slightly less useful than a carphone
July 26, 2012 5:57 AM   Subscribe

Annoyed at people biking while on their mobile? It could've been so much worse.
posted by MartinWisse (36 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
That explains why Dutch bicycles are so sturdy.
posted by three blind mice at 6:08 AM on July 26, 2012


Are we sure this isn't just some Dutch version of Look Around You?
posted by Dr-Baa at 6:11 AM on July 26, 2012 [3 favorites]


If we gather enough hipsters, we CAN MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
posted by Fizz at 6:11 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


That's nothing. I've got a turntable mounted on my handlebars. It doesn't work all that well, but the looks I get, let me tell you...
posted by "But who are the Chefs?" at 6:22 AM on July 26, 2012


Worse? If this is what cycling and dialing looked like, there'd be so much less cycling and dialing.
posted by Western Infidels at 6:23 AM on July 26, 2012


I don't think I've ever seen a single person on a phone and a bike at the same time. A lot of spandex and helmets and intense looks of concentration, yes. Phones, no.
posted by DU at 6:24 AM on July 26, 2012


The man on the bike, Chriet Titulaer, who people made fun of because he looked like a Mormon

Amish. He looks Amish. This is funny because irony.

The relationship between Mormons and the chin curtain is not a special one: The style was popular in the 19th Century; now it isn't.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:25 AM on July 26, 2012 [3 favorites]


I don't think I've ever seen a single person on a phone and a bike at the same time. A lot of spandex and helmets and intense looks of concentration, yes. Phones, no.

I run on country roads in the Niagara region and I've seen this quite a bit. I can imagine it being much worse in the big city. To be fair, I've mostly seen this with teenagers.
posted by Fizz at 6:28 AM on July 26, 2012


Most of my bicycle-phoning consists of being on weird country roads, trying to map directions from where I am to back home, and wondering how the hell I ended up in the middle of nowhere when I meant to just do a short loop.

That or 5-minute 20-word texts that consists of *type 3 letters, realize I'm slowing down, put phone down and pedal furiously, type 3 letters, oh shit a car is coming, ...*

This, however, is awesome.
posted by Lemurrhea at 6:28 AM on July 26, 2012


DU, where do you live and can I move there? My neck of the woods is filled with people on phones on bikes. I've also noticed that cyclists with headphones on have gone from a rarity to commonplace the last few years. These people, I suppose, have decided that city cycling isn't already close enough to a real-life version of the "Paperboy" video game.
posted by "But who are the Chefs?" at 6:33 AM on July 26, 2012


Hopefully some poor guy who spent thousands of dollars for his then state-of-the-art computer bike does accidentally get stuck out in the rain. :D

Several decades before this, his great-grandfather made a similar ill-fated attempt to merge the bicycle with the printing press. Hilarious hijinks ensued.
posted by surazal at 6:42 AM on July 26, 2012


Oh, I dunno. i can think of worse.
posted by MuffinMan at 6:43 AM on July 26, 2012


DU, where do you live and can I move there? My neck of the woods is filled with people on phones on bikes. I've also noticed that cyclists with headphones on have gone from a rarity to commonplace the last few years.

That's nothing, I know somebody who used to watch movies on his laptop while biking. He claimed it was no different from reading while walking.
posted by MartinWisse at 6:52 AM on July 26, 2012


This is one of those moments where you teach your children about the difference between CAN and SHOULD.
posted by Fizz at 6:56 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


I see young teens on their bikes and on their phone. I still can't figure out how this is possible, but maybe having 30 years of hardcore cycling and nearly 80,000 miles logged over the years, it's too hard for me to learn new tricks.
posted by TinWhistle at 7:01 AM on July 26, 2012


I can think of even worse!
posted by Mooseli at 7:02 AM on July 26, 2012


I don't think I've ever seen a single person on a phone and a bike at the same time. A lot of spandex and helmets and intense looks of concentration, yes. Phones, no.

Come to Amsterdam, it's an epidemic.

What really scares me is the people who ride along while texting. Yes they're looking up every few seconds - but in between each upwards glance they're travelling 10 to 15 metres blind.
posted by rubbish bin night at 7:07 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


As a young ham radio operator with a bicycle, this was who I wanted to be:

http://microship.com/resources/technomadic-tools.html
posted by randomkeystrike at 7:15 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


This is one of my pet peeves -- both talking on the phone and texting. It's hideously dangerous. When I encounter someone doing this going in the opposite direction, I either laugh really derisively and loudly, or... well, I kind of hate myself for this, but if they're drifting over toward the middle of the road, sometimes I buzz them. I'm relying on the fact that I'm actually paying attention to keep us both safe, and I hope that it flusters them into stopping the behavior.
posted by gurple at 7:20 AM on July 26, 2012


(I should clarify that I only do this while on a bicycle, myself)
posted by gurple at 7:30 AM on July 26, 2012


Wow, phones & bikes. Yes, here in Denver all the time. I just can't do it. Frankly, I'm too paranoid and know I can't do either well. It's sort of like playing bass & singing for me. One at a time.
posted by evilDoug at 7:36 AM on July 26, 2012


I've made a few call and received a few calls while bicycling but it is rare enough that I have to think a while to remember when. As a matter of course it sounds solidly like a bad idea. I recall seeing bike messengers in DC who could ride no hands between cars while talking on a phone, but they are different beasts altogether. In their case I presume they are taking a call about their next delivery.
posted by dgran at 7:39 AM on July 26, 2012


I guess this means the Dutch (or at least the blogger) haven't seen many Mormons on bicycles.

