Originally Posted by lilHinault
Here's my parallel: In the US car drivers are the vast majority. For all the complaining about rude drivers, automobilists are amazingly civil with each other. Heck we have the things clad in the shiniest, most perfect paint to be found on any object, when really they ought to be clad in that rubber stuff they pave gyms with. Car drivers help each other out easily over a million times a year in the US and think nothing of it. Cars suck, but 99% of their drivers see no other way to get along in life and scoff all you like, but there's a feeling of "we're all in this together".
I've heard this before, but I just haven't seen any evidence of it. The majority of "interactions" drivers have with each other around here are either abuse or fisticuffs -- oh and the occasional gawking at a car crash (something I still don't understand). Sure, if a car breaks down, someone will eventually help them out, but they'll be waiting there for quite a while.
Originally Posted by lilHinault
Now translate this to bikes. I notice riding a bike I'm a person, because any person on a bike is in fact 80 or 90 percent person, arms, legs and torso. People remark they're used to seeing me, and we all know the various body types and pedaling styles are far more individual than any paint job from Detroit. There will be much more interaction on a personal level. A person won't be a large piece of gaudily painted metal, they'll be a human body on a bike. With a face, and a personality.
I'm not so sure about that either. The reason cyclists stand out now is because they're such a small percentage. If the streets were clogged with cyclists they way they're now clogged with cars, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be long before my only interest in them was simply picking a gap between them through which I could pass to get to work on time. Incidentally, it was only last Tuesday as I was limping away from a nasty bike crash in which I sustained a nasty back injury when a passing cyclist showed no interest in my predicament beyond a greeting based on formal politeness. Maybe this is already happening.
Incidentally, where was that Pacific hellhole that you mentioned? I won't be offended if you say Australia -- in fact, I might even agree with you.
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