Today A Car Hit Me–Intentionally

[Mykeru]

@CCrew 1822 wrote:

Oh yeah. I have 4 cars, but I’ve heard that one so many times I’m just pre-emptive and throw it out first

Well, with all undue respect to Sigmund Freud and everything he was utterly wrong about, sometimes a cigar is not just a cigar.

My bicycle isn’t a vehicle. More is tied up in it. For me, biking is a challenge and a discipline. Which is why I not only bike all season and in all weather: That’s the point. Sure, it’s exercise, but it also carries me out of the mundane and makes for a little daily mini-adventure. I know some people think they’re “saving the planet”. In fact, that was the grating chant on the one DC Critical Masshole ride I ever participated in “Ride a bike! Save the Planet!”, said in exactly the same tone as Gerald Broflovski in the South Park episode “Smug”, just without overt smelling of their own farts.

Similarly, cars are an overt status symbol and a way for otherwise unimaginative people to tell others “who they are”. A couple years ago I had a 17 year old Toyota that I bought new and was basically running into the ground. It was never a beater, never failed to start or ever broke down until it gave it all up in a massive piston rod throw. Anyway, I dated a girl a couple of times who took it on herself to announce “If we’re going to date, you’ve got to get a new car”. For which I was thankful: The car allowed me to find out who she was without wasting too much time.

Also, let’s face it: Cars are two tons of armor on wheels. Imagine this: Someone steps in front of someone in a cross walk, which makes the person who was stepped in front of make the point of stepping in front at the next crosswalk, and on it goes, until the pedestrians start cursing at each other and flipping the finger. That never happens. But put them in a car, and it’s commonplace. Not only are cars status, but they allow people to vent hostility in a way that reduces personal risk to themselves. That is, in a cowardly sort of manner.

So, when bikes and cars intersect, there’s a weird dynamic. The guy in the car thinks he’s one up on the bike, because, after all, he has a car. What’s more, he’s protected, and if he’s the sort of sociopath/narcissist that’s so common in DC, not getting respect from someone he thinks, by definition, is beneath him is really going to burr his ass. What’s more, on a certain level the car driver must also be aware that, in this instance, he’s outside the adventure that is biking. Yeah, he’s got a car, but it’s mundane. He knows he lacks the discipline, physical prowess and increasingly necessary courage to be a cyclist in a car culture. So, that’s all the more reason for the car driver to want to put the cyclist down.

Personally, I think it’s a measure of how pathological we are as a society that something as simple as biking vs motoring has all these undercurrents of money, power, status, hate, repressed eroticism and resentment.

[eminva]

Well, just look at the last 60 years of automobile advertising — it’s obvious they’ve been trying to sell us a lot more than mere transportation for decades.

I wonder if the contempt that some drivers have stems from the opposite impulse of must-be-a-DUI/illegal immigrant — that being able to pedal to work is a luxury they couldn’t afford. To the uninitiated, they might think that to be able to commute by bicycle, one must have (1) more leisure time (it takes longer than driving, and if you have to get to the day care center by 6 p.m., that’s a non-starter), (2) fewer obligations (picking up two kids from day care, running errands and taking the kids to soccer practice are also incompatible), (3) more discretionary money (a nice enough bike costs a fair chunk of change) and (4) good health. I’m not saying this is what I think, I’m just considering what their thought process might be. I consider all these obstables to be surmountable, and indeed, I have figured out ways around them.

My bicycle commute started six years ago with a revelation. I usually took the metro to work, but for two weeks I had to drive because of a summer camp my son was attending near my office, but out of metro range. I saw all these people on bicycles who looked like me. Prior to that, I had never considered it. Over the years I have arranged my schedule so that it is doable even with family obligations, and have increased my commitment after moving eight miles further from my office. I hold out hope that some of those drivers, not the hostile ones maybe, but some of them will look at me and all of you and the light bulb will go off in their minds, too.

I got Bike Snob’s book for Christmas, and he posits that the way to get motorists’ and public officials’ respect is not so much through advocacy, but through sheer numbers. The more bicyclists out there, the less they can ignore us. Not sure if he’s right, but if he is, I don’t think we are at that tipping point yet. I’d love to see us get there.

Liz

[acc]

Before I bought my bike I admired the cyclists I saw, they moved with grace and fluidity. The only time I flinch when I am around a cyclist in traffic is during the height of rush hour and a cyclist is coming up on my right only to be passed when the cars start moving but I know he’s there and I am watching to see where he is going to reappear next. As long as a cyclist is predictable and uses hand signals I give them as much space as I can and they don’t bother me. When they cut across traffic without warning or weave back and forth I become nervous because I just don’t know what they are going to do next.

When I’m riding and a motorist stops for me to cross a street or is courteous to me I wave and smile and thank them. I try to focus on the gracious behavior out there all the while knowing darn well not to trust drivers.

And I agree, the more cyclists, the more noise we make, the more likely we will achieve respect and not just notoriety. Ride a bike, save a planet. Or whatever….

[Mykeru]

@eminva 1825 wrote:

Well, just look at the last 60 years of automobile advertising — it’s obvious they’ve been trying to sell us a lot more than mere transportation for decades.

