Wizbang Blog Bashes Cyclists!

Wizbang Blog Bashes Cyclists!

the anti-cycling, more specifically the anti-city cycling rants always amuse me

there are more cars on the road than cyclists
which means
there are more cars that are causing annoyances than cyclists

but...
the cars have been doing their obnoxious car thing for so long
that no one seems to care
the car driver prefers to focus on the bicycle or moreover.... the bicyclist

even when the bicyclist is within the elements of the law that bicycle is at risk of being blamed for being in the car driver's way
as if the slower moving bicyclist is causing a traffic jam
when in actuality the bicyclist like the car driver and their car is part of traffic
with the same rights to the road just as the car

the car drivers often rant about the cyclist
often calling the cyclist arrogant
making claims that the cyclist thinks this or the cyclist thinks that
well... I can not read minds
perhaps if I spent more time in my car I would develop that ability
but I can not... so I do not speculate

the car driver's rant about the cyclist doing this and the cyclist doing that
when this same car driver fails to look to see that they themselves are doing much the same set of things
just as the cyclist may modify the laws to make things more safe and more fluid
the car driver may modify the law to suit their personal needs

the cyclist may slow for red lights and stop signs viewing them more as yeild signals
just as the car driver may use the Speed Limit sign as a gentle guideline rather than a hard rule
when actually... the speed limit states its intention in its name... LIMIT
it is not a sign that says.... SPEED AVERAGE 25 MPH with a STANDARD DEVIATION of +/- 10

as far as self righteous or feeling more entitled
it seems to me that it is the car that drives in a fashion that implies such an emotion
the "out of my way" mentality
the drivers who double park
or stop in no stopping or no standing
the speeders
those that roll through stop signs with the slow and go
those that right turn on red when the sign that says otherwise
those that fail to yeild to pedestrians...

okay
no need for me to go through the list of every law
but... for the most part the car drivers break every law each and every second that they drive
a cyclist may occassionally go the wrong way on a one way street
or view stop signs as yeild signs
but
even when the cyclist is obeying all the laws... the cyclist get run of the road, gets honked at, gets treated like a second class citizen

everyone should spend more time POLICING THEMSELVES
I try to funciton on a level of COMMON SENSE AND COMMON COURTESY
if everyone did a little more of this
the world would be a better place

yes.... there are stupid and obnoxious cyclist
I hate being buzzed by a cyclist on the sidewalk
it irks me to be with my kids and have an adult meandering his or her way about town on the sidewalk
but... just as I hate car drivers as individuals not as all Jersey Drivers or all BMW Drives I think that people need to understand that the cycling culture is a vast culture with very different niches and groups

oh....
BMW DRIVERS FROM JERSEY ARE THE WORST!