They walk among us . . .

[Eldron]

Too much social media is bad for you. It gives you the wrong impression of the world.

The average person isn't a criminal or  bad driver but after an hour on social media ALL drivers are bad and criminals are EVERYWHERE!

[The Ouzo]

A person reads threads like these and it makes it look like you are suicidal if you ride road.

Maybe I've been lucky picking my routes and times to ride, but I cant recall any one incident last year from my rides. 

I'm not saying I'm totally safe, I'm fully aware of the risks involved, and I would most certainly love for the Ians of the world to change their tune, but I will continue to mitigate the risks as much as possible and carry on road riding.

[Dadbod Racing]

You're always going to run into an Ian somewhere in life. 

Let Ian be Ian, guaranteed he's not going to be that mouthy with you face to face. Ian sounds like the type to when called out apologise and say it was a moment of madness or he had one or two many Castle Non Alcoholics when he decided to jump onto Social Media. 

Let it be, as difficult as it may be we don't achieve anything having some argy bargy with the inconsiderate road user (I'm guilty of this too but I try) 

ChrisF is right when saying the damn taxi's give you more sympathy when you're on the road and the rest are just for "me, myself and I" 

Sadly we can't even narrow it down to a certain make of car anymore cause it's a variety of folk, young, old, well off, not so well off, with kids, without kids so what do we do??

Ride and enjoy your ride, choose your routes wisely and be safe. 

I will never willingly give up riding and I'm very happy that my daughters enjoy a ride too. 

I've typed all of this cause I really can't focus on work right now 😞

 

 

 

[Robbie Stewart]

14 minutes ago, Dadbod Racing said:

I've typed all of this cause I really can't focus on work right now 😞

Ja, I've been trying to BS myself too all week that I am "working" . . . 

I saw so many people on my ride yesterday who were just staring down at their laps while driving it was shocking - to me, because I have not really been active on the tar for the last 12 months. I've been riding mainly trails, so I forget what people in cars are like.

[MORNE]

That looks like twitter? So that already tells you what you need to know about most of its users. It’s by far the most toxic of the social media platforms…F knows why. Its a troll cave, where humanity went to die. Also why i stopped using it 3 years ago.

I just treat any piece of road as a deathrace I need to survive.  It doesn't matter how entitled you feel as a cyclist on a specific piece of road or cycle lane or whatever, what your perception is of certain type of car owners or whatever…even if you are right and following all the rules.

Fact is, if something happens between you and any kind of motorised transport, you WILL lose 99% of the time.
 

So for that reason  i treat every car/bike/bus/taxi/etc like a possible accident waiting to happen. These days i treat every pedestrian the same way.
Trust no one. Assume they are all blind, deaf, road ragey, assholes. It might seem negative or not nice having to always ride so defensive, but Imo you will be better off in the long run. It becomes second nature. And swear at them in your head. Shake your head, call him/her a ‘dutch cat’ in your head and move on.  

Im pushing 40 now and have been riding bikes in the streets since I was 7. I rode 15km to school and back everyday since the early 90s. After that i rode to uni. In all that time I have been hit by cars twice…once on a sidewalk lol. It sucks. 
 

It has been said on here countless times…’i’d rather be alive than right’

[The Ouzo]

9 minutes ago, MORNE said:

That looks like twitter? So that already tells you what you need to know about most of its users. It’s by far the most toxic of the social media platforms…F knows why. Its a troll cave, where humanity went to die. Also why i stopped using it 3 years ago.

I just treat any piece of road as a deathrace I need to survive.  It doesn't matter how entitled you feel as a cyclist on a specific piece of road or cycle lane or whatever, what your perception is of certain type of car owners or whatever…even if you are right and following all the rules.

Fact is, if something happens between you and any kind of motorised transport, you WILL lose 99% of the time.
 

