Saturday, May 02, 2009

Abuse on a schedule...

Every spring, someone vents their rage at cyclists for violating the laws, both the actual traffic laws (red lights, stop signs) and the laws that exist only in their own minds (the ones that forbid us from filtering through stopped traffic because the sight of cheeky cyclists passing them annoys some motorists).

This spring, I find myself wondering if the papers that publish this nonsense might want, at long last, to move on. If the resentment some drivers feel at cyclists qualified as news once, it really doesn't any more. And reading the endless, dreary repetitions of the same set of grievances, I have to wonder if the papers might try to promote peaceful coexistence rather than fan the flames of resentment every year.

2 comments:

geoffrey said...

I'm always impressed to be on the receiving end of "What do you think you are? A vehicle?". Invariably I receive these when stopped at a light in the middle of the lane to assert my position. I don't "filter" past stopped vehicles to get there and I position there to prevent right turning vehicles from turning passing on my left side. If there is room I will move left to allow right turners by on my right but then some other maladjusted cable truck driver will interpret this as an opportunity to pass me on the right while going straight through on the green.
You can't satisfy road raging cagers.

Ben said...

I hear you Geoffrey. I generally partake of the intersection a second or two early to try to avoid pass-on-the-righters.

We need some bike boxes up in this heezy.