Advocacy & Safety - NY Times article on Bike-Car Turf Wars

If you haven't read this article, it's interesting. Interesting to me because it makes me realize the uptick in tension is happening all over the country:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/fashion/10bikewars.html?ref=fashion

Anyone else find it odd that this article is in the Fashion and Style section of the paper?

Anyone else find it odd that this article is in the Fashion and Style section of the paper?

Of course it is; Bikes are not serious transportation... they are a style thing.

What, you expected to see Bicycles on the "Wheels" section of the paper... blaspheme!

I was wondering when that article would show up here. ;)

The article might have some merit, but ultimately it's long on conjecture and short on facts and stats. "Isolated, freakish events" make good copy but bad data....

Woodside is host to hundreds of recreational cyclists on weekends. And on many weekdays, a peloton known as “the noon riders” — as many as 100 cyclists from Silicon Valley businesses riding during lunch break — blasts through.

“Mention the noon riders to anyone in town and you’ll see the blood pressure go up,” said Susan George, Woodside’s town manager. One day, she said, she rounded a bend and came upon them: “I slammed on the brakes and they swarmed around me, screaming and yelling obscenities. My heart was pounding. It was very scary.”


Fess up. Are YOU a "noon rider"???

The dreaded Critical MAss Effect strikes again

Of course it is; Bikes are not serious transportation... they are a style thing.


One need only browse the Fixed/Single Gear forum for a couple minutes to confirm that.

If someone in a car yells at me, I always yell, "Sorry... sorry to be alive!" Understated sarcasm seems to disarm them.

One need only browse the Fixed/Single Gear forum for a couple minutes to confirm that.

Using that criteria, I bet I could find plenty of forums that depict automobiles as equally fanciful.

"Driver-rider hostility has become worse this summer because legions of cyclists are simply inexperienced. At least according to the drivers. “They say the cyclists are all over the road and don’t know the rules,” said Michele Mount, a spokeswoman for AAA of New Jersey."

That's because, until recently, they were driving cars.


“They pull out without looking at traffic,” she said. “They don’t signal. I get that there is safety in numbers and they’re trying to protect themselves, but there’s barely room for cars on the road, let alone a bike lane.”

You're not supposed to drive your car in the bikelane. ;)

I posted a point by point rebuttal here:

http://austincyclingnews.com/?p=241

My tagline:

It seemed like a good idea at the time, bike to work, but now it turns out the cyclist was an idiot.

Clear message: DO NOT BIKE THERE.

It is obvious the author of this article is deeply prejudiced against cyclists. And the conclusion. Holy crap. Did anyone else catch the last thought the author left us with was some deep seated vengence fantasy against cyclists?

Did anyone else catch the last thought the author left us with was some deep seated vengence fantasy against cyclists?

It might've been a group sex fantasy.

yeah right...it seems blatantly obvious, but don't these idiots ever think that the cyclists they are endangering are their neighbors/friends/coworkers and their parents/children/family?

yeah right...it seems blatantly obvious, but don't these idiots ever think that the cyclists they are endangering are their neighbors/friends/coworkers and their parents/children/family?

Maybe they're just sociopaths. There is a quite a large number in the community who manage to keep under the radar. I was reading that there is a particular genetic marker for it and something like 10% of the population carries it, but it's only diagnosed in 3% of males, 1% females... So, how many cars passed you today?

Motorists have been trained from years of driving in anonymous boxes to think of traffic as anything but human. I have done it myself, I am working towards recovery. Bicycling is a great recovery tool :)

Motorists for the most part, even if they are not trying to kill us, think they own the road because the pay gas taxes. They belong there, bikes to not. That is the mentality. Bike laws in the USofA are designed to reinforce that notion, put us in harms way, almost as if the lawmakers want to "allow" us our freedom but make it unbearable in reality to ride a bike on the streets.

As more and more people turn to bikes as REAL transportation, thing should slowly change for the better, as more "main stream" citizens will begin to experience what we already know.

another day another trolleriffic article from the "mainstream" press.

Great for working people into a lather. Cycling seems to have taken over the top troll spot with the media, just recently replacing global warming.

Except the American mentality...$3.50 gas Oh gosh...$4 this is getting serious...$4.50 I'm buying a bike...Gas goes back to $4 Oh crisis over, bike in the garage.

So until there is a sustainable crisis in the average American's mind, I think our numbers will go up and down but average out the same.

I hope not, I hope the smarter cyclists stay with it and help us change things but given big oil, politics and the number of idiots (media included) out there I'm not going to bet on it.

Except the American mentality...$3.50 gas Oh gosh...$4 this is getting serious...$4.50 I'm buying a bike...Gas goes back to $4 Oh crisis over, bike in the garage.

So until there is a sustainable crisis in the average American's mind, I think our numbers will go up and down but average out the same.

I hope not, I hope the smarter cyclists stay with it and help us change things but given big oil, politics and the number of idiots (media included) out there I'm not going to bet on it.

Even these little spurts where gas gets expensive and people commute to work for a couple of weeks have a profound impact on the promotion of bicycling.

First, bicycle commuting will stick with some people who try it and like it.

Second, people who try bicycle commuting even for a little while realize that it isn't so crazy after all. Many or most will understand the perspective of the cyclist and may be more understanding when, as motorists, sharing the road with cyclists.

Transition times--after the election, the oil companies will have either a minor tantrum if McCain is elected, or a major one if our new president is named Obama which, combined with the winter heating oil season kicking in, should put gas up to about $5 thus reducing driving some more as well as (in temperate parts of the US) boosting cycling a little more. If gas stays high, the next 2 to 5 years might be rough but the time after that MUCH better.

(Recently, Steve Diamond, ride coordinator for the Morris Area Freewheelers, a New Jersey cycling club, saw what he called a trifecta of irresponsible cycling: “A guy riding his bike without a helmet, talking on his cellphone, with his kid in the bike attachment behind him.”)

I'll give Mr. Diamond the first two, but having your child in a trailer is irresponsible?

yes, there are people out there who want to ban the carrying of children in bike trailers as unsafe

Except the American mentality...$3.50 gas Oh gosh...$4 this is getting serious...$4.50 I'm buying a bike...Gas goes back to $4 Oh crisis over, bike in the garage.

So until there is a sustainable crisis in the average American's mind, I think our numbers will go up and down but average out the same.

I hope not, I hope the smarter cyclists stay with it and help us change things but given big oil, politics and the number of idiots (media included) out there I'm not going to bet on it.

I have a friend who thinks exactly that way. He always wants to give me a ride home when I meet him someplace on my bike, and now that gas is going down again, thinks I should get a nice econobox car.. He doesn't comprehend that I actually want to ride my bicycle. Gas savings is great, but it's just a benefit to the fun i'm having on two wheels.

(Recently, Steve Diamond, ride coordinator for the Morris Area Freewheelers, a New Jersey cycling club, saw what he called a trifecta of irresponsible cycling: “A guy riding his bike without a helmet, talking on his cellphone, with his kid in the bike attachment behind him.”)

I'll give Mr. Diamond the first two, but having your child in a trailer is irresponsible?

Why will you give him the first two? When was the last time you saw a soccer mom chatting on the cell phone without a helmet towing her child in an SUV? Why pick on bikes? Seems rather one sided there.

A dozen states now mandate at least a three-foot passing gap. In June, South Carolina passed an antiharassment law to protect cyclists. This summer, Washington, D.C., posted speed limits for cyclists on a popular trail. New York City has been painting a green-striped bike lane down Broadway, from Times Square to Herald Square. Complete Streets bills seek to require that roads be designed for all users.

good job, DC! :thumb: