01-15-2010, 02:05 PM
Apoc Wrote:II'm pretty sure you guys realize you reinforce negative attitudes towards cyclists. As long as you know that, I don't think you can complain about not being afforded a proper place to park your bike, etc.
And if we were all perfect, stopped for all stop signs and lights, only rode on the bike lanes and bike paths, the same people would have the same poor opinion of people on bicycles. Sure it doesnt help, but It doesnt change anything on the other side of the coin either. Its not anything that the collective cycling community can win one way or the other individually, it really requires a bigger shift from a local gov't perspective.
Edit: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/01/news/a-reporters-notebook-sentencing-dr-thompson_102284">http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/01/news/a-reporters-notebook-sentencing-dr-thompson_102284</a><!-- m -->
There is much more on that story if you dig around velonews, but thats the extreme case of the asshat vs cyclist scenario.
Edit 2: Its hard to really explain this in really good way to someone who has not spent a lot of time riding on the roads. Log a few thousand miles outside and there's a much different perspective and most drivers are not cyclist hating asshats, and probably indifferent to our place on the road (for better or worse).