of steel.
I would've done exactly what the SUV driver did. And I would've wished for a submachine gun in the car with me.
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