A Fundamental Issue Revealed

Occasionally (like every day) I read Bike Snob NYC. It is an irreverent, funny, and often R-rated blog about bicycling. Not for everyone, I am sure. 

This morning the Bike Snob pointed out an all too-common behavior that drives me nuts: people citing stupid and dangerous behavior of people on bikes as a greater concern than the stupid and dangerous behavior of people in cars.

 

Idiot who thinks bikes are a bigger hazard than cars

 By the way, I have no idea about the meaning of the picture (was in the blog today), but it suggests to me the mentality of 'TT', the person who wrote to the NY Times (text in italics below) in response to an article about the recent death of a bicyclist. Here is the excerpt from today's Bike Snob NYC:

Yesterday I mentioned a New York Times article that, despite itself, proved we have a serious problem in this city with drivers running people over.  While the person who wrote the article made some dumb points, the people reading it are apparently even dumber, because one of them left this comment:

TT
new york

I was hit by a bike five days after Martha was killed, just a few blocks away.

Her situation was tragic. I was lucky. The bike food delivery messenger was not wearing a glow in the dark vest, had no ID, no bell on the bike, no basket
in the back for the food and was peddling quickly the wrong way.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been hit and injured, unfortunately.
What to do about reckless bike riders and bike messengers?

March 11, 2013 at 12:07 a.m.

Yes, you are lucky.  You're lucky the delivery person was on a bike and not in a car.  When you get hit by a bike you live to leave whiny Internet comments.  When you get hit by a car there's a blurb about you in the Post that ends with the phrase "no criminality suspected."  There seems to be a unique brand of American idiocy which causes us to read articles about cars running people down by the hundreds and then respond by getting angry about bikes.  It's like reading an article about gun violence and then leaving a comment about how you cut yourself while making dinner so what's being done about knives?

The bright yellow highlight above is mine. If you think this attitude does not apply in our area, check out online comments in the Press Democrat or the Napa Register the next time somebody gets hit while riding a bike.

People on bikes are fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. They work, they pay taxes and oddly enough, almost all of them also drive cars. What is with the anger that cyclists seem to create just by riding a bike? And what can be done to make that go away? 

Thank you Bike Snob! Ride safely and often.