Originally Posted by khuon
Since most road users have little information about cycling and cyclists, they can only form expectations based upon what they can see and identify with. This restricted amount of information to the general public is what does cyclists harm. In general, a cyclist behaving responsibly will not get much notice from the other road users. They will have little to no impact on other traffic. This is a good thing. However, a cyclist misbehaving will make a mental mark and a noticable impact.
Unfortunately, in the real world, there will always be people who misbehave. While a lot of people like to preach about "bad cyclists give us all a bad name", there will always be bad cyclists, just as there will always be bad drivers or bad pedestrians -- unless we get nazi-like law enforcement to counter it. I act responsibly in traffic for pure safety reasons, yet I still get treated like crap on the roads. Only today I had four yobbos trying to pick a fight with me (good luck catching me in the traffic, dickheads!).
The way I see it, preaching about "bad cyclists" is not going to make this problem go away. We either deal with the bigotry, or learn to live with it. I've taken the latter option -- I'm now almost totally desensitised to driver abuse. I actually think this is quite sad. To regard such behaviour as normal, where it would not be tolerated in any other facet of life.
Originally Posted by khuon
One could definately call this prejudice or bigotry... I guess. I don't know. I'm not trained to define and apply that terminology to societal behaviours but that's simply how I see things.
As I related in my first post in this thread, the anti-cyclist bigotry seems to be more common in areas where other forms of bigotry (be it racism, homophobia, whatever) are more prevalent. The problem is not with cyclists, just as it's not with the minority groups in the other forms of bigotry. The problem is with the bigots. To be honest, I'm really not convinced that education is the answer.
Here in Queensland, people have had just as long as the rest of the country to get over the other forms of bigotry, yet they seem to be slow learners. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for them to learn to "respect" cyclists. I think the solution here comes down to law-enforcement again. They may never learn to respect cyclists, but if they become accustomed to refraining from hurling abuse/projectiles at cyclists by other means, that is good enough for me.
Originally Posted by khuon
Afterall, private car drivers have less problems (although some still exists) coexisting with commercial vehicle operators simply because they can identify better with them, are more accustomed to them and better understand how they behave. It's all going to boil down to education.
To be honest, I generally don't have that many problems with commercial vehicle operators, save for one or two bus companies, and a certain taxi fleet. Certainly trucks (the real ones, not the ute drivers with small penis syndrome) don't bother me a great deal. As I said in another thread, if driving was left
only to the professionals, I don't think any of us would have the problems we do now. The problems arise when you get amateur morons, who haven't been required to look at the road rules for years (assuming they were ever required to know them, which is doubtful in itself), and who seem to think that bikes don't belong on public roads.
Again, if the laws about leaving enough room to pass cyclists (which exist in most parts of the world) were actually enforced, many of these problems would disappear. They don't have to enjoy giving us enough space, they just have to do it.
Originally Posted by khuon
P.S. If none of this is making any sense, it's probably because I've written it at 0200 localtime.
It made perfect sense to me. Perhaps all of your posts should be written at that time!
