Bicycles, Common Courtesy, and the Law

It's been too long since my last post to this blog.

Here's what's on my mind this morning: bicycles, or more particularly, bicyclists.

I've been seeing a lot more bicyclists riding around the Roanoke Valley and environs lately.  This is fine.  I love bicycles and should probably ride more often myself.  However! ... I have a bone to pick with some of you bicyclists.

A few days ago I was driving westbound on Harborwood Road in West Salem, a few miles east of Poor Mountain Road, and there were a dozen or so bicyclists traveling the same direction on the same road.  Most were courteous enough to ride on the the far right side of the pavement, allowing motor vehicle traffic to pass, but one in particular was discourteous and inconsiderate enough to stay right in the middle of the lane, travelling well below the posted speed limit, and preventing the car behind him (in this case, driven by me) from passing.

The very next day I was driving across Mill Mountain toward Roanoke, and as I was on the downhill side approaching the beginning of Walnut Ave., I observed three bicyclists riding abreast, travelling the opposite direction (i.e. going uphill).  Directly behind them were three cars, unable to pass due to the solid yellow line.  I would estimate the speed of the bicycles at approximately 10 to 15 miles per hour.  Though the speed limit there is 30 miles per hour, the cyclists acted as though they had the perfect right to impede the progress of the three cars behind them and made no attempt whatsoever, at least for the time that I saw them, to move to the right in single file.

Like any sensible and responsible human being driving a car, I always slow down and exercise caution when passing bicycles on any road.  But what makes you bicyclists think you have the right to ride in the middle of the lane and impede the normal flow of motor vehicle traffic?  I'm not talking about when there's no one behind you.  I'm talking about when there is an automobile right behind you, forced to decelerate, travel below the speed limit and is unable to pass because of your desire to pretend you have the right to ride your bike in the middle of the road.  I have a news flash for you: You do not have that right, as this page from the Code of Virginia clearly states.

That law is there to facilitate the coexistence of bicycles and motor vehicles on our roadways.  Responsible citizens observe these laws rather than criminally disregard them.

New Job

I’m happy to report that I was offered an IT position with a local company and that I have accepted.  Nice company.  Nice benefits package.  Good people.  I’m looking forward to putting my geeky computer skills to work and learning all kinds of new and wonderful stuff ... and, oh yeah, getting a paycheck again.  That will be nice.

How Political and World Events Affect the Dow Jones Industrial Average

Here's a little study I put together that illustrates how the Dow Jones Industrial Average fared in response to world events and the changing balance of power in U.S. government.

Quote of the Day

"Superiority is always detested."—Baltasar Gracian

Insourcing? Now There’s a Concept!

Here’s something interesting.  I was just reading a blog article written by a guy named Munjal Shah, the CEO of a company called Riya.  In this article he describes setting up an office in Bangalore, India, in 2002 for a company called Andale, “because,” as Shah explains, “India provided us with a less expensive pool of talent than Silicon Valley did.”

This is the same, very familiar reason given in recent years by countless companies for their need to control costs by outsourcing their IT work to overseas markets.  But guess what.  If Riya serves as any sort of useful barometer of the outsourcing situation, then that tide may be turning.

Here are a few excerpts from Mr. Shah’s article:

Bangalore wages have just been growing like crazy.  To give you an example, there is an employee of ours who took the first 5 years of his career to get from 1% to 10% of his equivalent US counterpart.  He then jumped from 10% to 20% of his US counterpart in the next 1 year.  During his time with us (less than 2 years) he jumped to 55% of the US wage.  In the next few months we would have had to move him to 75% just to “keep him at market.”

[. . .]

However, this huge run up in the wages has destroyed the ROI I referred to earlier.  So today we decided to consolidate all of our engineering and research efforts back to our HQ in California.  We are relocating many of our key folks back to the US, but there are some that we are not bringing back.  Our goal was to keep the payroll costs the same before and after the move. Because wages are still higher in the US we couldn’t bring everyone.

Interesting turn of events, is it not?  It brings to mind the efficient market theories and visions of the ol’ inverse supply and demand curves, establishing market equilibrium, that I had to burn into the grey matter in Economics classes.

Articles such as this one are quite welcome and encouraging to out-of-work IT people in the States, among whom I am one (although I did have what I thought to be a productive interview today; we shall see where it leads).

Gov. John Corzine's Hypocrisy

Did you see New Jersey Governor John Corzine’s emotional statement to the press as he exited Cooper University Hospital in Camden yesterday?  In part of that statement he said, “I understand I set a very poor example for a lot of young people, a lot of people in general. I hope the state will forgive me.  I will work very hard to set the right kind of example.”  I thought, Well, at least he’s big enough to take that responsility and to admit, in so many words, that what he did was pretty stupid.

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past three weeks, Gov. Corzine was seriously injured on April 12, when the SUV in which he was traveling—in the passenger seat—at 91 MPH and without a seatbelt—lost control and struck a guardrail on the Garden State Parkway in Galloway Township.  The governor was on his way from Atlantic City to the governor’s mansion to be present at a meeting between fired radio personality, Don Imus, and the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

Anyway, as I was saying, I thought: Wow! I’m really glad to hear Mr. Corzine say that, about setting such a poor example and all.  I could learn to like this guy.  At the time it didn’t even dawn on me to consider whether he really meant it.  I just felt so sorry for him, his having been so traumatically injured and very nearly killed, I assumed he was quite serious when he said he will “work very hard to set the right kind of example,” and I thought that maybe something good can come out of this tragedy after all.

That was all before reading in the New York Times today that as the governor’s motorcade transported him to Drumthwacket it at times sustained speeds of up to 70 MPH, where the posted limits are 55 and 65.  This has to rank right up there among the most quickly broken promises made by any politician anywhere.  And if I may say so, it’s one of the stupidest, most assinine things I can recall anyone doing in a long, long time.  Working very hard, my eye!  Governor, if you had spent one tenth the effort at working to set the proper example in this instance as you do at building yourself up in the press, you might have really had a shot at making a bit of a difference.  As it is now, everyone sees you as the unabashed hypocrite that you are.