So for that reason  i treat every car/bike/bus/taxi/etc like a possible accident waiting to happen. These days i treat every pedestrian the same way.
Trust no one. Assume they are all blind, deaf, road ragey, assholes. It might seem negative or not nice having to always ride so defensive, but Imo you will be better off in the long run. It becomes second nature. And swear at them in your head. Shake your head, call him/her a ‘dutch cat’ in your head and move on.  

Im pushing 40 now and have been riding bikes in the streets since I was 7. I rode 15km to school and back everyday since the early 90s. After that i rode to uni. In all that time I have been hit by cars twice…once on a sidewalk lol. It sucks. 
 

It has been said on here countless times…’i’d rather be alive than right’

the swearing at them in your head is an important part too. there is no use confronting them, you will not change their minds, it will raise your blood pressure and possibly even put you in further danger.

[Robbie Stewart]

3 minutes ago, MORNE said:

That looks like twitter?

Actually a YT comment on a video of the young woman who killed the cyclist getting a scant 12 years - despite her being drunk out of her pip with 5 unopened beers in her car - the remaining 25 cans from the 30 can case having been discarded of down her gullet.

I did not interact with Ian, but his comment struck me especially hard. The woman's dad went so far as to convince the judge that the cyclist had it coming for being in the road where cars drive . . .

I try not to get baited by the YT comments, and 99.9% of the time I succeed, but this one hit close to home for me, I dunno why though.

As for the rest - I do not do Social Media. I have a FB account which I only use to get club info from the tygerberg mtb club and other news from what is going down at Contermanskloof - but I rarely interact even there. I don't even have any friends or family connected to it either.

Instagram, Twitter, younameit - I don't partake. This forum is about as social as I get on media.

I've stepped on toes, p'd people off, and embarrassed myself plenty here. No need to go do it elsewhere too 😁.

[Bomberman]

1 hour ago, dave303e said:

Honestly, I was feeling the same way as you are, this time last year. For me it was the constant fight between cyclists, runners and dogwalkers on the spruit in jhb, the absolutely horrid driving. The total selfishness of the general public( in shopping centres, gyms, restaurants etc etc)  and the permanent tension of people.

We moved out the city to a farm where we run and cycle the dirt roads and in fields with almost no traffic and space away from people and mentally it has cleared my mind totally and calmed me down to where I can focus on hurting myself(running or on the bike) and not dodging others. The reality is that we are fast tending towards a country with 0 empathy, a country of "I" Specialists. Me, myself and I, everyone else can take a hike.

Nowadays I dread going into town, the less people to interact with in public the better. It is not an ideal solution as it does not correct the issue at hand, but it has helped me.

before I start, Im not making this a debate about religion but just adding something from another few.

Sadly the whole me, myself and I and 0 empathy is going to get worse, same as the comment made by Ian. Looking at the book of revelations and the "coming of the end time" humans will loose all of these feeling towards each other. Things are really going to get crappy  😂. But as other hubbers have mention social media is big cancer eating away at our society, sadly they promote more click bate crap and not the feel good stories we need as humans. 

Anyway 

 

[MORNE]

1 minute ago, Robbie Stewart said:

Actually a YT comment on a video of the young woman who killed the cyclist getting a scant 12 years - despite her being drunk out of her pip with 5 unopened beers in her car - the remaining 25 cans from the 30 can case having been discarded of down her gullet.

I did not interact with Ian, but his comment struck me especially hard. The woman's dad went so far as to convince the judge that the cyclist had it coming for being in the road where cars drive . . .

I try not to get baited by the YT comments, and 99.9% of the time I succeed, but this one hit close to home for me, I dunno why though.

As for the rest - I do not do Social Media. I have a FB account which I only use to get club info from the tygerberg mtb club and other news from what is going down at Contermanskloof - but I rarely interact even there. I don't even have any friends or family connected to it either.

Instagram, Twitter, younameit - I don't partake. This forum is about as social as I get on media.

I've stepped on toes, p'd people off, and embarrassed myself plenty here. No need to go do it elsewhere too 😁.

