“Moral weightlessness” of cyclists?

[PotomacCyclist]

@dasgeh 98618 wrote:

I don’t see riding behavior as a matter of being polite or not or taking the moral high ground. It’s a matter of just being a normal part of traffic. For example, cars don’t “blow” through stop signs, they also don’t always stop completely. They slow visibly from their normal speed. I find that when I do the same on a bike (e.g. going from 15 mph to 3-5 mph when there’s no opposing traffic or peds), I get smiles, nods and waves from passers-by. It’s what they expect and what they see from cars. I don’t think most of them care about whether I put a foot down and get to zero.

Back to wings&wheels questions about whether different riders get treated differently, I think the answer is yes, the more a cyclist looks like a “normal” person that a driver can relate to, the better treatment s/he gets from drivers. I think it’s the same principle: when cyclists look like normal transportation, they get treated like normal transportation. It’s not 100% correlation, but I think it’s pretty strong.

And, of course, the cuter/more vulnerable you look, the better treatment you get. Bike while visibly pregnant or with kids on the bike and you’ll be given wide berth.

This isn’t to say that everyone should wear jeans on every trip, or that MAMILs don’t deserve respect and protection in traffic.

What’s wrong with wearing Lycra?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozoTzkCeO-A&list=PL302512DEC4378E5E

3:03 mark – “Representing Contours in Washington, D.C. …”

[Phatboing]

Gandhi. Sorry, pet peeve. Please, continue.

[baiskeli]

@Phatboing 98669 wrote:

Gandhi. Sorry, pet peeve. Please, continue.

But I wasn’t talking about the Mahatma Gandhi, I meant Fred Ghandi, a guy I knew in college.

[steelm]

Sometimes it seems that there is driver jealousy involved. They spend all this money on driving and just end up sitting in traffic jams. Bicycles move right by them…for free…while getting exercise. Some drivers seem to feel that if they are stuck in traffic, bicycles should too. They just can’t seem to deal with another mode of transportation “beating” them.

[Phatboing]

@steelm 98863 wrote:

Sometimes it seems that there is driver jealousy involved. They spend all this money on driving and just end up sitting in traffic jams. Bicycles move right by them…for free…while getting exercise. Some drivers seem to feel that if they are stuck in traffic, bicycles should too. They just can’t seem to deal with another mode of transportation “beating” them.

I’m sure there is. “You switch wantonly between sidewalk and road, and Idaho stop through stop lights waaa waaa waa”

Except everyone can wantonly switch between sidewalk and road. All they have to do is procure a bike. Free country.

[jrenaut]

I wonder how many drivers would filter to the front at a light if they could get away with it (and fit). Most, I’d imagine.

[dasgeh]

@jrenaut 98870 wrote:

I wonder how many drivers would filter to the front at a light if they could get away with it (and fit). Most, I’d imagine.

If they can fit, they regularly ignore lane markings and pull as close to the light as possible. Basically filtering.

[83b]

@jrenaut 98870 wrote:

I wonder how many drivers would filter to the front at a light if they could get away with it (and fit). Most, I’d imagine.

On my daily commute drivers routinely filter passed cars stopped in the only legal lane of East Capitol at Lincoln Park in order to make an illegal right on red. In order to safely navigate this intersection, I find it necessary to leave the bike lane and merge with car traffic on that block so that I can turn into the left turn lane I need without getting run over from behind. If I’m the first to stop at the red light and have taken the lane, easily 50% of the time the driver that arrives behind me will force their way around me to the right. And since I can keep pace when the light changes, I’ve had to bang more than one window to let them know they can’t then turn into my lane.

I’m also well overdue for the semiannual bike bashing email chain on the neighborhood listserv. Every time I have to hide my phone in another part of the house and remind myself that I actually like most of these people when they’re either at Point A or Point B, and not navigating between the two like a bunch of six year olds who’ve had a couple of pints.

