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darkemeraldsWhat is it about a person on a bike that gets so many people's back up?
I ran into an old friend at lunch. She asked "What's new with you?" so I told her about riding Clyde, and the first thing out of her mouth after that was, "Oh God! Are you all political about it now?"
A certain amount of (relatively mild) anti-bike sentiment ensued, but she soon enough introduced a civil change of subject.
Before I started riding a bike, I didn't love bikes. (I still don't--I just love Clyde. :D) I didn't think bike commuting was possible for me, and the people who did it seemed to be from a different, more physically-privileged species.
Driving behind cyclists made me nervous, and I felt alienated from the predominantly young, predominantly male bike culture. Bike-riders were, in short, annoying. But not in a Dr Thompson kind of way.
My old friend was just unthinkingly giving voice to that annoyance and alienation. I get that. But her views are along an unbroken continuum at the far end of which is a surprisingly popular notion that bike-riders deserve injury or death for a lack of "respect for motorists" (read the comments on that LA Times Blog post if you doubt me).
I just...I see it--with depressing frequency--but I don't understand it, you know?
I ran into an old friend at lunch. She asked "What's new with you?" so I told her about riding Clyde, and the first thing out of her mouth after that was, "Oh God! Are you all political about it now?"
A certain amount of (relatively mild) anti-bike sentiment ensued, but she soon enough introduced a civil change of subject.
Before I started riding a bike, I didn't love bikes. (I still don't--I just love Clyde. :D) I didn't think bike commuting was possible for me, and the people who did it seemed to be from a different, more physically-privileged species.
Driving behind cyclists made me nervous, and I felt alienated from the predominantly young, predominantly male bike culture. Bike-riders were, in short, annoying. But not in a Dr Thompson kind of way.
My old friend was just unthinkingly giving voice to that annoyance and alienation. I get that. But her views are along an unbroken continuum at the far end of which is a surprisingly popular notion that bike-riders deserve injury or death for a lack of "respect for motorists" (read the comments on that LA Times Blog post if you doubt me).
I just...I see it--with depressing frequency--but I don't understand it, you know?