It was National Bike to Work Day last week. I missed it. Or rather, I missed the observance of it. It would have been nice if the local pubs had given a deeper happy hour discount to anyone who arrived on a bike that day. I only heard about it when I read an opinion piece asking drivers not to kill cyclists. It was a very long point-by-point article (I read the sub-heads) that had the best point at the end: Don't judge us by our jerks. The writer estimates that 15% of drivers and 15% of cyclists are jerks. The kind who ride (or drive) on sidewalks and don't worry about hitting pedestrians. It's easy to hate all bikers if you drive and it's easy to hate all drivers when you ride, but of course that's a tremendous mistake. When I drive a car and a cyclist is being a jerk I want to yell, "Hey buddy, I ride my bike all the time, and you're an idiot!" I, for one, will try to no longer assume motorists are jerks when they nearly (and accidentally) kill me.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Don't Judge Us By Our Jerks
It was National Bike to Work Day last week. I missed it. Or rather, I missed the observance of it. It would have been nice if the local pubs had given a deeper happy hour discount to anyone who arrived on a bike that day. I only heard about it when I read an opinion piece asking drivers not to kill cyclists. It was a very long point-by-point article (I read the sub-heads) that had the best point at the end: Don't judge us by our jerks. The writer estimates that 15% of drivers and 15% of cyclists are jerks. The kind who ride (or drive) on sidewalks and don't worry about hitting pedestrians. It's easy to hate all bikers if you drive and it's easy to hate all drivers when you ride, but of course that's a tremendous mistake. When I drive a car and a cyclist is being a jerk I want to yell, "Hey buddy, I ride my bike all the time, and you're an idiot!" I, for one, will try to no longer assume motorists are jerks when they nearly (and accidentally) kill me.
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