An editorial note: As will be seen, the title words are in quotations for a reason and were not the author’s in origin.
One of my personal great regrets at the moment is that I’m not out on my bike. Rather than bike commuting, bike shopping, and otherwise (at least when the weather isn’t too bad), I’m far too often in a car and very (VERY) rarely on a bike. And, well, this is something that I’m truly not happy about even though there is a pretty good excuse: a little more than five months ago, I took a reasonably serious fall bike commuting and am still in physical therapy dealing with the injuries. (FYI, while there are far better experiences in life, I consider myself lucky. I could have fallen in front of a car, hit my head on a curb, had an employer ready to fire me for not being able to go into the office for weeks, etc …) So, rather than 100+ miles bike commuting, I’m doing perhaps 50 miles a week of driving (a lot of telecommuting and a little public transit but, honestly, standing in the Metro for a rush hour trip can be rather painful and my injuries aren’t visible, making ‘begging’ for a seat an uncomfortable experience) and doing perhaps 25 miles a week of driving that otherwise would have been bike traveling. Simply put, therefore, I’m stuck sitting in traffic at times when I would much (for so many reasons) prefer churning out miles on my bike and getting to watch/interact with the pseudo-community that is bike commuters who are, writ large, pretty good to each other..
This non-biking routine isn’t, however, the reason for questioning “a “pussy” about biking”.
Perhaps because of the frustration of not being able to bike commute, my eyes seem to be more open to bikers/bike-commuters. Amid a larger trend for increased cycling (pdf), the DC area certainly seems to have more and more bikers on the road during commuting hours. This is a great trend even as the numbers and percentages are far below what they could (and should) be. As I watch this trend, sadly sitting behind a windshield, the wide variance of biker choices and behaviors is notable. Some are equipped as if for war, with helmet, rear-view mirrors, padded-clothing, poles with flags, lights and reflective material all over the bike, who exhibit extreme caution about any movement in traffic, etc. Considering some drivers and road-rage amid the DC area’s lousy traffic, “as if for war” might be the appropriate expression. On the other extreme, are bikers wearing zero protective gear, have no lights, weave in and out of traffic (and ride at speed against traffic), act as if everyone else has the total responsibility to adjust to their actions, and generally seem determined to assure a steady flow of business for DC-area emergency rooms.
Last evening, after a very long work day, I headed home in the dark. I was, honestly, surprised at the number of bikers on the streets that late. And, for whatever reason, I started to informally count them. I hit 23 before the events below … 23 in perhaps two miles of driving. Impressive number but, sadly, just four of those 23 had any meaningful amount of reflective gear or lights. (Reminder, this was the first work day after the clocks were set back … next week, probably more will have such gear at the same time of night.) And, only three of the 23 were wearing helmets. Not a good indicator as to traffic safety.
However, two bikers truly set me off. Biking together, they weren’t wearing any reflective material nor helmets and were clothed entirely in dark materials. They were, well, simply hard to see even being aware that they were on the road with me. They were also extremely aggressive and, truthfully, sloppy riders. In less than a mile stretch, they moved from one side of the multi-lane street to the other six times, without any signaling, and with minimal looking (if any) to see what traffic was doing around them. They also were chatting and, in terms of that sloppiness, that led them to fail to maintain any semblance of a straight light at times as they would weave in and out of lanes.
One of those weavings happened just by me, forcing me to brake suddenly to avoid one of them. That earned me a honk and cursing from the driver behind me, who hit his brakes hard rather than hitting me. As I then passed them, my frustration led me to (rather politely in my mind) call out: “It’s dark out and you need to be letting drivers know you’re there.” At a light, this led to an exchange of ‘we’re bicyclists and you need to give us the right of way’ and, on my stating (truthfully) that I’m a bicyclist who prefers bike commuting, the response: “You’re a pussy.” As I drove home, with frustration rather than road rage the dominate emotion, I contemplated this encounter. My conclusion: they were all too likely to end up in (or causing) an accident and that they wouldn’t merit the attention given to them afterwards as we should sorry for the person who ended up hitting them because of their high-risk behaviors.
There are very real issues with bike safety and there is the simple reality that automobiles win the collision every time to the biker’s detriment. And, the reality is that most of the real problems lie with the drivers and large vehicles, who should be driving in ways that enables safe biking. And, there is the reality that there are many laws that inhibit more sensible biking (with, for example, the value of making stop signs yields for bicyclists). Biking merits promotion, enhancement, and protection including, for example, the creation and expansion of bike paths and greenways. Reckless and idiotic bikers, like those I encountered last evening, make it harder to achieve an enhanced biking environment.
Related posts
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- An abortive bike to work day
- Imagine there’s no cars on the streets
- Cities of Bikes
- Amsterdam Biking Paradise Didn’t Happen Overnight+
DC Biking Resources
2 responses so far ↓
1 Jamawani // Nov 8, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Sanctimony, much?
Think about how you come off.
2 John Egan // Nov 22, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Everything you say may be true and you may be 99.99% right – – but you just gotta know when to let it go. Adlai Stevenson was the smartest guy never to be elected president. Being right is the bane of smart people.