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The relationship between motorists and cyclists who share public roadways has always been slightly strained, with both user groups generally believing that they should have precedence over the other. The reality is that both operate vehicles - regardless of whether they have motors or pedals - on a public road and have equal rights and responsibilities. Drivers should treat a bicycle like they would treat a motorcycle or other car, passing only when safe, giving way when appropriate, and recognizing the cyclist as a valid user of the road. At the same time, the cyclist should follow the rules of the road, signaling turns, using the appropriate lanes, obeying stop signs and signal lights, and not cutting in line at intersections.
But that's in an ideal world, not the real one. On Sunday in Asheville, NC, a motorist shot at a cyclist who was riding on a busy public road with his family, hitting him in the head. The story is here, on the Asheville Citizen-Times website. The details can be read in the article and don't need to be repeated here.
Forgetting for a moment that there was a driver and a cyclist involved, it's appalling that one person would try to shoot another in the head, especially in front of the victim's wife and child. The lack of respect for human life shown by those actions astounds me. But equally astounding is the reaction of the online community.
Many people have commented on the story directly in the article and online discussion forums. Cyclists have been understandably outraged, as have most motorists. But there have been a disturbing number of comments placing blame on the cyclist just for having been on a public roadway. One anonymous commenter even stated, "It's too bad the biker didn't get the bullet in the head. Bikes on the road are a waste."
The fact that anyone could find justification in what the shooter did - even if the comment was meant as a joke - is a powerful statement on the perception of bicycles in our society. Even more so, it's a comment on the perception of the people who ride bicycles.
What are your thoughts? Do you recognize cyclists' rights to the public roads? If you're a driver, how do you feel when you have to slow down for a legal cyclist? If you're a cyclist, do you feel safe on the Indianapolis roads?
Leave your comments on this article. And, please, respect each others' rights as road users and - more importantly - as human beings.
For more info: Follow Jeremy at SimpleDad on Twitter for the latest bicycle transportation updates.
Comments
I share your perspective and conclusion on this. This isn't so much an example of a bad driver as it is an act of insanity. But like you I was disturbed more by the number of people looking to assign or apportion blame to the cyclist. It speaks to an entirely different problem.
I am a bicyclist in northern Indiana. I think this country has returned to the idea of the gangsters and the cowboys. It might not even have had to do with the bicyclist, yet it did. It dealt with the fact that we have gone wild as a nation. This is what I'm thinking sometimes. What was that motorist doing with a gun as he was driving anyway? Looking at the big picture of us as humans, is something going wrong? Is it high fructose corn syrup or some weird something in our diets that is turning a lot of us into canibals or somehow going from civiliized to non-civilized? It just seems weird that there have been so many shootings.
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