More on-line hatred that gets us nowhere
I pretty much can’t even read the comments sections on any on-line newspaper’s article about bicycles anymore. The comments are always the same. Somebody says bicyclists need to pay for their use of the road. Somebody complains that bicyclists don’t stop at stop signs. Bicyclists complain about drivers. Eventually somebody makes a crack about how fun it would be to kill a cyclist. Everyone hates each other.
So when Andrea Kelly asked in her Roadrunner Blog for suggestions about how to improve things between motorists and bicyclists (the “Hatfields and McCoy’s,” she calls them) I ignored it, mainly out of fatigue.
I think that instead of giving motorists and bicyclists another chance to yell at each other, Kelly should have experts in traffic studies explain why the two groups hate each other so much and talk about the merits of charging cyclists to own bicycles, discuss why bicyclists don’t always ride inside the bike lanes, and maybe look into how common it is that an accident occurs from a cyclist running a stop sign. Maybe for once some actual facts and intelligent discussion would serve us all better than hatred and venom based on ignorance.
Of course I usually side with the bicyclists in these arguments, but it isn’t out of partisanship — it’s because, like most bicyclists, I drive and I bike, and I know what each user faces from the other. I know what it is like to have to wait ten seconds behind a bicyclist when I am driving a car, and I know what it is like to have a car give me three inches of space at forty miles an hour. The aggravations that motorists suffer at the hands of cyclists are nothing compared to what cyclists face (this is not to say cyclists have no obligation to clean up their act).
Unfortunately, there are a lot of motorists who seem never to have spent much time trying to get around by bike, and they form their opinions (and hatred) from ignorance.
Anyway, I was pleased to see this comment in today’s installment of Andrea Kelly’s blog:
27. Comment by Jon S. (swarthyj) — July 27,2009 @ 8:47AM
Ratings: Thumbs Down Thumbs Up -4 +1This forum just encourages hate between cyclists and motorists. It does not foster constructive debate. The column just pits the sides against each other rather than thoroughly explore alternative perspectives. I’d like to read an even-handed article rather than an invitation to rant?
As of now it has four thumbs down, one thumb up. Ah, the internet.
Erik Ryberg
July 27th, 2009 at 10:53 am
I think you are onto something about the ignorance part of the equation. In fact I almost posted that in her column last week.
It is easy to disregard the concerns of cyclist or drivers if you haven’t ridden around on their rubber for a while.
I try my best to be friendly and courteous to drivers on the road. I wave and smile and chat with them at lights if their windows are down. Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn’t, but I feel like I am doing my part. Maybe they will too.
July 27th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
The anonymity provided by the comments sections of online news stories gives the trolling bigots of the internet an opportunity to unleash their inner hatred in a public forum without having to look anybody in the eye. Reminds me of those yahoos from Hillsboro Baptist…
Anyway, it’s not just Tuscon man. A local firefighter shot a cyclist in the head yesterday because he was upset that the man had his child riding with him in a safety seat. Luckily, the shot missed by about an inch…but the comments section of this one is just depressing: http://is.gd/1PhL6
July 27th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
What is stunning and disappointing beyond words about Andrea Kelly’s/ADS journalism is that there seems to have been no effort to report on local government efforts, if any, to improve matters: no interview of Zoll or the other one, nor of PAAG, nor of UA (which is pretty much preoccupied with UA semi-pro sports and planting tomatoes on the moon). No interview of experts by ADS: that would cost too much. Instead, we get beer gut journalism. It’s called pandering and that is what technically bankrupt newspapers such as ADS do. Andrea Kelly, whore?
July 27th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Oooh Red Star, that’s little rough….
let’s just say she hasn’t progressed
past the level of ‘intern’, yet.
The 27 comment above is very good, but
what media would have something like that
anymore? Some of the best thinking has been
represented on this blog, but none are
journalists that I know of. Most newspapers
are floundering under their own snow-balling
impotence.
July 27th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I also bike and drive and as a cyclist I hate ignorant drivers and drivers who are overly-aggressive towards cyclists. But at the same time, as a driver I really hate ignorant cyclists who flagrantly ignore the laws of traffic, weaving all about in the opposite direction of traffic. Rolling through stop signs after checking both directions is one thing, but I don’t think you get to complain about getting hit when you decide to hop on the sidewalk going against traffic.
If you intentionally try and run someone over, you should be held accountable. Conversely, if you decide that the most basic rules of traffic don’t apply for you and you get hit, then you also should be held accountable.
I don’t think really in terms of cyclist vs. car, I think more in terms of sane people vs. morons.
July 27th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
I’m constantly reminded of the quote from the Republican (who’s name I can’t remember right now) toward the end of the Clinton administration, when asked “why are you Republicans always beating up on Clinton?” answered “well – he keeps handing us the stick!”
If most of the cyclists out there are ignoring traffic laws, riding like idiots, and generally pissing everybody off, we make it really east for them to hate us. Yeah, I know some will anyway no matter what, but why keep handing them the stick?
July 28th, 2009 at 9:15 am
[...] GM should focus on its bike division if it wants to be viable for the future, says Boot ‘n’ Scoot. Tucson Bike Lawyer laments the hate-filled nature of online bike vs. pedestrian discourse. And Boston Biker has two [...]
July 28th, 2009 at 9:35 am
I don’t think Andrea Kelly is a poor reporter and I certainly didn’t mean to imply that. I know she has worked hard to grapple with bicycle issues as well as other transportation issues. She even rode the bus to work for a week once in order to learn more about issues surrounding buses. That’s more than a whole lot of journalists would ever do. I just wish we could stop making arguments from ignorance.
EBR
July 28th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Well, as a reporter charged with just
one regular column a week, I find it
a bit dismaying that she has not become
more reasoned or thoughtful or
knowledgeable about the various aspects
of her subject. I guess I expect more
because we used to get more from reporters
than reader’s comments to fill an article.
She lost me with her comments on the New
Belgium’s Urban Assault Ride event. I’m
waiting for some auto event to be depicted
with such a disparaging slant.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
“I pretty much can’t even read the comments sections on any on-line newspaper’s article about bicycles anymore. The comments are always the same.”
I agree so no longer read them. It took me a while to come up with that simple and elegant solution.