Venom in an unexpected place...

[IFjane]

At least for me.

The thread below is from a well-known equestrian magazine discussion board. I was contacted by a friend who has horses & hunts with the local club because I am a former equestrian-turned-cyclist and she wanted my perspective. When I read it, it was much shorter than it is now (up to 8 pages when I last checked). I responded to her directly after reading the thread and she asked if she could post my comments. I told her yes & she did, not that it did any good. There are a few folks who defend cyclists in there but they are mostly being shouted down. Sad.

For some reason I never expected this kind of hatred coming from horse owners. I must be naive but I thought they would be more ally than not. *sigh*

http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=265218

If, for some reason that link does not work and you want to take a look, go to their discussion forums and look under "Off Course". The title of the thread is "Train Wreck of the Day: Cyclists".

[ny biker]

I only read the first post because I have a general policy of ignoring things that make me mad. This person is factually wrong and just plain pissed off and is highly unlikely to change. They also have a serious case of what I like to call "The World Revolves Around Me and Everyone Else Can Go **** Off" -- e.g., my horses are special and cannot be delayed so everyone else must get off the public road when I want to use it.

Best to just let them fester on their own.

[Eden]

Agreed.... sure there are times when there are cyclists who tick off drivers, there are also plenty of times when other drivers tick off drivers...

She seems to be unaware how threatening a trailer can be. If there she couldn't move over to pass the cyclists, it is unlikely that there was room to pass them safely even if they had singled up.

She also spews some pretty bad misconceptions -paved roads are only for cars etc.... Sadly most drivers have no idea that cars got their foothold because of the nice paved roads that *cyclists* agitated the government for and got. Paved roads were originally made for bikes......

[Dannielle]

And that is why I'm scared to death to ride on the roads (I ride on a MUP). Non-cyclists are not aware that cyclists are to use the road like any other wheeled vehicle. They don't understand that "riding four across and blocking the road so I can't pass" is what cyclists are SUPPOSED to do when passing isn't safe. It's how they prevent impatient people from trying to pass when they shouldn't and possibly endangering their life...and it's completely legal.

Amazing that some suggest calling the police. To report cyclist following the rules of the road while preventing you from killing someone??? Crazy. And sad.

I've been in the car with people who were complaining about cyclist riding on the road instead of the sidewalk! Yeah, by the time they got out of the car they had been informed that cycling on the sidewalk is illegal and cyclists are supposed to be on the road with the other wheeled vehicles.

I also call BS on the person saying she was following the 25mph speed limit down a hill but cyclist were holding her up with their slowness. We all know a road bike has no problem managing 25mph downhill.

[zoom-zoom]

We have neither the protection of pedestrians nor the right of motorists.

This is the crux of it all. Around here the same drivers who want us off the roads feel entitled to park their cars on the MUP, making it unridable.

[tctrek]

If we paid attention to everyone who doesn't like cyclists, none of us would ever ride. I choose to ignore... at least my bike doesn't poop on the road.

[channlluv]

...I also call BS on the person saying she was following the 25mph speed limit down a hill but cyclist were holding her up with their slowness. We all know a road bike has no problem managing 25mph downhill.

Ha! A lot of us on this board could manage 25mph going up the hill. (I wish I were one of them.)

There was an awful lot of vitriol on that board. I thought horse people were supposed to be nice.

It seems like we need a national education PSA campaign to teach people about the correct way to accommodate cyclists on the roads.

Roxy

[zoom-zoom]

Actually, I was thinking about this the other day. Michelle Obama has the 'end childhood obesity' campaign as her term goal. Couldn't we write and give her access to comments like those in that horse thread? Plus share experiences with traffic problems? Point out the attitudes and that pushing cycling as exercise and lifelong transportation would go a long way towards attaining her ending obesity in children goal?

If she included a public education campaign on how to drive around cyclists and the history of cycling in her work life could be a lot safer.



Hmm. Maybe I should start a thread in general cycling. If we could get it together and have a lot of us write to her, it might make a difference.

I like this. She could even talk to Ray LaHood...their combined forces could go far, I would think.