Saturday, December 27, 2008

Idiots and Trains Don't Mix

I don't remember exactly how I stumbled across this; I had been searching for Star Trek bloopers and somehow got sidetracked (no pun intended). Anyway, when I saw this, I remember a shiver just going right up my spine. Bicycle wheels can slide on railway tracks, particularly under wet conditions and/or when the tracks cross at a steep angle; if that had happened to this guy...



As a year round cyclist myself, absolutely under no circumstances would I ever do this. I do not cross a railway crossing when the signals are running if a train is approaching. Period.

I wish I could talk to this guy for just 30 seconds to find out where he was going that was so gosh darn important...

On Dec 28, 2008, at 6:18:42 AM AST, Darren Alff wrote:
I don't think it's cool to call anyone an idiot. It was the biker's choice to cross the tracks. He made it across without any problems. If he had crashed or something, then I could understand this whole video, but otherwise, I don't see what the big deal is.
The big deal, Mr. Alff, is that cyclists have enough trouble gaining respect from motorists without wantonly violating traffic law. The crossing signals were running; his cross was illegal. Besides, as I've said, if he had slipped and fell (common for cyclists on railway tracks), he would have been rail salsa. In my opinion, the cyclist did something incontrovertibly foolish; that is where he earned the label "idiot" at least as far as his riding prudence goes.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:48 AM

    I also found it interesting that of the 14 vehicles that preceeded the bicyclist across the tracks, 9 were pickup's, 3 were vans or minivans and only 2 were conventional cars. I don't think the video was shot in a real bike-friendly area. He was probably a DUI cyclist.

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  2. Anonymous6:18 AM

    I don't think it's cool to call anyone an idiot. It was the biker's choice to cross the tracks. He made it across without any problems. If he had crashed or something, then I could understand this whole video, but otherwise, I don't see what the big deal is.

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