Fitness road hogs
Why is it that you see joggers cruising down the side of the road when there is a perfectly good sidewalk right next to them. What about the road induces a lemming-like need to run right next to traffic? In the space of three minutes this morning on the school run, I must have counted five joggers (for they were not running) running along side the road. The road in question is heavily travelled, so there is a constant risk of getting whacked by the driver putting on make-up or gabbing on the cell phone ... and there is also the exhaust that the joggers must breathe in along the way. This cannot be good for them in any possible way, shape or form. Road running has long been acknowledged to be hard on the knees, spine and feet ... so why do it? Just to shed a few pounds? Cardio fitness? If it is the weight, eat less, walk more. If it is the fitness, eat less and walk more. Try walking for 1/2 hour briskly three times a week. That should get you where you need to be, although it won't make you am 8% bodyfat type, they are ugly anyway!
And bike riders ... get a frikkin grip!!!! If you are on the road, you must obey the laws of the road as though you were a car. You get no extra privileges because you are being green, being fit, training for some stupid marathon ... nothing. You are a vehicle according to the laws of the land. That means stopping at lights. That means signalling your intentions. That means you can't just swerve into oncoming traffic and glare at car drivers because they nearly hit you. You are at fault just as if you had done the same move behind the wheel of your Toyota Pri-o-pustibule.
To be fair to the cyclists, I can understand that you might feel an endangered species when around SUVs because the little blond bubble headed Wellesley soccer mom can't see you and is talking on the phone anyway. But if you insist on having your cake and eating it too ... well bad things happen. A cyclist, like a motorcyclist ought to behave like he is a turkey a week before Thanksgiving: a target about to become dinner. Even if the motorist is totally in the wrong, and you are dead right, you may be ... well, dead. Oh boy. What a great vindication of your rights.
To be fair, the cyclist morons are almost exlusively male -- although the few females that express rage in this regard are so rabid as to require immediate recourse to hazmat suits and the ASPCA. But it seems to be the women that insist on running (OK, so I will retreat from jogging) in the road.
Lest I seem anti-environmental and a champion of the obese, I am not. I would LOVE it if we Americans started driving the little shit-boxes that pass for cars in Europe, made use of diesel fueled basic transportation. Diesel? Yes, diesel: in our lofty ignorance on this side of the pond we have ignored the revolution that has occurred in Europe in this regard. More than 50% of cars in Europe are diesel powered, the average fuel consumption of which is more than 40 mpg. That includes large BMW 530ds returning 40.9 mpg. ANd the smaller prol-cars? Many over 50 mpg. If we Americans could overnight adopt European car habits (not necessarily built there) across the board, we would drop consumption of fossil fuels in this country by 65-70%. Then we could tell the Arabs to bite themselves.
Oh, you scream, what about the pollution of those diesel? Well, No1., the engines are so small (typically 1.8 liter machines) that your lawn mower makes more pollution by far. Secondly, technology has come so far that the only thing more polluting about them is particulate emmisions, far fewer polluting gases than a gasoline engine. And the newest generation of diesels now produce equal or fewer particulates than gas engines. A huge problem in the States has been that diesel fuel had large quantities of sulfur in it: that was a result of allowance for poor engineering of engines and also cheaper refining for the oil companies (read more profit). With the advent of low sulfur fuels, there is NO reason to discount diesels. They don't smoke, don't smell, provide more power per gallon, more miles per gallon in ANY equal comparison, are more dependable, require fewer servicing visits. The list goes on. Why spend thousands more for a hybrid (with a battery that is an environmental nightmare and a limited life) that actually returns fewer miles per gallon than a similarly powerful diesel? Its crazy!!!
Those crafty Germans are plotting a double whammy: appease the greens with hyrbid technology (even though the battery question exists), and get even larger benefits by equiping the main motor with a diesel. The returns? Something like 60 mpg for a hybrid BMW 530. Meanwhile, Detroit is planning new push-rod, two valve garbage. Like 5 liter engines producing 185 hp, burning 21 mpg. No wonder we don't buy Detroit.
And bike riders ... get a frikkin grip!!!! If you are on the road, you must obey the laws of the road as though you were a car. You get no extra privileges because you are being green, being fit, training for some stupid marathon ... nothing. You are a vehicle according to the laws of the land. That means stopping at lights. That means signalling your intentions. That means you can't just swerve into oncoming traffic and glare at car drivers because they nearly hit you. You are at fault just as if you had done the same move behind the wheel of your Toyota Pri-o-pustibule.
To be fair to the cyclists, I can understand that you might feel an endangered species when around SUVs because the little blond bubble headed Wellesley soccer mom can't see you and is talking on the phone anyway. But if you insist on having your cake and eating it too ... well bad things happen. A cyclist, like a motorcyclist ought to behave like he is a turkey a week before Thanksgiving: a target about to become dinner. Even if the motorist is totally in the wrong, and you are dead right, you may be ... well, dead. Oh boy. What a great vindication of your rights.
To be fair, the cyclist morons are almost exlusively male -- although the few females that express rage in this regard are so rabid as to require immediate recourse to hazmat suits and the ASPCA. But it seems to be the women that insist on running (OK, so I will retreat from jogging) in the road.
Lest I seem anti-environmental and a champion of the obese, I am not. I would LOVE it if we Americans started driving the little shit-boxes that pass for cars in Europe, made use of diesel fueled basic transportation. Diesel? Yes, diesel: in our lofty ignorance on this side of the pond we have ignored the revolution that has occurred in Europe in this regard. More than 50% of cars in Europe are diesel powered, the average fuel consumption of which is more than 40 mpg. That includes large BMW 530ds returning 40.9 mpg. ANd the smaller prol-cars? Many over 50 mpg. If we Americans could overnight adopt European car habits (not necessarily built there) across the board, we would drop consumption of fossil fuels in this country by 65-70%. Then we could tell the Arabs to bite themselves.
Oh, you scream, what about the pollution of those diesel? Well, No1., the engines are so small (typically 1.8 liter machines) that your lawn mower makes more pollution by far. Secondly, technology has come so far that the only thing more polluting about them is particulate emmisions, far fewer polluting gases than a gasoline engine. And the newest generation of diesels now produce equal or fewer particulates than gas engines. A huge problem in the States has been that diesel fuel had large quantities of sulfur in it: that was a result of allowance for poor engineering of engines and also cheaper refining for the oil companies (read more profit). With the advent of low sulfur fuels, there is NO reason to discount diesels. They don't smoke, don't smell, provide more power per gallon, more miles per gallon in ANY equal comparison, are more dependable, require fewer servicing visits. The list goes on. Why spend thousands more for a hybrid (with a battery that is an environmental nightmare and a limited life) that actually returns fewer miles per gallon than a similarly powerful diesel? Its crazy!!!
Those crafty Germans are plotting a double whammy: appease the greens with hyrbid technology (even though the battery question exists), and get even larger benefits by equiping the main motor with a diesel. The returns? Something like 60 mpg for a hybrid BMW 530. Meanwhile, Detroit is planning new push-rod, two valve garbage. Like 5 liter engines producing 185 hp, burning 21 mpg. No wonder we don't buy Detroit.
posted by Zaphod at Friday, April 28, 2006
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