New LOW with Local Mountain Drive

MOMO3.2 · 11:04 AM

Before anyone makes any assumptions about how I drive let me state:

I have NEVER been in an accident. I have NEVER received a citation in any Porshce with over 25 years of ownership mostly as daily drivers. I never take risks with other people or my self when behind the wheel of any car. I have total respect for other vehicles sharing the road, especially motorcycles and bicycles.

Now, this morning I took a drive in my Carrera Targa through the beautiful local mountains. It is a spectacular day here in SoCal for open top driving. While humming along on a pretty narrow isolated road that ends at a local ski resort (MT. Baldy) I encountered at least 4 motorcylists coming around blind turns at probably 3X my speed that were hugging the apex of the turn in the wrong direction. They were all able to make radical corrections and avoid a head on at the last possible moment. Thank GOD I was only going 25mph and literally driving on the shoulder.

I also encountered 2 bicyclists trying to make record time coming head on in the wrong direction at me. (again, they were trying to clip the apex in the wrong direction) Both glared at me becuase they had to move back to their side of the road.

Finally, (for those that know this road) I was near the transition from the Mt. Baldy section to the Glendora Canyon Rd. section and a pack of about a dozen cyclists wearing matching team uniforms (likely a team training) came towrad me on a straight section all upright just cruising. I was traveling UNDER 20mph, but they brazenly kept their line in the wrong direction headed right toward me and started yelling Bast... A-hole, and slow down.

It is like a turf war in the local mountains here. The screwed part of it is that I always stay within the law, on my side of the road, show huge respect for others and literally tiptoe by cyclists when they are around. Yet, I am the one that gets curssed at and stink eye.

I do have a sense about what really counts in life and how dangerous these roads can be for anyone, especially bicyclists. Time and time again, it is the motorcyclists and bicyclists that are willing to throw caution to the wind and potentially involve others in a very negative possibly deadly encounter.

I don't get it.

Mike

varmint · 04-13-2008, 11:06 AM

know the area well. it's why i don't go up on weekends anymore.

youtube the name of any socal road. guarantee you'll find 100 videos of guys on bikes, in cars, bicycles, skateboards, etc doing something stupid.

MRM · 04-13-2008, 11:20 AM

Guys like that are in a self-centered zone where they see nothing but their own perspective. All they could see was that you were in their way and that if you didn't get out of their way they would get hurt. If one of them ran right over your windshield he would have sworn for the rest of his life that you were at fault. That's why it is so important to stop and look around and do reality checks, which are aparently few and far between on the downshil side of the mountain.

Glad you have the presence of mind to drive sane and keep the road safe for yourself and the crazies you have to encounter.

Jandrews · 04-13-2008, 12:28 PM

Don't you just love it when someone in traffic doing something they shouldn't be doing GLARES AT YOU when you are in the right!! I could feel my blood boiling as I was reading your thread. I drive similar to you...very defensively. But inevitably, someone crosses three lanes of traffic in an intersection pushing me to the shoulder to avoid them, and then they give me the finger!! This is interesting timing with this thread and the ones about guys getting out of their car to confront people. I am 6'7" and 275 lbs, and there are MANY times where I felt like confronting these people that glare/flip the bird. But, thankfully, I am blessed with the ability to just look at them and laugh (actually even gotta be careful with that!) Unfortunately, if someone responds, even though you might be willing to shoot back, this is a no-win situation. Idiots abound.

JA

DanielDudley · 04-13-2008, 12:41 PM

I recently started to practice my horn honking skills. Much like downshifting, or heel and toe work, honking is something we need to practice.

While driving down the road with your hands in their normal driving position, suddenly move a hand to the horn and honk. Practice tooting, honking and BLASTING. Alternate hands, but do this on an empty road, at least twice a week.

What this does is get our subconcious into the habit of using the horn, so that it is reflexive and instinctual when we actually need to use it. What using the horn signals to others is that they are approaching a dangerous situation, and that they too have responsibility for traffic safety.

Beat them to the draw, and realize that there is value to using the horn. YOU COULD WAKE UP SOME SUCKER, SO HE CAN AVOID FUTURE PAIN AND DEATH !!!!!!

Sorry, was I shouting ? GOOD !

911Rob · 911Rob's Garage

WOW!

I would be furious!

legion · 04-13-2008, 01:18 PM

Not far from where I used to live (La Verne).

I have no problem running down cyclists in the corn fields.

speeder · speeder's Garage

I don't know what it is about bicyclists in spandex when they get in a group of 3 or more. I can sympathise w/ them and feel their anger when someone in a car actually does invade their space and run them off the road, (or not give them enough space to be safe), but I'll never understand it when they turn the tables and become douche rags themselves. If anyone, in any vehicle is travelling on the wrong side of the road/crossing the center line or intentionally holding up traffic, they are in the wrong. What's so hard to understand about that?

KaptKaos · 04-13-2008, 03:39 PM

The laws of physics supersede the laws of man. So even if the cyclists thought that they were in the right (which they clearly seem not to have been) they would have been wrong.

Dantilla · 04-13-2008, 03:47 PM

When I'm on my road bike, EVERYONE else gets the right-of-way.

I get more enjopyment from the mountain bike.

Laneco · 04-13-2008, 03:52 PM

As an avid cyclist, I find regular examples of a riders' apalling behavior. Flat won't ride with them. They are both dangerous and rude, a combination that I will not tolerate.

I'm the geek who rides to the right, yields to everyone and actually STOPS at signs and redlights. By doing this, I plan to live to be a very old woman with a garage full of regularly driven Porsche's and often ridden bicycles!

angela

MOMO3.2 · 04-13-2008, 04:01 PM

Good on you Angela!

Hey, Angela, this is off topic on my own thread, but have you been to Shady Cove, Or? Is it about 20 miles or so from you in Medford?

I ask because my father, whom I have not seen for 43 years lives there. It is a long story, but I am going to bring my family up to visit him this Summer. If you have been there, how developed is Shady Cove?

Thanks.

Mike