I am holier than the guy in the Mercedes...

This AM on 18th heading toward the mission from Castro. There are a series of blocks with stop signs. Traffic usually backs up and I can bypass the cars. At one stop sign as I slow to a near stop then continue a mercedes blows off the stop sign so he can pass me. Of course by the time he passes me I am at speed and he must break for the next stop sign where there is already one car stopped, so I have to hit the brakes. I hate the useless pass ... Grr...

As we approach the stopsign and the first car is clearing it, I start to roll by the mercedes. I'm annoyed by the whole scene and prep to accelerate through the stop and go past this guy again (noting that there are 4 cars stopped at the light at up ahead at Church) when I see a car on the cross street that had arrived at the intersection before us. I slam my brakes and put my foot down.

The Mercedes has been watching me and does NOT want to get repassed so he runs the stop sign! The cross street car slams on the brakes and blares his horn.

Next intersection - Church St, and the light is still red. I roll up to the Mercedes, slotted in 4th spot. I roll by the open driver window and say...

"you know, cars have to obey the rules of the road just like everyone else"

I then rolled to the front and left him behind...

I am holier than the douchebag waiting for the Amtrak

Waiting for the Amtrak Wednesday. I am relating to my Wife Carly Fiorina's faux pas as Fiorina declared that Sarah Palin would not be qualified to run HP, and the McCain campaign was putting her on the shelf. This fossilized douchebag on the platform decides he must interject - "Well, when you think about it the skills needed for a CEO are much different than that of a President". I said that I would be willing to debate that but this isn't something you want your chief Economic adviser to say. We go on, I smack him around a bit with McCain's "The fundamentals of the economy are strong" and he says "Well neither of these guys know anything, it's about the advisers they get!" At this point I decided to talk with my Wife who is far more interesting.

1) Given the "skills" of say, "Leadership", "Integrity" - which position, CEO or President of the United States needs those skills - since clearly there is no overlap. Douchebag. Hopefully if McCain/Palin win then those skills are needed for CEO and NOT President, but I pretty much have to reject the premise from this idiot (which is shared by Carly the Idiot as well).

2) "It's about the advisers they get". Like say Carly Fiorina - who McCain has now banished from speaking from the campaign (and whom doesn't know how to run a company like HP either). Or perhaps Phil Gramm, also banished from speaking and who is central to the current economic meltdown?

I've enjoyed using Amtrak but it attracts a few morons. 4 years ago I was on the train to Sacramento and overheard a woman on her cellphone imploring her Nephew to make sure he talks to his daughter and makes sure she votes for George Bush or this country will go to hell! If this isn't hell - I would hate to see it...

Penn State is holier than University of Idaho

Penn State


University of Idaho

I am holier than the dirtbag I rode with on Central yesterday

As I entered Central Expressway last night, I saw a guy up ahead also merging on from the next road up. Road bike, cycling gear. I watched his tempo for a bit and decided it would be worth catching him and either soothing my ego by donating a pull, or soothing my legs by getting a pull from him. I caught up relatively quickly, sat in for 15 seconds or so, and went around.

I set a pace just a tiny bit above what he was riding and started to monitor the situation. He had pulled into my draft, and looked to be doing fine. So I picked it up a bit. On the overpass at Wolfe he started to yo-yo a bit so I dialed it back and got him back into the draft.

At Mathilda, there is an entrance onto Central that is downhill perpendicular to Central and then an abrupt right into the merge lane. I spotted a guy on a Japanese crotch rocket motorcycle gunning it down the hill and predicted he would try to ricky-racer the turn and then try to hole-shot right past me onto Central. I wanted no part of that and sat up a bit to assess the situation. The Motorcyclist did the same. As we slowed and watched each other, the guy who had been in my draft for the past four miles ATTACKED. I let the motorcyclist by and tried to get my legs moving again, but now I was chasing a very fresh rabbit into a headwind. Then the bastard LOOKED ME OFF. This pissed me off to no end, but no matter how I might dump this guy in a time trial he had just enjoyed a 4 mile picnic on my rear wheel and it was going to take some time to catch him. Just as I was closing in to about 15 yards...



The dreaded light rail. The gate was coming down as he approached and he skirted by it, and I was stuck behind it. And this guy was not going to be penalized for his Leif Hoste-esque maneuver.

Suffice to say if I see this turkey again I will not let him suck my wheel...

This Company's workers are Holier than You

Seen in the Bay Area - NOT in a dense area like SF. In a secure parking garage (nice perk).


And no, these are not a bunch of abandoned bikes, I rode by and checked at 7 AM, there were only 3-4 bikes there. And this was NOT Bike to Work day. Very impressive.

The SFBC is holier than Caltrain

The battle for bike capacity on Caltrain rages on. The SFBC's Bikes on Board sub-committee is collecting petition signatures to demand that Caltrain spend their money and energy to increase capacity on board, before greenwashing itself by putting in a weak plan that is going to solve the capacity problem with Bike Racks!



Hint to Caltrain - there is NOBODY out there who is thinking "I'd bike to the Caltrain station and take the Caltrain, except there's no bike rack, so I drive!" Lack of bike racks does not stop the 100's of people who lock their bikes all over the place at Palo Alto. Note - these "customers" aren't really top end users of Caltrain given the amount of those bikes that are abandoned. Now, given the state of PA station, more bike racks and lockers would be excellent, but that would mostly move bikes from fences to racks, not move bikes from the train to racks.



Lockers are great - have a bike on both ends. For example, I could bike to the train station, valet park my bike at Warm Planet and then take the train to where my bike is in the locker at Lawrence. Unless of course I miss the train to Lawrence and the next train stops at Mountain View only. Maybe I can get a locker at MV too. And one at PA for when I run errands there. In other words, lockers have only so much value. And the people for whom they are a great solution - already rent lockers.



I understand that this is a tough problem - but it's not an impossible one. Caltrain can say that this is the best bikes/trains combo out there, and they're probably right. That doesn't mean it cannot be improved. But listening to the Caltrain staff discuss the issue I feel they prepped for this job as Mayor of Wasilla Alaska.



Today (Sept 4) I'm going to hang out at Mountain View Caltrain and collect petition signatures from 4:30-6 PM.



If anyone feels like helping gather signatures feel free to drop me a line, certainly we could get you copies of blank petitions to load up for us.

Mission Hipsters - Holier than Trendy Google Professionals

On the pavement outside of Ritual Roasters. Of course these hipsters better have ridden their fixie to their day of pontification at Ritual or they will be the first against the wall. The trendy google professionals I know are people I meet at Ritual at 6:30 AM (6:30 AM ready to start your day? Maybe in the Marines but not amongst the mission hipsters as I certainly never see them there at 6:30 AM) and ride to Mountain View (riding to work? Holy - yes. Trendy? Not yet....)