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Spring is here and the bicycle menace has returned
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Spring had sprung and I took the opportunity to take a nice leisurely walk across the Williamsburg Bridge. It was quite uneventful until the inevitable happened. Some jackass came flying by on his bicycle, whizzed around me, all the time muttering something and as he was vanishing into the distance and pointing to the walkway in what I took as a way of alerting me to the fact that I was walking on the wrong side.
Granted, according to the painted icons on the walkway, I was. But all through my walk I had to switch from side to side in order to avoid bicycles coming from both directions. The pathway is rather small so, accommodation needs to be made by pedestrians and riders alike. There was no problem up to that point.
Then I became a victim of the wrath of “entitled biker.” You know the guy. He flies along, disregarding anything and anyone in his path. And God forbid you dare to cross his path. He will mutter angrily as he passes you. Those guys are the reason I wish more bicyclists were run over by trucks.
Entitled biker is a real tough guy. He makes all kinds of tough noises as he whizzes by, sometimes raising a middle finger in response to any remarks. But basically he’s an arrogant sissy, a tough guy when he doesn’t have to face possible consequences of his remarks.
Entitled biker is the guy that blasts through intersections and thinks pedestrians are nuisances. He’s the guy on what I call a “racing bike” and quite often he is dressed like a total imbecile in his spandex outfit. I mean, really. What self respecting person would dress like that? But more often than not he is in disguise as a civilian. His legions are starting to abound on the streets of NYC.
Interestingly enough, it is only the guys on those kind of bikes that act like that. Come to think of it, they are the cycling world’s version of the guys who have gigantic SUVs and/or what passes today for muscle cars. Hmmm....tiny penis? Yea, that’s the ticket. And probably smaller than the average small penis.
I googled the term “bicyclists are assholes” and came up with 62,300 results. Apparently, bicyclists raise hackles coast to coast. The best comment I read was from a blog by a guy named Dave Alpert who wrote, “You see, while motorists are just assholes, bicyclists are self-righteous assholes. They walk around with this moral indignation and an air of moral superiority based on the fact that they use less fossil fuels, exercise more and that they have the short end of the stick because city planners don’t always have their interests in mind.”
Last year the Sheriff’s Department of Larimer County, Colorado which sits next to Boulder, decided it was going to step up enforcement of bicycling laws. The Sheriff, Jim Alderden, writing in his “Bulls’ Eye” column said that cyclists, "cop an attitude when stopped." He also said that many of the cyclists have taken to not having ID on them as a strategy to avoid a ticket. Now, there’s a brilliant move. No ID, chances are you’re going to jail, especially if you have an attitude, until they can verify who you are.
Considering the explosion of bike riders in NYC, it makes sense that the city create ways to make riding safer and more convenient. I think what needs to be done is seriously enforce bike laws and hold riders to them. If they want to be an equal partner, they should be held to the same standards as any wheeled vehicle using the thoroughfares of the city.
Charles Komanoff, co-ordinator of the bike activist group Right Of Way said, “State and city traffic law are full of provisions intended to protect safe cycling, yet virtually none of them are ever enforced.” He’s right and they should be, for cars and bicyclists as well. FYI: the website for this group is not, as you might expect something like rightofway.org, but carssuck.org.
None of this is to suggest that cars get off the hook. If it can be shown that a driver was at fault for a car-bike collision, they should be held accountable.
On the FreeWilliamsburg blog I found a post by some clown who was shocked that he was ticketed for riding his bike on the sidewalk near the Williamsburg Bridge. He wrote, “I didn't even know this was a law.” Huh? What’s the first thing you learn as a kid when you get your first bike? A response to this post was someone who complained that he was ticketed for blowing through an intersection. He was shocked. After all, there were no cars coming.
