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Bikers now daily risk life and limb in Anderson
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You’ve seen these daredevils riding around on tires no wider than your thumb, wearing brightly colored, pointy helmets and spandex.
Inches from the side of a road, they know what it feels like to have a truck pass so close they can feel the heat from its engine on their faces. That’s if they aren’t actually hit, as happened to one Stephens County, Ga., man last Monday.
Perched on those obscenely shaped saddles, they seem like sitting ducks for harassment from macho men and bored teenagers in their big cars and old trucks.
Some merry pranksters will yell into a biker’s face as they pass, hoping to startle them enough to see a wipeout in pavement gray and blood red.
Others will fling stuff — bottles full of beer or urine, groceries, candy bars. You name it. If they’re lucky, a biker’s injuries won’t mean hospitalization, just a few scars and sore joints.
Or maybe it’s an indecent proposal on a back road somewhere too far away from anywhere to escape just by peddling harder.
Daredevils indeed.
I know many of them. I am one of them. And we’ve all shared conversations about how Anderson is the worst place in the world to ride your road bike. Until, that is, you’ve considered the alternatives.
The horror stories are real, but they’re still mercifully infrequent. And most will take their chances for the opportunity to ride on quiet roads, amid the beautiful rural landscapes of the Upstate and Piedmont.
No wonder the Upstate plays host to the USA Pro Cycling Championships and serves as the home base for Tour De France-worthy competitors like George Hincapie.
It was refreshing to see the city of Anderson propose construction of 65 miles of greenways and street paths last week (at an unspecified cost.) Anything that gives folks opportunities for some healthy, outdoor activity has got to be a plus.
If it is ever implemented (probably unlikely), it’s a sure bet that such amenities would greatly enhance the livability and marketability of the city’s older neighborhoods, which, linked up that way, could become an urban haven for joggers, rollerbladers, power walkers and strollers.
But it won’t help the seasoned biker’s who daily risk life and limb.
What they need is your awareness and some understanding.
(And a few extra feet on the sides of every narrow, farm-to-market road wouldn’t hurt.)
There are several months left in the prime riding season, so you’ll likely see a few peddling their hearts out on some of those secondary roads that already are proven death traps for those on four-wheels.
Be nice. Wave at them if you want. But whatever you do, pray for them.
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I stay away from your thoughts because you are flippant and burned out! Your mindset is Anderson County Council Politics and those issues are stagnant until January,2009. Take a few months off!
in response to Kalpesh
I agree, I also distrust everything I hear from this lame duck County Council and their master budgetary performer. I see they are rushing to implement (or allege to implement) things that are in Nick's words designed to... "craft a spending plan that invests in the basic services and infrastructure that few people can disagree with and add enough projects spread across the county to keep hypocritical elected officials and their constituents happy."
They just talk about these kinds of projects to make us think they really care about us. If they cared about us, they would be telling us how they are spending our money and start answering some of these hard questions to which they try to constantly send us on tail chasing exercises. Million dollar tail chasing exercises.
While we are on the subject, I would still like to know what the attorneys representing Preston (who billed us for a million bucks) did that was so extraordinary beyond what Cindy Wilson's attorney did. Usually opposing attorneys incur roughly the same amount of billable hours talking to each other, appearing at motion hearings, doing depositions (what requires one, requires the other) and there are exceptions ie. research (which is done primarily by paralegals) travel (which may be by limousine and staying at $1600 a night hotels). The point is if Cindy's attorney took this case all the way to the Supreme Court for the relatively small amount she did. Why did our attorneys charge us a million bucks. THAT was the salient issue I think Cindy was trying to raise in her trip to the Supreme Court. Not as it was framed, "demanding to know billing content that was ruled protected by privilege." Was our County Council never curious why one side was paying ten of thousands while our attorneys were billed us 6 figures? Was Preston's personal pick for an attorney, all the way down in Charleston, over billing us? Sure sounds like it to me. Preston's excuses have turned out to be nothing but lies to this point. Why should I begin to believe anything he says now?
Again, a reason to vote against the Preston Penny Tax. While a couple of good things may be sprinkled in there, it looks like a bunch of pet projects, making certain people rich, on public pork. Probably even some of the people on here you find so supportive of Preston.
Get of the main roads, roads were built for cars and trucks.
Re: Hammer
I'm sure that most bikers pay tax's for our roads especially motorcycles with require tags and insurance. Your comment is absurd! We should respect our fellow citizen on the road at the mall etc, remember you reap what you sow.
I've recently begun trying to ride my bike and take public transportation to leave my truck at home because I think now is the time for everyone to make drastic changes in how we look at transportation. This has been my biggest problem thus far. I've just had to have my front tire frame fixed from being run into a curb. I wish people would have more respect for one another in general; this would solve my biking problems.
in response to Hammer
I'm sorry but your wrong. The road was built for everyone one not just for car's and trucks. Well I guess we all know that you must be a lard-- Guy's on the bike you are right keep your head's up and be safe as for women to..See if you will see it people like him that needs to change there actions and the way of there thinking..God help him
in response to freebird22
well at lest someone else agree with me:)
With more people riding their bikes and walking, some of them need to learn the law on which side of the road you walk and which side of the road you ride your bike. Ride a bike you go with the flow of traffic, when walking you walk against the traffic.
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