I wonder if the contempt that some drivers have stems from the opposite impulse of must-be-a-DUI/illegal immigrant — that being able to pedal to work is a luxury they couldn’t afford. To the uninitiated, they might think that to be able to commute by bicycle, one must have (1) more leisure time (it takes longer than driving, and if you have to get to the day care center by 6 p.m., that’s a non-starter), (2) fewer obligations (picking up two kids from day care, running errands and taking the kids to soccer practice are also incompatible), (3) more discretionary money (a nice enough bike costs a fair chunk of change) and (4) good health. I’m not saying this is what I think, I’m just considering what their thought process might be. I consider all these obstables to be surmountable, and indeed, I have figured out ways around them.

My bicycle commute started six years ago with a revelation. I usually took the metro to work, but for two weeks I had to drive because of a summer camp my son was attending near my office, but out of metro range. I saw all these people on bicycles who looked like me. Prior to that, I had never considered it. Over the years I have arranged my schedule so that it is doable even with family obligations, and have increased my commitment after moving eight miles further from my office. I hold out hope that some of those drivers, not the hostile ones maybe, but some of them will look at me and all of you and the light bulb will go off in their minds, too.

I got Bike Snob’s book for Christmas, and he posits that the way to get motorists’ and public officials’ respect is not so much through advocacy, but through sheer numbers. The more bicyclists out there, the less they can ignore us. Not sure if he’s right, but if he is, I don’t think we are at that tipping point yet. I’d love to see us get there.

Liz

@acc 1826 wrote:

And I agree, the more cyclists, the more noise we make, the more likely we will achieve respect and not just notoriety.

Sheer numbers, of course, is what distinguishes a religion from a cult.

[Mark Blacknell]

@Mykeru 1830 wrote:

Sheer numbers, of course, is what distinguishes a religion from a cult.

Well, you’re just a basket of flowers, aren’t you? Enjoy your ride home, Mykeru. I hope it brings some happiness.

[acc]

Silly me, I thought it was their 501(c)(3) status that distinguished a cult from a religion. In my experience a cult will not open their financial books but the mainline religions are only to happy to show you where the money goes.

Have a safe ride.

[Mykeru]

@Mark Blacknell 1831 wrote:

Well, you’re just a basket of flowers, aren’t you?

Where’d that come from?

I want to find the person spreading slanderous rumors like that and slap them with a cease and desist.

[Mark Blacknell]

@Mykeru 1833 wrote:

Where’d that come from?

I want to find the person spreading slanderous rumors like that and slap them with a cease and desist.

Some dude driving a late model sedan near the corner of 17th & Constitution. Go get ‘im.

[Mykeru]

@acc 1832 wrote:

Silly me, I thought it was their 501(c)(3) status that distinguished a cult from a religion. In my experience a cult will not open their financial books but the mainline religions are only to happy to show you where the money goes.

Have a safe ride.

I was raised a Roman Catholic. Of course, I became an evangelical atheist once my brain grew in.

That’s some funny stuff.

[acc]

Glad to see you made it home alive, thanks be to…. oh nevermind but I was rooting for the poo-flinging chimpanzee.

[Riley Casey]

Such an awesome thread. Car trauma, crackpot sociological theories, poking fun at other peoples superstitions ( always other peoples because after all we don’t harbor any superstitions ) , fear and loathing and the odd ad hominem here and there. Thanks for a fun read folks LOL

Of course the only safe way to ride after all is to remember that – Cars are out to get us

[Mykeru]

@acc 1840 wrote:

Glad to see you made it home alive, thanks be to…. oh nevermind but I was rooting for the poo-flinging chimpanzee.

So, you’re not glad. You wanted to see me turned into a Belgian Waffle?

[acc]

No, I believe it was Mr. Blacknell who wanted to throw you into oncoming traffic. He probably knows you better.

I had my own near death experience not augmented by hallucinogenic pharmaceuticals but rather with a bike and car so I would not wish that on anyone except a particular cyclist who decided standing on his brakes was a good strategy when I was about three feet off his rear wheel two weeks ago. But I digress… When the POS car flattened me and I was looking up at its undercarriage I had the irrational thought, “Dear God, I’ve always owned lousy cars, driven lousy cars and ridden around in my friends’ lousy cars. Couldn’t I at least be hit by a Porsche?”

[Mykeru]

@acc 1868 wrote:

No, I believe it was Mr. Blacknell who wanted to throw you into oncoming traffic. He probably knows you better.

I had my own near death experience not augmented by hallucinogenic pharmaceuticals but rather with a bike and car so I would not wish that on anyone except a particular cyclist who decided standing on his brakes was a good strategy when I was about three feet off his rear wheel two weeks ago. But I digress… When the POS car flattened me and I was looking up at its undercarriage I had the irrational thought, “Dear God, I’ve always owned lousy cars, driven lousy cars and ridden around in my friends’ lousy cars. Couldn’t I at least be hit by a Porsche?”

Which is another way of saying you’re a hippie? Well, a hippie into status when it comes to being run over, anyway.

And

1. I may be wrong, but I get the impression Mr Blacknell should be doing more commenting on UnSuckDCMetro this time of year, and

2. No one knows me, and I like it that way.

[CCrew]

@eminva 1825 wrote:

W
I got Bike Snob’s book for Christmas, and he posits that the way to get motorists’ and public officials’ respect is not so much through advocacy, but through sheer numbers. The more bicyclists out there, the less they can ignore us. Not sure if he’s right, but if he is, I don’t think we are at that tipping point yet. I’d love to see us get there.

That was the premise behind Critical Mass. Good thought but the execution is a demonstration in anarchy. Pretty much what we have now…

[Author]

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