Originally Posted by
cradduck
...When our conversation finally ended and the potential commuter started back to her desk another female employee confronted her… ‘Don’t do it. Don’t ride a bike to work, anyone riding a bike is stupid and you are going to end up stranded somewhere when you get a flat tire. You better make sure your cell phone is charged and hope that no one attacks you while you are riding. What are you going to do if you fall off your bike and get hurt?’ There were a few other things said that I could not hear as the employee followed the potential commuter back to her desk. To be honest with you this made me a little angry. First, this conversation did not even involve her. Second, it was not the place of someone who probably hasn’t ridden a bike in [several] decades to tell someone willing to undertake the task that they shouldn’t be doing it.
While I am not one to go around taking Debbie Downers seriously it is the first time ANYONE at my work has expressed interest in commuting to work by bicycle. I was honored and flattered to say the least that this person would come to me for advice and to have someone blatantly take the wind out of your sails isn’t exactly fun.
"anyone riding a bike is stupid" - This is my favourite quote lol! Well, that one doesn't know that by saying stupid things like that, she talks mostly of her own character, or lack thereof. In my expirience, ppl saying such generalizations about anything, are in general not the brightest kind, if you know what I mean
Envy is a long known syndrome of those that do not have the courage to take up commuting on their own. And saying things behind other's back is another syndrome of such envious creatures.
If anything, that would make me laugh, since it's obvious that you somehow trigerred some kind of inadequacy response in that person doing the bad mouthing - aka she is probably scared to try it herself, or she has some other reason why she will feel better if everyone around her is the same as her. Coupled with the fact that she is fat, and that she is saying those things to a younger, and probably much thinner girl, leads to the conclusion that the idea of that younger girl looking even better and being more healthy then her, leads that other women into feeling left out. Or maybe, it shows her how SHE could have looked like if she had motivation/courage/willpower to take bike riding upon herself. And since that is demoralising, she MUST discourage everyone else from riding, because it would be horror if someone around her reminded her everyday she probably doesn't do any kind of excercise, and leads a sedentary lifestyle. And noone can be so daft as to remind her of that every day, now can they?
And that leads to this, since you have your mind made up, and she probably can't influence your decision, she has to try and influence anyone else who might take up bike commuting; while that person (the younger girl) is still undecided about it. That's pure selfishness on part of that fatter woman; if she can't look and/or feel good about herself, then she wants to make sure that noone else can feel or look good, too.
What you do, you go to that younger girl, give her good advice to aleviate that (unreasonable) fears that older fatty might have put in her head, help her get started, even offer to ride a part of your commute or all of it with her a few times to help her learn the ropes so to speak, and you will see that in no time you will have another bike commuter where you work
And make sure to tell her that someone who has never ridden a bike in their lives (probably), has no credibility in speaking about bike commuting, since they do not know anything about vast majority of topics related to bike commuting - reffering to the fatty ofc. Let the fatty stick to what she does know about, driving a car and staying sedentary. And who knows, you might even have something more going there then just the commute with that younger girl