There is a distinct Mormon on bicycle look, IMO. white shirt, dark pants, tie, decent shoes and mountain bike seems very common. Here's an example:

http://kirstincronn-mills.blogspot.com/2010/04/loving-on-lovers-2-mormons-on-bikes.html

Here's more:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1333&bih=706&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=mormons+on+bicycles&oq=mormons+on+bicycles&gs_l=img.12...0.0.0.6316.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1c.B15Lw9-_K7M

Cycling on the phone sounds like a bad idea where I am. The Dutch bicycling culture is very different from the US, isn't it?
posted by jclarkin at 7:50 AM on July 26, 2012


Why am I not surprised that this comes from The Netherlands?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:51 AM on July 26, 2012


Hipster one-upmanship:

add an acoustic coupler and a MacPortable.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:06 AM on July 26, 2012


I distinctly remember an episode of Tomorrow's World from the late-80s/early-90s that featured a guy with a computer built into his recumbent bike. The best part of it was that he typed using a 4-bit input system. I can't remember if it was done using two buttons on each handle bar or a separate hand-held chorded input device, but either way, he insisted it was easier and faster than regular typing and - of course - he could type while biking! Does anyone else remember this? I'd love to see a video again.
posted by rh at 8:06 AM on July 26, 2012


As a young ham radio operator with a bicycle, this was who I wanted to be:

Oh, duh, that's probably the guy I was thinking of. He actually looks a lot cooler than I remembered.
posted by rh at 8:12 AM on July 26, 2012


I've recently re-started cycling to work on occasion. I can't imagine having the breath to talk on the phone while riding, never mind the control - the roads between home and work are of dubious quality, at best, so just staying in a straight line and avoiding swerving into the curb or traffic are hard enough for me.
posted by antifuse at 8:25 AM on July 26, 2012


It's hideously dangerous. When I encounter someone doing this going in the opposite direction, I either laugh really derisively and loudly, or... well, I kind of hate myself for this, but if they're drifting over toward the middle of the road, sometimes I buzz them.

About how often do you imagine that they fail to get the message you're attempting to convey and just think you're an idiot? 90% of the time, is my guess.

I would never talk on the phone while bicycling. Actually I consider it a small personal failure if I bring a phone at all. But I wouldn't look down on people who do so, any more than I'd care if they're wearing spandex or not wearing a helmet. Bicyclist snobbery sucks.
posted by sfenders at 9:02 AM on July 26, 2012


About how often do you imagine that they fail to get the message you're attempting to convey and just think you're an idiot? 90% of the time, is my guess.

Yeah. Like I said, I kind of hate myself for it.

On the other hand, maybe they'll think, "geez, there are a lot of idiots out here. They make it too dangerous to text while cycling."

Also, I don't hate those people out of some kind of snobbery. I hate them because I've seen them cause accidents with people who were behaving reasonably.
posted by gurple at 9:31 AM on July 26, 2012


When I first moved to Germany I marveled at how much people could do while they biked. First, talking on their phone. Next, talking on their phone AND smoking a cigarette. And then the best: talking on the phone, smoking a cigarette, AND holding up an umbrella, all while biking.
posted by wanderingstan at 9:33 AM on July 26, 2012


Is that thing like an omafiets with a kid seat behind or does it have an Eames shell chair in place of a saddle?
posted by last night a dj saved my life at 9:46 AM on July 26, 2012


About how often do you imagine that they fail to get the message you're attempting to convey and just think you're an idiot? 90% of the time, is my guess.


But that's fine. They think "damn, with all the idiots on this road I'd better not be texting — I've got to be looking our for the idiots." Yeah, they didn't get the right message, but there will be less people injured/dead.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:59 AM on July 26, 2012


A week ago, I saw a guy in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle bike past the sidewalk cafe I was sitting in. He was holding a takeout container of food and eating from it with a fork. He was biking down a busy street that gets a lot of cars and a little bit of bike traffic.

He was doing this entirely to be seen doing it. I saw him bike past two more times in the next 15 minutes, still eating his dinner, and then once more, texting.

I don't hate him because I dislike the image he's going for; I find that image, as an image, actually kind of fun. I hate him because, if a pedestrian stepped out in front of him, there's no way he could do anything about it, and in addition to the bike-on-person impact they could both get run over quite easily.
posted by gurple at 10:15 AM on July 26, 2012


I agree with you gurple. Sadly, the lizard part of my brain takes it a step further, and tells me "Well, as a pedestrian seeing what is clearly a danger to all pedestrians, I should probably just push him over the next time he goes by." Luckily, my higher faculties stop me from acting on this.
posted by benito.strauss at 10:51 AM on July 26, 2012


I don't think I've ever seen a single person on a phone and a bike at the same time.

I once saw a guy talking on his phone while riding on the wrong side of the road on a moderately busy street without wearing a helmet. I'll give him credit for the fact that he seemed astonished at himself -- "I can't believe I'm actually doing this!"
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:47 PM on July 26, 2012


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