Originally Posted by
jon c.
But I don't see that there is or necessarily should be a natural alliance among all people who ride bikes. In what way would riders be allied? There aren't really goals all riders are working towards.
I respectfully disagree. Everyone who rides a bike wants to be able to get to their destination safely. Regardless of whether you're a MTBer shredding trails, or a guy with DUIs who has to commute by bike till you get your license back, you need to be able to safely get from point A to point B. We may disagree on the best way to do that, and there are a host of side issues some of us care about that others don't (A roadie doesn't worry too much about trail building, for instance).
I do agree with one aspect of the video. Some non-cyclists (people who don't ride bike, whatever) have an irrational dislike against people who ride bikes. Its worth noting that people have all sorts of irrational dislikes, including bias based on politics, religion, race, gender, geography, appearance, even favorite sports teams or regional foods. We will never achieve universal tolerance of cycling, much less enthusiastic acceptance or endorsement. But if we don't spend our time fueling the cause of the anti(insert preferred term here)s by attacking each other, we'll get much closer.
Of course, 99+% of my cycling is trouble free. Most drivers are safe, most cops leave me alone, most dogs are friendly, and most roads are adequate for my needs. I'm not going to focus so much attention on the 1% that cause trouble that I lose the enjoyment of the other 99%.
BB