In the Tourist Capital of the West

My last post was a happy list, made to remind me of good things. Yes, I posted the things that bug me as well, but each one of those bugging things was canceled out by a happy thing. It worked. That day. Today I’m back to being annoyed.

I’m pretty sure it’s me, at this point. Even though every peeve seems completely justified, the entire world cannot be that stupid. While a particular voice might make me want to claw my ears off, I’m sure that it’s the personal connotations, and not the actual pitch and timbre.

Oooohhhh, but it feels so reasonable. I do believe I am completely justified in my hatred of tourist bikers in SF. I happen to work within the 1/4 mile where the beautifully wide, clearly marked bike path that runs past Crissy Field along Marina simply ends, leaving no clear way to get to the wide, clearly marked bike paths heading up the big hill in Fort Mason towards the tourist mecca of Fisherman’s Wharf.

What does that translate to in Annoyance Points? It leads to masses of (yes, masses; sometimes the bikes are in tour groups of 20-30) confused bikers going the wrong way down the middle of one-way interior roads; stopping and/or circling confusedly in the middle of the road, blocking entry to the parking lot; riding straight into the road willy-nilly; running red stoplights; and/or taking up the entirety of the sidewalk and forcing innocent pedestrians into the iceplant.

I do feel sorry for them. In their defense, there is no clear path or good choice at that point. That doesn’t make it any less annoying or dangerous. SF Bike Coalition, can you do something about this? Pretty please? Now that SF has the the okay to add a beautiful, luxurious amount of new bike lanes, can you talk them into fixing this teeny-tiny strip of insanity? Don’t let these out-of-towners spoil the name of polite SF bikers everywhere.

Seriously, no sarcasm there. Despite a few high-profile insane light-runners out there, I’ve found the bulk of SF bikers are safe, polite, and reasonable. I could be prejudiced, tho, since I’m one of them.