Try Again

Posted on 08/09/2009 at 10:03 pm by Bob Cesca

Picking up where he left off the other day, Atrios writes:

I like cycling and cyclists just great, and certainly support making places more bike friendly, but I also think that cyclists who behave badly make those changes less likely, not more.

Of course! But there are people who behave badly in everything. I don’t think singling out cyclists as worthy of having things lobbed at their heads is justified because of the few dicks in the crowd. And besides, let me know when a cyclist injures, cripples or kills a pedestrian or driver due to these maneuvers.

…quite a few (obviously I have no way of quantifying this meaningfully) avid cyclists think that disobeying traffic laws is a justified form of civil disobedience, that the laws in place are really meant for cars and asking cyclists to obey the same ones are unfair.

I’ve never heard or read about this anywhere. But I have no reason to not take him at his word. Still, wanting to lob things at heads seems to be similarly as obnoxious, as far as statements go.

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  • Clancy

    There’s no way for certain to determine if some of the commenters to your original post are “avid cyclists,” but they certainly subscribe to the attitude that Atrios wrote of here. At least one made basically the same argument. This may not be representative, but the attitude is certainly out there.Bob, perhaps you can acknowledge one aspect of Atrios’ argument, even if he’s failed thus far to make it explicitly: out of the three “groups,” cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians, the laws and practices of our roadways certainly favor the latter two, often to the extent of leaving cyclists out all together (I’ve been on some of those roads in your part of Pennsylvania and know that it’s the case there). Cyclists are the odd group out, seeking greater acceptance and consideration. Because of this, dickish behavior on the part of a few will certainly stand out far more than if the perpetrator was on foot or in a car.

  • http://www.osborneink.com/2009/08/another-palin-trifecta.html Matt Osborne

    If you want to cut down on the number of vehicle-cyclist accidents, you might require someone to own an actual farm before purchasing a V-12 diesel dual-wheel pickup. There were only about a gazillion of them on the road today doing their best to blow my ass right off the road.

  • http://nanotyrnns.blogspot.com/ Nanotyrannus

    I don’t understand the hostility towards bikers. The assertion that blowing through a stop sign or a traffic light is behavior that requires a violent response is not at all rational. What is it about those actions that immediately ignites an aggressive response? What?I don’t get it. If he saw a driver run a stop sign, he certainly wouldn’t throw something at their car.So what is at the root of that hostility?

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    I’m all for bikers rights. Heck, I don’t even wear a helmet when i ride my Harley….;>)

  • Fiasco

    It’s cyclist not biker. As P3 points out bikers ride Harleys, cyclists propel themselves via the means of a bicycle.

    That ends today’s lesson.

    P.S.- 85% of “bad behaviour” by cyclists is merely an attempt to get the f**k out of the way of insane motorists/drivers. The other 15%, which are the most obvious (and the least knowledgable), are dickheads.

  • Riggsveda

    Throwing anything at all at a person riding a bike endangers their life, no matter how seemingly innocuous. It’s easy to throw a cyclist’s trajectory off and send him or her careening into a car or bush or into the cement, even with an empty soda can.I would venture to say I’m not anyone special when it comes to riding, and I know that a bike is subject to the same rules of the road as a car…which is why we insist that cars give us the same rights and space they get. So if I know this, most other cyclists do, too. Certainly the ones I know do.The whole argument is ridiculous. The search for scapegoats to unload on during these desperate times is getting absurd…fat people cause our health care problems, liberals want to kill grandma, cyclists are trying to destroy drivers. Please.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/38911730@N05/3579489061/ bjritz

    I ride my bycycle to work 2 – 3 days a week. I obey the traffic signs, lights and signal my turns. I’m constantly passed by cyclists who blow stop signs in groups, while pulling baby or junior in a carrier behind. I think bad cycling behaviour is teaching as it is excersised. The children grow up into stop sign blowers in any vehicle or on a bicycle. Children are in cars watching cyclists and learning.If the cycling community would see the example they set to the children around them they might not stop traffic at a green light to let 50 of their bike club buddies break the law by riding through the light.Maybe it’s different in the circles you ride with, but by enlarge here in the KC area bicyclists are scofflaws.Is this a reason to harm or threaten harm with a vehicle, of course not! But, a general respect may earn some back.

  • http://www.podiumcafe.com chris

    The civil disobedience line seems to be aimed at Critical Mass. It’s true in that somewhere that attitude exists, but I commute 14 miles every day and find such attitudes anecdotal at most. Atrios is backpedaling, but reluctantly.