Dumb comment for 6/18

The Idaho Statesman website has had an ongoing series of articles regarding bicycles, as a result of the recent cyclist fatalities. And readers can post their opinions and observations. The rules implore people to stay on topic and to keep it civil, but those rules are frequently either misunderstood or ignored.

Sometimes I start reading the postings. I wish there were some way to filter out all those that are totally off-topic, and the back-and-forth name-calling, etc. (Some people are still in elementary recess school-yard mode!)

Other opinions are very well-thought-out. And in the case of the "bike controversy," some of the "anti-bike" comments make me squirm a little, because people bring up good points about why they're frustrated by bicyclists.

Some of the comments are just plain ignorant. And some are absolutely mind-bendingly ignorant, and I feel they deserve some special recognition.

The undisputed winner for today comes from a poster named Storm180, and goes like this:

I can see a lot of people here in Boise are cyclist and a lot of them are idiots also. I see them always riding side by side on hill, 8th street, bogus, camelbacks, etc. This is dangerous, you want to talk to your friend get a voice activated 2 way radio and talk to him while riding. Don't impede traffic. I especially dislike the morons that ride bogus basin every single one of these idiots think that they own the road, well guess what you don't. You idiots wearing your spandex and colorful jerseys need to respect the other vehicles of the road plain and simple. My method works really well, if they are bigger than you they go first, they have the right away. It has kept me alive even when riding a bike. Also take the damn ear buds out you ear so you can hear the cars or horn beeps.

Most of it is just fairly typical rant. (Stuff that you can't take too seriously, that might've been cut-n-pasted from 50 other comments. You hope ol' Storm is just blowin' off some steam.) But that part about determining who has right-of-way ("right away" - hahahahaha!) based on who's bigger... interesting!

I'm curious... what's the method of measurement? Would it be vehicle dimensions (length x width x height)? Or GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating)? Would a fully-loaded dump truck get the right of way over an empty one?

Do you s'pose Storm drives a Geo Metro? Not likely, huh?

Maybe at registration time, each vehicle should get a "big score" from 1-9, that's posted prominently on the front and back. Bikes are ZERO, of course! Geo Metro, 1. Camry, maybe 3. F150 pickup, 5. F250, 6, F350, 7, etc. If you've got extra chrome and a gun rack, maybe you should get one bonus point. And of course at every intersection, lane change, etc., you have to carefully scan the horizon for vehicles with a higher score than yours, and the highest number goes first.