DOUG. writes:
This was painted on my street in Wallingford yesterday. I now live on a giant bike path. We are winning the War on Cars.
Related: I ran into an old friend who lives on the East Coast now, and he started shit-talking “all the bike lanes” in Seattle. I felt inordinately distressed and didn’t know what to say. Or maybe ordinately distressed—this seems like a deep ideological divide.
Ah yes, Wallingford, one of the centers of Yuppie scum in Seattle. They’ll support all the bike lanes they can take out of self-righteousness, but don’t come at their pocketbooks, or their privilege, or you’ll be in for a fight.
@22- Remember the Army/McCarthy hearings when Joe McCarthey was shot down by “Have you no shame?” The lesson conservatives learned was “Have no shame.”
@52- You really shouldn’t act so jealous in public. But thanks for looking at my marvelous junk.
@52 I don’t know where you live, but I see all kinds of people on bikes every day. Black, white, brown; well-heeled, decently-heeled, no-heeled; male, female and everything in between. Don’t make the mistake of equating a lifestyle you disdain with the act of owning and riding a bike. Sure, some of the “bike jocks” you see may be jerks. But bikes are one of the cheapest forms of transportation money can buy (and no: you actually DON’T need to buy a top-of-the-line racing bike to commute to work or ride to the store). They’re used the world over –and NOT because those people in other countries just love to ape the style of American, spandex-clad “self-absorbed fucktards,” as you so delicately put it. Bikes get used because they’re cheap and effective. Some drivers here in the States get bent out of shape because they’re not used to sharing the road. In other countries where drivers need to contend with scooters, gas-powered rickshaws, old run-down trucks and (in some cases) even animals, people have learned to deal. I’m not saying we ought to aim to make American roads as crowded as they are in Mumbai–far from it. I just want to point out that making some accommodation on our roadways for modes of transport OTHER than cars, trucks and buses is not asking for much.
And as for those obnoxious cyclists who ride like they’re trying out for the all-amphetamine bike-messenger Olympics: yes, they exist. But they won’t exist for long. They’ll wise up or they’ll wind up dead. Kind of like the testosterone-fueled youths who drive their macho-machines around like they’re in a drag race. Assholery is not limited to only one group or mode of transportation. You probably don’t even notice those cyclists who don’t cut you off or “get in your way.”
If you’d like to learn more about how prejudices can easily cause people to confuse the particular for the general, I highly recommend this cartoon, which describes the process very succinctly in only two panels:
http://xkcd.com/385/
Now kids, raise your hands if you actually picked up on the sarcasm in the original message…