Concerning Ted, and living in Anarchy.
This is my reply to BostonBiker’s post about the Ted Bomb. Where the author was riding legally, got honked at and somehow defused a car bomb, so to speak.
I’m going to deviate from the original lesson (You can humanize yourself too) and contribute to the discussion is a more nihilistic way. I’m sorry, but that’s just where I am. I wish I could say that I’m happy about the way things are, and that I could take this event as indicative of a changing climate, but I don’t. Perhaps BB’s post speaks more to the author’s verbal skills, and ability to form personal connections.
It’s mostly because of a poster named Ryan:
“Nicely handled. I can relate to both sides (biker vs. cage driver) and I can say that I am always conscious of bikers and try to give them as much room as possible HOWEVER a large number (I could say majority) of bicyclists that I see on the road ride like assholes. Acting like a car when it suits them best (riding in the middle of the lane @ 10 mph) but as soon as “car rules” become an inconvenience, they revert back to “pedestrian” and run red lets, cut through the middle of the line of stopped cars, go up on sidewalks, blow through crosswalks, etc. As much as I can relate and understand the danger that biclyclists encounter on a day to day basis, THE BIKERS are the ones that need to be more conscientous of the dangers and ride accordingly (defensively). Had the author dropped his bike in the middle of the road and come over to my window with his U-Lock in his hand (making me feel threatened), this story would have had a very different ending, and it would not have been a good one for the biker.”
Ryan is not a biker, he rides a scooter, or some other silly version of a non-car, as he clarifies later. Here is my response to his comment:
Ryan, I’m just going to say it. I’m a cyclist and I break the rules on the road because cyclists live in a transportation anarchy. Cyclists get in trouble for both following the rules and breaking them, it’s just that the former is on the road and the latter is mostly text-based. Personally, I prefer anonymous, internet based fist shaking to Ted situations.
And it seems that most accidents are the drivers fault anyway:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/who-causes-cyclists-deaths/?scp=1&sq=cyclist%20deaths&st=cse
The Ted situation is sort of the “damned if you do” situation: had the author weaved through traffic, and ran a few red lights, Ted would have been miles behind (Or so I would assume, please let me know if this is correct). I’m not saying it’s right, but personally I don’t care, so I’d say the author is a better person than I am.
Anyways. I’d rather be illegal, fast, and alive than live legally and take my chances on the latter two.
5 Comments
I’d have to say that the times when I break the rules are when I am afraid for my life because a car is breaking the rules.
For e.g. today I rode up on the side walk because a car turned right suddenly forcing me off the road.
I don’t fault anyone for doing what they think is appropriate for reasons of safety (within reason,) but personally I haven’t found breaking the law to be necessary while riding in Boston. Or, at least, when and where I ride in Boston, which is pretty much everywhere.
If there’s one thing I think I try to do more than anything else it’s to expect poor behavior from those around me. Once I figure that some road entity is going to be “that guy” I alter my own behavior to reduce my own risk – usually slowing down and moving out of danger’s way, or if it’s too tight then preparing to panic-stop.
I don’t think any approach to dealing with traffic is perfect, and that means accepting a law being broken in extenuating circumstances – but this does not happen during most rides, and certainly shouldn’t be performed habitually. Whatever you practice; that is your behavior, especially in a tight situation.
There are multiple philosophies to riding in a city. I highly recommend reading “The Art of Cycling” by Robert Hurst, it changed my whole perspective on dealing with the city’s transportation systems, and made me a much safer (and happier) cyclist.
Egads it’s hard to format a response well on here… *grumble*
I totally agree that there are different adaptive strategies. At some point, I made a transition from stopping at every red light and yielding to every car, to running a red without cross traffic and biking in the middle of the road.
Don’t get me wrong, I stop at a red when there IS cross traffic, and I occasionally yield. It’s just that most of the time, I’d rather take control of a situation and be the bad cyclist than take the high road until some asshole doesn’t see me/ regard me as human.
I’ve been reading these Boston Metro and local newspaper reports about cyclists being mauled by cars and usually it ends in “The driver will not be prosecuted.”
It seems like we’re on the same level as deer, or stray dogs. When I start seeing articles end in “negligent homicide” or “Manslaughter”, then I’ll consider obeying rules and being kind to cars. (Except for that one with the Canadian political guy, but I think the charges there were vehicular homocide.)
Until then, it’s cyclist anarchy.
PS: yeah the formatting sucks.