Are there no bicycle riders on the Dragon? Here in Vermont, the best twisty mountain roads are also favorites of the bicyclists. So crossing the white line is just as dangerous as crossing the yellow.

 

I saw a couple. Maybe I was shaking my fist, I don't recall.

I'm all for cyclists, but when the insist on riding a double yellow road I personally feel that they don't belong.

 

For now, I decided not to post the photos I have of one particular lane crossing MINI. When I went through some of the weekend's photos by killboy, I found this same MINI to be crossing the line in many photos, so this person does need to be warned about their driving if they come again next year.

I wonder if the road would be safer or more dangerous if they added a rumble strip or raised reflectors between the two yellow lines?

The last couple years, we've had several cars go off the road. Thankfully there have been no tragedies, but we must continue to preach the gospel of staying in your own lane.

 

That may be your feeling, but it's not the law. Cyclists are legally allowed on the road, so you are legally required to account for their potential presence in your driving habits. If you carve out a blind right curve at 40 mph and injure or kill someone who is riding legally, it is 100% your fault. You will be criminally liable, and sued by the family.

I personally think that to bicycle on that road is incredibly dangerous and massively stupid, but until they outlaw it...

 

I say post them. All of them. We should have a "hall of shame" gallery every year for blatant line crossers (and I don't just mean the wheels touching or being "on" the line).

Since there is little legal recourse, it seems that peer pressure is the most effective tool. And those who come back to MOTD again should want to avoid being in the HoS gallery for a second year in a row!

 

I would say that adding any of these features to the road will greatly increase the risks. A rumble strip or any raised features will cause a sudden change in traction/adhesion when encountered. If you drive onto a right-hand rumble strip during a sharp left turn, the 'bouncing' of the tires riding the strip will essentially lose traction and and probably cause a wipe-out. Likewise, and even more dangerous, adding a center rumble strip or raised (or even recessed, given it's a snow area in winter) reflectors can easily drop a cyclist who might touch tire to the center on an inside turn. Even the painted stripes on the road tend to be slippery compared to the road surface, especially when wet. A typical rumble strip is about a foot wide. The Dragon and nearby roads are already narrow enough as it is.

The old rule of staying in your lane at all costs works best. Adding nanny features makes things worse.

 

Amen Bear.

People aren't crossing the center line becuase they don't know it's there. They're crossing the center line because they're idiots who don't care that it's there, or who don't know their own limits. Artificially decreasing the already slim margin of error on that road by adding "nanny features" would be disastrous. Because the same idiots would do the same idiotic things. The occurrances would just be more frequently tragic.

 

Greatbear is right. Those kinds of things would be disasterous for motorcycles. The painted yellow lines themselves can be like ice when wet and there are thermo-plastic ones that are even worse.

Things you don't even think about in a car are hell on a bike. Years ago, the first time I encountered a stretch of corners with that soft, rubbery crack filler I thought there was something seriously wrong with my bike. I stopped and checked the suspension etc.. because it felt like my bike suddenly had a hinge in the middle. It was just moving around on the rubbery stuff.

 

You know it is possible to take a perfect line without crossing the double yellow, just image it is the other edge of the "track"

 

I like that idea, Edge. But why not for anytime? Pictures should be posted on any mini being motored in a stupid way. Reminds me of a website I saw where motorists post the state & plate numbers of aggressive (or stupid) drivers.

 

Erected in late 2007, the "dragon wall" proved very unpopular with riders and drivers alike...



thanks blalor for the photo.

 

^^^ You dang sure wouldn't have to worry about people going too fast if they were running alongside a concrete wall

 

Craig, You Rock. Hard.

 

LOL - nice one Craig... although a more realistic solution would be those thin plastic poles that stick up out of the ground. Wouldn't take long for them to all be vandalized though.

 

The wall might also deter bears from meandering across the road

 

Except, being the startlingly brilliant animals they are, they would decide the wall was a nice thing to scratch their sides / butts against. Regularly. And with gusto. Mostly on Saturdays between 11AM and 7PM. And late on the first Saturday night / Sunday morning in May.

 

^ well, then . . . we also need walls on the white lines -- keeps the bears out, and protects the bicyclists from the MINIs -- although that would still leave the bicyclists open to snacking by bears

Edit: remember -- you don't have to outrun the bear, just your fellow biker

 

How about an electric fence, then?

 

The motorcylers might not appreciate that too much...
zzzzzt zzzzzzt zzzzt

 

Electric fence, Wall, Nail sticks...Well maybe not the nails, then we would have people stopped in the middle of the road for someone else to hit. But as we all saw with the Pass *** of last year...he didn't show up this year did he? I surely don't remember seeing that specific EB around...Guess peer pressure has something to do with it as well.
At least this year's crossers weren't as bad as last years, scared the out of me almost hitting people he was so bad.
But I say post all the offenders pictures so we all know who to avoid!!

 

I gotta admit, I saw a pic of me going over the yellows---as I was pulling off the side of the road to help some friends who had a problem, and they were watching the other direction for me to make sure it was safe to do so. Of course looking at the photo, you can't tell that is what was going on.

The rest of the time, I think I was where I was supposed to be. I know I sure tried to be on the right side all the time.

 

Wow. It's one thing to take a needless risk with your own life, but to completely disregard the potential for killing someone else is just disgusting. I hate to think there are members of the MINI community like that. Why even come to MOTD to see other MINIs and MINIacs if you have no respect for their well-being? "Pass Asses" indeed. No one is perfect, but blatant, repeated crossing of the yellows is inexcusable.

 

How are these?


Hmmmm?




Hmmm?




No question here




And surely no question here

 

Terrible, all of them! Shame on you... a GP too? Tsk tsk! Boooo!

(come on everybody... pile on! Hehe)