On Being called the "Spandex Menace"
A letter to the editor of the Little Rock paper this week was titled "The Spandex Menace" referring to cyclists here in Little Rock. Since they won't list a link please bear with the long story, but I would like your opinions on how our cycling community should respond to people such as this. I both cycle, walk, drive and use all the roadways and multi-use paths in this city. We don't really have any dedicated "bikes only" paths they are almost all multiuse paths. We also have a few bike lanes.
The story reads:
"The Spandex Menace"
A plague has decended upon Little Rock and beyond. Not locusts or frogs, but the helmeted, multicolored, spandex-wearing, two-wheeled variety of pest, hundreds of which spill out of every park and back road and onto our major highways.
It would appear that the many miles of special cycleways so generously afforded them are not enough.
Entirely self-absorbed, they are concerned about no one's safety and comfort but their own, even though they are clearly at greater risk of death or injury than the more legitimate road users.
Of course, it would not occur to these selfish fools that their presence on major roads constitutes a grave hazard to motorists as well as to themselves. Driving is dangerous enough these days without adding swerving cyclists to the lethal mix.
I believe the law should demand that all cyclists confine themselves to the many designated cycle paths in the city and surrounding area and stay well away from motorways.
Many years ago, when fewer cars exhisted, it was relatively safe for cyclists to share the roads with the formerly much slower motorists. These days it is sheer madness.
Finally, I should add that cyclists are almost as much a menace to pedestrians as they are to motorists.
I won't put the gentleman's name that wrote that letter, but I hope he is never behind me on a road:eek:.
