Irk on Main

As a human, ashamed to admit the following cretins belong to the same species:

Given his limited reasoning ability, Alex Oliver Rigby may have eaten too many paint chips as a child. A classic case of “blame the victim”, he indicts bicyclists for a traffic fatality in a letter to Daily Echo editors. As usual, courts exonerated motorist who mowed down bicyclist doing nothing wrong but exercising entitlement to be present on pavement.

Another insane commentary, vandal who glues locks doesn’t clear sidewalks of bikes he hates, just exacerbates issue, since cyclists then can’t remove bikes upon which they arrived. Next maybe he’ll steal shoes at a Japanese restaurant because they litter entrance.

No humorist but total jerk, Shane Falco (cowardly alias uses name of quarterback of football film The Replacements) hates bicyclists. The extent to which he excoriates hints at homophobia or jealousy, something cyclists on road see constantly. According to Falco, “Motorists own the road.” Well, of course, that’s false, misconception not borne out by legislation. Depending upon jurisdiction, city's, state's or nation's citizens collectively own roads, though everyone is entitled to use and taxpayers underwrite all costs. Motorists alone don’t come close to paying for road construction and upkeep. Even conservative rag The Atlantic admits they don’t, not by a long shot. Here’s an image of Falco role actor Keanu Reeves, known better for his motorcycle fetish and portrayal of Neo in equally unreal The Matrix, draped over a tyke’s bike.

The Atlantic editors pose an asinine question, Should Distracted Cycling Be Banned? Attentive cyclists already are on over 25% of all bridges, highways and streets. Maybe such self serving inquiries should be banned as propaganda. States can’t stop drivers from texting while slinging tonnage of steel at turnpike speeds. They write all sorts of unenforceable laws, but does that deter behavior or only make legislators feel fuzzily warm and possibly re-electable?

An aesthetic matron in Brooklyn, grassroots coalition Restore Transportation Balance, and Seattle loud mouths War on Cars got skewered for vehemently fighting innocuous activities in a Rachel Dovey article. Who pays for these misguided protests? It’s true, rich conservatives, who can afford the price of premium bikes and time to battle bike lanes past their gated communities, get stereotyped as anti-bicycle villains, yet most congressional votes against were Republican. The vast majority of planet’s billion cyclists consists of middle class and poor, which mirrors population in general. In a focused chart Dave Horton ties bicycles with 4 progressive social movements, reason enough for conservatives to hate them. Schemes to Maintain?

A Guardian article by Peter Walker points out some of their failed logic and obvious flaws. Likewise, another article by Minneapolis advocate Lindsey Wallace. Whether growing plants or planning traffic, you can smother with kindness and starve with neglect. Finding balance and losing hysteria are easy as long as planners don't locate everything on Main Street. Jamming it all together irks everyone.

Half way through the WHO’s Decade of Action on Road Safety, motor fatalities have not significantly abated. Every day on Earth motorists cause 3,400 deaths, over a million victims a year, with on average 35 million serious injuries, no laughing matter, one of world’s worst health hazards, worse than war itself. That’s right, these ignorant fools, impatient morons, probably Trump backers, who urge motorists to buzz cyclists and push them off roads and violate existing laws represent a greedy minority that views United Nations as a failed organization, why progress stalled decades ago and regression erodes everyone’s chances of survival. Last year over a million people joined People for Bikes, a grassroots organization that advocates adding lanes and improving conditions. Shed the Monster?