Another Ride to Work Day passed, on the 18th. Did you ride?
Hell, I didn't even work, but I did take the bike out for a trip into school for a meeting, a collection of errands and a little dirt road cruising. In the summer, most of my work days come on the weekends. Monday is "reserved" for hellish meetings (of which I was forced to partake) and boxes-stacked-on-the-bike expeditions to Fed-X for my occasional eBay sale shipping trip.
As usual, you could count the number of motorcycles in the St. Paul and I35E traffic on the fingers of one hand. That whole "start seeing motorcycles" BS campaign needs an associated "start riding your damn motorcycles" poster for cagers. How the hell does the ABATE crowd expect to be seen if they don't have the balls to ride?
Yeah, I'm pissed off. I spent at least 45 minutes editing helmet-cam footage in hopes of finding a motorcycle or two to post on the Geezer YouTube site and here only to find three other riders in 2 hours of freeway, business traffic, and highway footage. I think it's time to start forcing motorcyclists to retake the driving test every year to prove they can still ride. Screw the statistics. There may be 180,000 licensed riders in Minnesota, but they don't deserve to be licensed.
As for the Teabaggers and wingnut hate mongers who did their damned best to inspire the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (regardless of the shooter's eventual motivation), I hope there is a hell because that's where you'll be spending eternity. You don't put a bull's eye on public officials, shriek "Don't retreat, reload," and agitate crazy boneheads to violence without consequences, unless you're a wingnut. Giffords is one of the good guys. There aren't many of those left in public office.
4 comments:
I rode to work and it was a perfect sunny day and I don't think I saw any more than a couple of bikes. Around here they are viewed mostly as a toy to sometimes ride, but more often to park downtown and show off while you schmooze with your friends. I don't see any regular commuters on my route, but I deliberately take more scenic back roads where I don't see much traffic of any sort.
I was the only bike in the motorcycle parking that day.
I stopped by the Fed-X facility in Roseville and that motorcycle parking space was jammed. Fed-X makes a special effort to put bikes close to the entrance and to give bikes decent security. Of course, first motorcyclists have to be visible enough to convince management to accommodate them. Fed-X employees have done that.
I rode past there yesterday and was impressed how many motorcycles were out front. I think it was 6 or 7.
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