So many excuses
Daniel Duane published an op-ed in the New-York Times that’s been making rounds in the cycling community in the past few days. It opens with:
Everybody who knows me knows that I love cycling and that I’m also completely freaked out by it
Well, let me start by asserting that if anything ‘freaks you out’, I don’t think you should be writing too seriously about that topic. Even as a relatively experienced, skilled and able cyclist, I get in ‘close-call’ situations on a regular basis — if not every day, at least multiple times a week.
Sometimes I’m all by myself, paying less attention that I should have about the sucky pavement on a country road. Sometimes I’m too close to a fellow cyclist who suddenly takes the decision to brake or feels the need to swerve around an obstacle. More often than not, I’m commuting on a 3-mile stretch of Market St. in San Francisco and the offending party is a car or a MUNI bus. I tend to vocally call out anyone on the road on their bad behavior, then try to think of a clever way to inform my 83 followers of this event in under 140 characters.
The truth, however, is that drivers should have no reason to behave any differently to the bikes around them. They have so many excuses when the shit actually hits the fan — it boggles the mind.
“The sun was in my eyes”. “I was distracted by the smell of my new car”. “I was high on meth and driving without a license”. “He was riding in my blind spot”.
“I just did not see the bike”.
Each of these excuses was used at least once in a case where a driver killed or seriously injured a cyclist. On the other hand, the comments sections of many news websites provides a desperate, if not necessary insight into the psyche of our society and how it responds to such events:
“Bikes lanes are for bikes”. “Cyclists are just reckless on the road”. “Was he wearing a helmet?”
If you truly believe in the personal responsibility of a cyclist to wear a helmet or stop at stop signs, then you should also believe in that of the driver who makes a sudden right turn and hooks a cyclist. Which is exactly what happened in the case Duane takes as an example.
Provoked by Sergeant Ernst, people at the memorial decided to look for themselves. It took them all of 10 minutes to find an auto shop nearby with a camera that had footage of the incident. The police eventually admitted that the truck driver was at fault, but they still have not pressed charges.
Pop quiz:what good is a helmet when you get run over by a truck?
If I get a ticket after riding my bike through a red light, well, that sucks. I’m pretty sure the officer will not let it go if I claim not to have seen the light. Yet, when it comes to collisions that involve a motor vehicle hitting a cyclist, that’s a remarkably successful way for the driver to get their hands clean and walk free.
Duane concludes his piece with what seems to be a common sense advice to appease the tensions between cyclists and drivers:
So here’s my proposal: Every time you get on a bike, from this moment forward, obey the letter of the law in every traffic exchange everywhere to help drivers (and police officers) view cyclists as predictable users of the road who deserve respect
Well, how about: no.
No one has to earn the respect of drivers. No one needs to pay any more attention to the rules of the road than drivers do. There is no truce to be had between cyclists and drivers. The premise of a truce is that there is an open war in which the parties have an equal standing and responsibility. There is, quite simply, nothing further from the truth: no one here is out to kill one another, and the playing field between cars and bikes is not level.
First and foremost, the answer to vehicular misconduct and inattention is in the hands of the drivers. But when the worst happens, the authorities should take the matter in their hands. If you listen to your local cycling activists, you will likely hear expressions such as ‘better cycling infrastructure’ and ‘look at Amsterdam’. At a basic level, I agree – that is what is needed for our cities and our communities
However, I would argue that what is needed for our society is accountability for the people guilty of hurting and killing others. I hope that’s a basic level of humanity that can be agreed on by anyone. The facts demonstrate we are not there.
I am not angry at drivers. I’m angry at their privilege to make enormous mistakes without ever having to face the consequences while cyclists are sitting ducks blamed for their own deaths. As long as drivers get a free pass to kill or do violence to anyone, I cannot bother to be lectured about how following the rules of the road is the solution we’ve been waiting for.
Credit goes to @mikesonn for the title of this post.
Bikes of San Francisco poster by Tor.
