The ten blocks of green asphalt on 2nd street are confusing to everyone. People on bikes do a lot of dumb stuff like running lights and stop signs. They give the daily guys like me a bad rap. That's life. Car drivers do a lot of dumb stuff too. The people on cells phones, especially the texters are growing in number. The accident rate will only increase with the texting. I see people stopping at green lights, not being in tune after red lights turn green and everyone in front of them has pulled away. They are still caught up in the 2 inch by 2 inch screen either reading or finishing a message not aware that they are stopped dead on the road with traffic barreling down behind them.

I am always amazed at how much car drivers hate cyclists. People take the time to honk, yell, cut me off, throw stuff at me. That's a lot more effort than waiting the occasional five extra seconds to pass around me and go about your way. We feel powerless by much of our lives in these tough times, so if we can take the power for two seconds and piss someone off and yell at them it seems to relieve at a lot of pressure. It's not the world it could be with people working together doing the Rodney King "why can't we all just get along" thing.

We're not going to get along, at least I don't see it happening for a long time. Now, I'll tell you straight out. 99.9% of the drivers out there are awesome! They cut me a little slack when needed and I stay to the right and out of their way. I stop at lights and wear a freakin helmet and look out for pedestrians. When I see kids doing dangerous stuff or riding without a helmet, I talk to them. I am a force of good out there. An army of one. I appreciate all the good drivers out there.

I've been hit by cars about a dozen times over the years. I've been rear ended by a truck. I've been in the ER knocked silly, but I'm a rider. That's what I do. Others are drivers, that's what they do. We can all do our thing and if we can learn to be reasonable with each other, that would be sweet!

Long Beach needs bike lanes. That helps drivers not hate us for being outside or being on their asphalt, or being in their way. That 0.1% packs a lot of rage my friends and they like being scary. The wheel of karma will spin around to us all one day so it's not anyone's job to lash out at the road ragers. They're working on their own heart attacks.

Long Beach needs bike lanes before they can think about calling it a bike friendly town. Riding through most of LB is rough and tight and I can't imagine doing it without a helmet. It must be nice to have that sense that everything is cool and that I can ride along, la la la, without a helmet and everything is good.

Here's one that really gets me wondering. Most bike cops, at least on 2nd street, don't wear bike helmets. Kids see them and this is not good role modeling. I've asked them why they don't wear helmets and get the most amazing looks of confusion of how can you ask me that mixed with I'd like to make you real quiet real fast. As taxpayers, I don't think we should foot the bill if a bike cop gets a head injury that could be avoided if they wore a helmet.

Did I mention that LB needs bike lanes if it is going to attempt to call itself a bike friendly town. I ride 250-600 miles a week, no bull. I love riding in Palos Verdes. Getting through LB to get there is a trip. PCH through the port is a heck of an adventure, lots of rough roads, tight streets, and tons of danger. The big rigs through the port area are cool though and that helps. The rest of it is a crap shoot.

Good luck with the discussions and plans to educate people, but until we put in more bike lanes, talk is just cheap talk. No more of that green asphalt on 2nd street that looks black at night and just confuses everyone. Shared road ways what? Bike lanes people, bike lanes.

Now 99.9% of all drivers, I thank you everyday for your good driving skills. It's probably about 80% of bike riders that are safe and courteous to all on the roads. We need to work on that group of 20% a bit before they lose a fight with a heavy metal object. Wear helmets, breathe, try to calm the road rage beast that lives in all of us. We're all just people at the end of the day. We eat, we breathe, we live with our parents, children, friends, spouses, xboxes, cell phones, and the good ole internet. We really don't need to beat the crap out of each other every morning. We really don't. Did I mention that LB needs bike lanes if wants a shot at calling itself bike friendly? Peace!

Everyone, when you're out at night, please have at least a tiny bit of reflective clothing or gear on so we see each other and so cars see us. Even a dime-sized piece of relective material on your shoe can save your life. There are also animal collars with reflective material to help keep our pets safe. My dog and I were nearly killed in Belmont when a driver did a "California stop" at a stop sign and nearly took his right turn on top of us on an otherwise quiet street.

Travel in all forms is dangerous. This dialogue is helpful so we can all start to understand each other. The city needs to create the systems, then we can put it into action. Good luck to all of us!