Arguing with anti-cyclists on the net

[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...

[smilingcat]

Perception about cyclists are wrong.

When I still had a job, one of my co-workers quipped "... Guy thought I had too many DUI's and was forced to ride a bicycle to commute..."

The jist I get is that cyclists ride a bicycle because we have some flaw, personal, moral or financial flaw thus less than the average person out on the street.

No you can't really change those who are unwilling to see other views let alone even begin to understand that other views are just as valid as their's. They do not see cyclists as another human being. Something less than they themselves. Thus they are callous when they say, they (cyclists) deserve to be hit and killed. It's okay because in their mind cyclists have been dehumanized just as military train soldiers to view the enemy as not as human, to dehumanize the enemy such that it becomes easier for the soldier to kill.

I can't wait till our infrastructure changes to be more bike centric. "Mom what are those loud things on the road? Big boxy thing with 4 big tires and making gawd awful noise and spewing out smelly gas" me "Honey, those are automobiles when people burnt gasoline indiscriminately to get around. That was the age when gas was really cheap. The people who operated those things were drivers and they felt superior to all of us who rode our bicycles."