Arguing with anti-cyclists on the net

[OakLeaf]

There is an ingrained respect for pedestrians on the road.

Some places, maybe.

Just last week, someone was charged for a hit-skip that happened in Florida in March. She ran down two 14-year-old girls, killing one of them, and took off. Seven months later, having admitted she was messing with her phone when it happened, she's being charged only with leaving the scene, NOT with vehicular homicide. The prosecutor explained it's because the girls were wearing the wrong color clothes and walking on the wrong side of the road.

No respect for anyone not in a car - bicyclist, pedestrian, or even motorcyclist - in most places that I'm aware of.


I have to say, I have the scripts that allow comments on newspapers turned off for security reasons, but most of the time I'm really glad I don't have to see the comments.

[Melalvai]

I rarely engage online, but I did a few months ago after the tv website had just switched to facebook comments, and they covered a bike-car collision (no fatalities). Because they'd just switched to the facebook thing I was able to see that the idiots were in high school. (Knowing that bit of background made a difference in how I viewed the comments.) So I patiently explained that no, the school track is not a viable alternative to highways. Neither is the 3/4 mile bike path in town. How fast the conversation dried up.

But mostly I stay out of it. If I get the least bit upset I get out of there.

[shootingstar]

That's awful lph on that fatality.

I dunno. I find I don't want to engage in sparring with people on the 'Net about cyclists.

But it's worse when I know some people in my work group just....don't respect cyclists. They haven't said it to my face except for maybe once or twice. It's the face to face "conflict" that gets pushed underground that is a nagging irritation at times.

[Geonz]

I remember seeing that Slate article and figured it said where our culture still was with that category of people. Slashdot also had an article about the increase in cycling what with high gas prices here, and most comments definitely considered people who rode bikes to be a "them, not us" group, and definitely a lower echelon of so-called human. There were a couple of people posting who were cyclists and explained its benefits and those posts got good ratings for being, if I remember right, "interesting" rather than "insightful" (though I'm not sure ... but I remember figuring that yes, the overwhelming majority of nerds (slashdot is "news for nerds") seemed to be sedentary.

It's that idea that the car-centric lifestyle is righteous and good that is galling... but it's typical human behavior. If there's a change we don't want to make, we tend to defensively arrange our opinions around that change being inferior... people who have made the change, therefore, must be beneath us so we don't have to face what we don't want to face.

Whether I post depends on where my head is. I'll put something out there if I can do it constructively, because I figure some readers will be bikers too, and because I *don't* like the cliquey escalations that happen when people start feeding off each other.

I know some folks in my realm disdain me but there are 2 car-free folks in our department (and we're not even in New York ) -- and a fair number of staff folks here ride at least some of the time.

[ZenBiker]

It's that idea that the car-centric lifestyle is righteous and good that is galling...

Where I live, oil and natural gas production is king. The local economy depends on it, and people tend to equate it with patriotism as well (domestic production = stronger, more independent nation). Cyclists are often viewed with deep suspicion, assumed to be anti-oil and a therefore a threat to the American way of life. Or at the very least, weird.

It probably sounds like I'm exaggerating. Certainly not everyone in town feels this way, but here's a sampling of the bumper stickers I see on the way to work, mostly on the back of really big pickups:
Earth First. We'll Drill The Other Planets Later
If You Believe in Climate Change, Ride a Polar Bear to Work
I ❤ Drilling (this one is everywhere)

Kind of hard to feel welcome on these streets.

[shootingstar]

Where I live, oil and natural gas production is king. The local economy depends on it, and people tend to equate it with patriotism as well (domestic production = stronger, more independent nation). Cyclists are often viewed with deep suspicion, assumed to be anti-oil and a therefore a threat to the American way of life. Or at the very least, weird.

It probably sounds like I'm exaggerating. Certainly not everyone in town feels this way, but here's a sampling of the bumper stickers I see on the way to work, mostly on the back of really big pickups:
Earth First. We'll Drill The Other Planets Later
If You Believe in Climate Change, Ride a Polar Bear to Work
I ❤ Drilling (this one is everywhere)

Kind of hard to feel welcome on these streets.

Wow. I haven't quite seen bumper stickers like that in our neck of the woods. I'm sorry that is truly ruthless and obnoxious...for an industry if you visited such areas (oil sands)...would be a form of dystopia literally and psychologically.

But then there are people who strut around in their shirts or jackets with an oil sand company logo. Totally relate to you Zen. Alberta is Canada's oil and natural gas producing province. Well, hey it's the notorious Enbridge Company in Alberta that wants to ram a pipeline through the U.S. from the oil sands area ...and across to British Columbia which is getting alot of opposition. Now they're thinking of rerouting to eastern Canada.

The oil companies fund some of the environmental organizations here...some of it is genuine, some it is greenwashing. Yes, of course there's a number of dedicated cyclists who are dedicated employees of oil firms..just as I'm sure there are here.

At least I haven't heard or sensed that being a cyclist was being unpatriotic or un-Canadian. We're just wierd and minor pain in the neck for the oil industry lovers....who are more interested in stuff related to millions of revenue...not bikes, for Pete's sake.

Right now there is public venting because the City has a new policy to clear 10 kms. of road bike lanes of snow regularily in the downtown area ---out of hundreds of thousands city roads..and quite a number of drivers are going ballistic over this.

I lie low...make polite empathetic noises to employees who complain to me that their suburban the roads never get snow-cleared.

Zen, be assured that are a few in the oil industry who don't feel that type of aggressive BS about cyclists at all. Here is dearie... http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2011/...le-conference/ (He hates the reference oil man because he was never in an executive role in the firm.)

[ZenBiker]

Great article, thanks for posting the link! Hope the conference was a success.

Someone asked me recently what I'd do if I could pick a second career. I said I would choose urban planner, specializing in bikable, walkable communities. Now, whether I do anything with that idea or not remains to be seen...