Me too. This is my only ‘social media’ fix now. As soon as i read YT i realised it was the tube. The dark theme reminded me of what my twitter used to look like lol. 

[MORNE]

10 minutes ago, ouzo said:

the swearing at them in your head is an important part too. there is no use confronting them, you will not change their minds, it will raise your blood pressure and possibly even put you in further danger.

100% this. These days it feels that half the people want to escalate a totally avoidable situation by feeling the need to stroke their ego or justify their existence. People are angry. And i say that as someone who had to work through some of that crap myself in the past haha. Now i just play the cape town trump card….”look a the mountain man” lol!

/comic sans/
i used to own a fortuner 10y ago. Maybe thats why i was angry haha

Edited January 6, 2022 by MORNE

[Robbie Stewart]

I am very proud of myself for only throwing my right arm in the air at Mr. Fortuner and a slight shake of the head. Not even one peep escaped my lips. In times past, I would have torn him a new place to defecate from. I am actively trying to "not be that guy" anymore.

[The Ouzo]

5 minutes ago, MORNE said:

100% this. These days it feels that half the people want to escalate a totally avoidable situation by feeling the need to stroke their ego or justify their existence. People are angry. And i say that as someone who had to work through some of that crap myself in the past haha. Now i just play the cape town trump card….”look a the mountain man” lol!

I'm not totally innocent though. There have been times I've gone full rage. But strangely its been in the car at other motorists. I'm much more chilled on the bike. Luckily on the bike, by the time my brain has time to short circuit into rage mode the motorist is so far down the road there is noway of catching them, it only take a minute or so for me then calm down and carry on enjoying my ride.

[Robbie Stewart]

1 minute ago, ouzo said:

I'm not totally innocent though. There have been times I've gone full rage. But strangely its been in the car at other motorists. I'm much more chilled on the bike. Luckily on the bike, by the time my brain has time to short circuit into rage mode the motorist is so far down the road there is noway of catching them, it only take a minute or so for me then calm down and carry on enjoying my ride.

I watched some clips of people getting involved in road rage and applying active self defence after things get spicy with guns etc. In each instance, the best course of action in hind sight was to avoid getting entangled in the first place. I am by nature a very short fused man, but after seeing how quick things escalate moment by moment, I have come to realise its not worth it. Now, I let people go and get on with what they want to do without getting involved myself, despite every fibre of my being wanting to step into the ring.

 

[The Ouzo]

I've also calmed down alot. But I tend to have a build up and eventually one day someone does something and the fuse blows. I then think about it afterwards, think about the things that could have gone wrong and how I didnt achieve anything by blowing up and I go back to being super chilled and calm.

Just thinking now about the times I've blown up, it seems that in every case I did not see the other party before they did something stupid. It appears to me now that if I have spotted the person before hand and anticipated their stupidity I'm far more tolerant and chilled about it.

[BigDL]

Wish I could say that this is a South African phenomenon, but unfortunately it’s global. In the UK, lots of councils are introducing cycle lanes and other measures to incentivise active travel/public transport and there is a massive (social media driven) pushback, with a couple of “famous people” getting behind the opposition to the promotion of cycling.  In particular there is a talk radio jock and a fairly well known lawyer (specialises in getting people off drunk driving charges) using this cause to further their own popularity amongst the knuckle dragging, Brexit voting, covid denying, anti vax, anti immigrant fraternity.

I’ve not been riding a lot recently, but the few rides that I have done over the past few weeks have been exclusively back roads, pavement, greenway on the mtb. I’m sure I’ll get back on the road properly soon but this backlash against cycling is depressing 

[BigDL]

26 minutes ago, Robbie Stewart said:

I am very proud of myself for only throwing my right arm in the air at Mr. Fortuner and a slight shake of the head. Not even one peep escaped my lips. In times past, I would have torn him a new place to defecate from. I am actively trying to "not be that guy" anymore.

That is the only way.