Keep your bicycle off the road: On the Contrary [BEST OF FaN]
I don’t want to belabor this point, but after witnessing a hipster cyclist run into a nice (I assume) Mexican family on a Burbank sidewalk, I feel my cry for sanity in keeping these crazed pedaling freaks off our streets and sidewalks has gone unheeded. I choose to reprint it here not for myself, but for the sake of the children.
Originally published on o5/04/11
Let’s get this straight from the start. I do not have a problem with bicycles. I think they’re great fun, good exercise, good for the environment, and wonderfully clever machines. I spent most of my early childhood summers perched on the back of one, and have nothing but fond memories of racing it up and down Long’s Road to the homes of various neighbor kids. When I first saw PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, I didn’t find anything strange about the main character going to such lengths to recover his beloved bike. I felt the same attachment to mine.
Then I grew up, and discovered an even better invention—the automobile. Between my own two feet and a car, I found little need for a bike to get me to where I was going. If it was close enough to ride to, it was probably close enough to walk to, and if not, it was just better to drive. Really, a bicycle fits into a very niche distance—over a mile or two it makes sense, but over 4 or 5 miles it would seem a car (or public transportation) would be the better conveyance. My getting away from the bike didn’t change my feeling about it—I just didn’t have any use for one any more. It wasn’t until I moved to the city for college that my antipathy for the bicycle began.
No, that’s not quite right. It’s not the bikes. It’s the people on them. I recently got into a discussion with some friends—some of whom were cyclists and some who were not—and found that it quickly turned into a rather contentious debate about who are the biggest victims on the road. Cyclists must share the road with absent-minded and/or aggressive drivers piloting several-ton hulks of metal at high speeds. Drivers have to deal with hard-to-see cyclists who cannot travel at the speed of traffic yet still feel entitled to cut across it and possess the right-of-way of a sedan. And pedestrians have to watch out for people from either camp.
I’m on the driver’s side. I have been ever since I started city driving. And this is because no matter what laws you make, or how well they are observed, bicycles and cars simply do not belong on the same road, just as pedestrians do not belong in a lane of traffic. Nor do bikes belong on the sidewalk. They belong in bike lanes, and until such a lane becomes standard in every city street I will continue to believe that cyclists have no place on the road.
For the sake of argument, let’s imagine a perfect world, where both cyclist and drivers obey all traffic laws to the letter and drive defensively and conscientiously. Obviously this is a fantasy world that could never exist, just as unregulated capitalism could never provide the utopia free market advocates seem to suggest. Humans are just too flawed, and we’ll inevitably muck it up. But putting that aside, assuming that everyone did follow the traffic laws exactly, I would still say that bikes don’t belong on the roads. They can’t really keep up safely with the flow of most traffic patterns, and to drive around them only allows a few feet of clearance. Too much can go wrong—an unsteady road surface, a blown tire, etcetera—and then that bike could be falling into the lane of traffic with no one legally at fault but a squished cyclist still the result.
Now let’s get to reality. I think anyone who has ever driven or ridden in a car knows that there are plenty of bad drivers out there. I think this is documented enough that I don’t have to go into it. But there are an equal number of terrible cyclists out there who seem to want the best of both worlds. They want the right-of-way in traffic, while feeling free to cut through red lights and ride on the sidewalks. In the same day, I have had someone on a bike suddenly cut out in front of me in my car and later nearly run me over when I was walking to the store. It wasn’t the same rider, but it didn’t speak well for the cyclist community.
There is a self-satisfied entitlement to many cyclists that is incredibly annoying. I hate that when I drive around someone on a bike I often get dirty looks or nasty mouthed words as though I am doing something wrong. Maybe it’s my imagination, but I get the sense that people on bikes are mad at me simply for driving my car where I’m supposed to drive it.
The world would be a better place if we had more bike lanes. If they were everywhere, I’d probably get my own two-wheeler to pedal around town, though I think I would still prefer my own two feet (it just feels more human). But until we redesign our urban landscape, cyclists will always be the odd man out, and a healthy dose of humility and deference to the motorized vehicles that dominate the roadways could save lives and improve the image of pedaling hipsters everywhere.
featured image credit: George Ferris
The Dutch have it right – major bicycle lanes AND bicycle parking! Honestly, I’m scared to ride out there…I end up on a spin bike at the gym….which is kind of a sin for someone who lives in Southern California!
