The taste of a bicyclist’s tears
Inside the head of every member of the bike cult is the feeling of moral superiority because. . . They don’t pollute.
Oh, this is almost too good to be true.
In the September Philadelphia Magazine, Olivia Kram is shedding precious bicyclist’s tears.
Over what?
Hold on to your seat — the behavior of other cyclists, the kind who enjoy a power assist.
Allow me to paraphrase her — they are inconsiderate jerks. Not all, surely, but many.
Which is exactly how a large number of Philadelphians feel about the majority of nonmotorized pedalphiles who blithely ignore courteous behavior, and Pennsylvania law, under which bicycles are vehicles, just like cars, and subject to the same regulations.
Kram writes that “morning commutes like this one are too frequently disrupted these days by noisy e-bikes zipping around me, or aggressive cyclists riding by shouting obscenities.”
Except for the noise, that’s one of the complaints I have against the cyclists (a majority by my observation) who do not a) know traffic laws, and b) do not know they are subject to them.
That means stopping at red lights, and stop signs. It means riding in the same direction as traffic, and off the damn sidewalks, where they are a regular hazard to pedestrians.
I’m guessing Kram is young, because of her touching belief in her fellow cyclists being on a higher moral plane than the nonbiking bottom feeders she must deal with. [She is the daughter of superb Philadelphia Daily News sportswriter, and friend, Mark Kram.]
“We bike people are accustomed to complaining about cars — I've been run off the road, honked at, and screamed at by drivers. But by fellow cyclists?” she pleads.
More bicyclist’s tears.
Inside the head of every member of the bike cult is the feeling of moral superiority because. . .
They don’t pollute.
That’s about it.
Forget about biking is healthy — did you see some of the Jabba the Hutts sliming the Naked Bike Ride?
Many of the bike cult — such as the Inquirer’s semi-retired architectural loudmouth Inga Saffron, who vibrates with an unhinged hatred for cars, parking garages, parking lots and curb cuts — despise the internal combustion engine (which is, honestly, on the way out anyway).
They ride their bikes to the grocery store (for small orders) but forget how those groceries got to the supermarket — by huge diesel trucks, mostly.
Lately, Kram writes, “it’s been hard to take the high road when that road is filled with illegal electric bicycles and obnoxious cyclists who go well above the speed limit.”
Testify sister!
She gives a few examples of bad behavior, which I can match with leg-driven cyclists, like the harebrain who banged on my wife’s car for being in the bike lane while legally in the left-turn lane waiting at a red light (which he probably wouldn’t stop for).
He was lucky. Only my physical disability kept me from jumping out of the car with a tire iron in my hand.
I am not saying I would have hit him.
I am not saying I would not have hit him. That would have been up to him.
Let me credit Kram with one revelation, backing up what I have been saying for years:
“I’m part of the 1.7% of Philadelphia commuters who bike to work, and I love it.”
Most bike commuters live within 4 miles of their job.
That’s walking distance.
Did their bike use cut down on car use?
No, it cut down on bus use.
The city’s first bike lane opened on Columbus Boulevard in 1995, to little fanfare, and little use.
When the bike lanes expanded to Center City in 2009, Mayor Michael Nutter expressed a wet dream that in a decade 6% of Philadelphians would bike to work.
He never biked to work, and virtually did no one else. He also promised, to gain the support of Center City residents, that they would always have access to their front doors, a promise broken with the passage of an insane ban on even momentary stopping in bike lanes.
It’s now been more than 15 years and bike commuters have never reached even half of Nutter’s lunatic prediction.
And the numbers don’t change no matter how many more miles of bike lanes are added.
Some day in the distance future some mayor will have the brains and courage to announce the bike lane experiment was a failure and shut the damn thing down.
