Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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07/02/2010: "Oh, Those Law-Abiding Drivers!"
You know the ones I mean: they write all those anonymous online comments to news articles and blog postings that have anything even slightly positive to say about bicycling, complaining about evil velocipedal fiends who run stop signs and don't pay for the road. Who are, oh my, arrogant!I get tired of that BS, I really do. For one thing, cyclists of course overpay for the share of the road that they use, since car and fuel taxes never cover more than half of the costs of just building roads, and usually far less--and it's cars, not bikes, that need all that asphalt and tear it up so damn fast. That's right, Driving is socialism!
And as for road manners, whom are these clowns trying to fool?
I regularly see drivers weaving around doubleparked cars on my residential street at forty and fifty miles an hour, or more. And I've been watching drivers at stop signs--if one out of 200 in LA actually comes to a stop, I'd be surprised. (A little more formal count in Milwaukee showed 70% of drivers as well as 70% of cyclists blowing stops.)
Just today, as I was riding through a residential area on my way to visit Mom, I saw three cars in a row blow through a four-way stop, and a little later I was cut off (in the bike lane on Venice) by a fool making a right turn from the center lane.
It isn't cyclists who kill 40,000 people a year in the US, after all.
I wish they'd just shut up, sometimes.
Sorry to vent online about it, but really, I don't know whether ti's the willful ignorance or the hypocrisy that irritates me more.
No wonder cyclists can get a little self-righteous, after listening to this crap over and over again, and comparing the mouthings of motorheads to experiences in the real world....
Okay, back to somewhat more reasoned discourse in future blog posts...cheers!