[Orestes Munn]

I think jealousy is a small part of the mix of negative emotions, which cyclists elicit in drivers. More important, I believe, is the bullying instinct. As humans, we have strangely conflicting reactions to weakness and vulnerability. We like to help and protect, particularly in the abstract, but defenselessness also brings out aggression, all the more so when the object of that aggression draws attention by prancing about in apparent smug insouciance. Much as it shames me to admit it, I have had this feeling. In fact, I think the red light scofflaw crap is 75% rationalization for pure aggression, which few can admit they feel. I think the “Lycra” complaint comes much closer to what really sets drivers off. Nothing else explains the unprovoked assaults and attacks I have experienced in my five decades on the road.

[Alcova cyclist]

I think there’s a very natural human instinct –particularly when stuck in a queue/traffic jam– to react negatively to people who seem to be gaming the system to get ahead of everyone else. You see this car vs car at every merge, lane closure, exit-only lane, etc. (I know the closest I’ve gotten to road rage incidents while driving has been directed at the jackasses who cruise down the Washington Blvd exit only lane on 66W and then try to merge back into traffic). While it doesn’t make objective sense, I think this drives a significant part of the aggression directed at cyclists in city/commuter traffic. “That smug SOB is just cruising down the side of the road, then through the cross-walk, then scoots through the stop sign that I have to stop at…. while I have to sit here waiting. If bikes really want to be treated like vehicles, then they should be stuck here in this jam with the rest of us.”

[PotomacCyclist]

Another contributor to road rage and road frustration is the physical environment of the driver. Car companies like to talk about “the freedom of the open road” in their ads. But the reality is that the driver is confined to a very small space, inside an automobile. Where else would a modern person voluntarily submit to confinement in a 2′ x 3′ x 4′ box on a daily basis? It’s basically a mobile prison, in some sense. You are moving, but you are still stuck inside that metal box. That has to have psychological effects, which are revealed through the widespread display of rage, frustration and even violence while behind the wheel of an automobile. This doesn’t justify road rage, but it helps explain why it occurs so frequently.

[baiskeli]

@PotomacCyclist 98897 wrote:

Another contributor to road rage and road frustration is the physical environment of the driver. Car companies like to talk about “the freedom of the open road” in their ads. But the reality is that the driver is confined to a very small space, inside an automobile.

Yes, and often in heavy traffic rather than an “open road.”

Now you even see car ads that imply that their car is somehow a way to escape the horrors of traffic, with luxury or quiet or whatever inside the metal box. It’s hilarious.

[cyclingfool]

@PotomacCyclist 98897 wrote:

Another contributor to road rage and road frustration is the physical environment of the driver. Car companies like to talk about “the freedom of the open road” in their ads. But the reality is that the driver is confined to a very small space, inside an automobile. Where else would a modern person voluntarily submit to confinement in a 2′ x 3′ x 4′ box on a daily basis? It’s basically a mobile prison, in some sense. You are moving, but you are still stuck inside that metal box. That has to have psychological effects, which are revealed through the widespread display of rage, frustration and even violence while behind the wheel of an automobile. This doesn’t justify road rage, but it helps explain why it occurs so frequently.

While I tend to agree with you, I think an answer to the question in bold above is “La-Z-Boy” or couch cushion.

[lordofthemark]

@PotomacCyclist 98897 wrote:

Another contributor to road rage and road frustration is the physical environment of the driver. Car companies like to talk about “the freedom of the open road” in their ads. But the reality is that the driver is confined to a very small space, inside an automobile. Where else would a modern person voluntarily submit to confinement in a 2′ x 3′ x 4′ box on a daily basis? It’s basically a mobile prison, in some sense. You are moving, but you are still stuck inside that metal box. That has to have psychological effects, which are revealed through the widespread display of rage, frustration and even violence while behind the wheel of an automobile. This doesn’t justify road rage, but it helps explain why it occurs so frequently.

Nah. Nobody gets road rage while cruising at 80 MPH on an empty road in North Dakota. Its not the “cage” its the traffic. I wonder if motorcyclists (with the same exposure to the wind and sun that cyclists have) get less road rage in traffic. Could be, I suppose.

[mstone]

@lordofthemark 98916 wrote:

Nah. Nobody gets road rage while cruising at 80 MPH on an empty road in North Dakota. Its not the “cage” its the traffic. I wonder if motorcyclists (with the same exposure to the wind and sun that cyclists have) get less road rage in traffic. Could be, I suppose.

Note that motorcycle gangs have a reputation for sedate pacifism.

[Author]

Posts