A happy medium between Bike Haters and Bike Advocates?
Why do so many people dislike bicyclists? I admit, I too sometimes get annoyed by bicyclists. But, if more people got around on their bikes, we would all better understand the challenges someone on a bike faces when trying to ride from their home to downtown Seattle or anywhere in Seattle.
Yes, I adore riding my bike and a lot of my work is as an advocate for injured bicyclists. However, I too can understand why people hate bicyclists, when a few inconsiderate guys or ladies on bikes ruin it for the rest of the people who need and/or want to commute by bike.
In my little neighborhood of Magnolia in Seattle, I will often walk on one of the main arterials, Magnolia Boulevard. On a dry day, invariably a few bicyclists in spandex (or REI gear) will loudly gab with each other as they take up the full width of the only lane in my direction. My inner monologue might sound something like this:
Geez! Can people feel any more entitled than this? Not only do think that they own this boulevard, they don’t care that a row of cars are slowly lining up behind them, while their boisterous laughs and guffaws disturb every pedestrian they pass? No wonder people hate bicyclists. Sigh…
But, we don’t react like this to all people who drive cars. Aren’t there even more aggressive and/or clueless drivers, who pose far great danger to us on the roads when they text or call as they merge onto a highway or swerve around a bus and cut off an elderly woman with her four wheel walker? We aren’t a world of motorist haters, despite the exponentially greater number of idiots who drive on our roads.
If you know how we can find more of a happy medium in Seattle, then you hold the key to improving road safety for everyone.
