When I first started this blog in 1976, I was often critical of and flippant regarding bicycle advocates, whose patron saint at the time was a certain musician who doesn’t own a car (at least on this coast):
Over time, my flippancy concerning advocacy matured into something more closely resembling respect. However, there are certain attitudes inherent in the discourse that still rankle me, and one of them is the notion that when you’re riding a bike you’re the only person on the planet, an attitude that is manifest in the disproportionate amount of outrage over blocked bike lanes, which is the subject of my latest Outside column:
Please note I am not saying people should block bike lanes, or that we shouldn’t demand our municipalities to address the problem. However, I am saying that pitching a fit over it is pointless and stupid–especially when it’s directed at pedestrians and other cyclists. I’ll also point that in no other situation do people harbor the expectation that nothing will ever get in their way. When you’re walking you circumvent obstructions with nary a thought, and even drivers expect to have to maneuver around delivery trucks and “jaywalkers” and double-parked city employees eating lunch and all the rest of it. The idea that cyclists are overly “entitled” is mostly a misconception, but I’m afraid that when it comes to things entering the bike lane it can occasionally be the case.
Mostly though I just think the guy who yelled at me is a dick, I mean seriously, what the fuck?