Yeah, as with most things, I don’t think the answer to this problem lies with infringing upon the legal rights of one group, in order to make things more convenient for another. If you’re really upset about all the bicyclers in the street, I’d say direct your energies toward getting better bike lanes ala Europe, Japan, China, and just about every developed country but the U.S.A., as opposed to trying to push all bicyclists off the road b/c of the one or two that were mean to you. Bicycling is good for the environment, a great alternative to gas-guzzling cars, and great for one’s health. I think most L.A. motorists have patience problems — they also don’t have a great understanding of the laws of the road. In turn, this makes bicyclers angry and bitter. For every bicycler that’s been mean to you, they’ve have at least 5 motorists that have almost run into them b/c they’re illegally on their cellphone or just not paying attention — that day. I say all of this b/c I’ve been on both sides of the equations. I used to bike to work, and I found myself becoming a very angry person, b/c 1) the bike lane situation out here makes no sense. They’re some places, but not others, and they stop and start w/o any rhyme or reason. 2) Drivers in general just don’t pay attention, at least bicyclers are paying attention. You rarely hear about a bicycler running someone down b/c they were trying to text message. Drivers or way more terrible. I think if we looked at the numbers we would see that there is absoluty not an equal amount of terrible cyclists and drivers. I don’t think even the percentages would match up. Drivers are way, way worst.
I’ve thought long and hard on this because this is an issue I deal with every single day. If you follow my Nerd in Transition blog you know that I have been without a car since October and am now forced to take public transportation in a huge city that has not dealt with it mass transit problems in any form of efficient way. BTW that additional lane being built onto the 405 makes much more sense than adding a train right there, yay more room for more cars! After purchasing a bike I now save time and money by avoiding one or two buses every time I travel. I also get to experience the amazing variety of life taking place outside the car while exercising and(again) saving time and money. Let’s not forget that the world of parking has just opened up for me, so while you are still circling I’m going to order my second beer. Am I a little smug? Yes. Yes I am. Only because cars still rule and run this city into the ground.
You aren’t mad at me Joe. You are mad because you were sold on the convenience of the car and now it’s just not so convenient. The cost of gas is not the only thing that’s expensive about car ownership; there’s monthly payments, insurance, smogging, repairs, parking fees, ticket fees, and the gas demon. There is also the amount of time and sanity you lose sitting in traffic for hours. Next time it takes you an hour to go 10 miles, just know that it took me an hour on my bike during which time I worked off a few hundred calories saving the cost of a gym membership/spin class and chances are I was meditating on life and had worked out an issue or two in the process.
Are there advantages to car ownership? yes, there are. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I visited a Trader Joe’s. And trust me I hate the rain much more than you do. Yet the convenience factors are starting to move towards bike riders.
With that said I would like to point out that while losing three feet of roadway to avoid hitting a rider my slow you down a bit it will save my life. What we are really talking about here is that you and many other drivers are angry at a failing transportation system and you are taking it out on the wrong people. Every time you stop short in front of a bike, you threaten my life. Every time you make an illegal U-turn in front of a bike, you threaten my life. Every time you pull out and cut a rider off, you threaten my life. Every time you get impatient and zoom past a rider dangerously close, you threaten my life. Every time you text or talk on your phone while driving you threaten my life. STOP DOING THAT!!! MY LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN 30 SECONDS OF YOUR TIME!!
I agree that there are bad riders, mostly teens, but teens are a pain in the ass about EVERYTHING and you cannot hold the rest of us at fault for those bad riders. Ernessa is correct though, overall drivers are much much worse than bike riders. She is also correct in that the whole bike lane system here in LA makes no sense. Just this past weekend I had to ride through Santa Monica passing the city college. There are no bike lanes there and the traffic from the college is always dangerous for drivers, so I chose the sidewalk to ride on. It was a double wide path with plenty of room for myself and pedestrians. Yet one couple refused to move over two feet while walking a leashed dog towards me forcing a terrible situation. I could not get on the road and there was no room off the side walk, yet they took up all the space, looking directly at me as I rode towards them. After yelling “FRONT! FRONT!” I ran into the man. His selfishness forced a collision I had worked to avoid. He was fine, I yelled at him and rode off with my middle finger in the air.
My point after all of this is to basically say, stop being so fucking selfish. Give us some room and the vast majority of us will give you your room. We aren’t out to pick a fight with drivers and pedestrians, so why are you picking a fight with us every single day? The traffic, cost of gas, and other expenses and inconveniences of car ownership are no way the fault of bike riders and your little bit of annoyance is not worth my death. Seriously you really want to spend the next 30+ years in prison because you didn’t want to slow down and give room to a bike rider you hit and killed?
Or unregulated Socialism…Progressivism…etc.