Thursday Thoughts: Differences

Recently I had a somewhat unsettling conversational exchange.  I was speaking with a woman I had just met.  She styled herself a cyclist.  She was new to the area, and her question was a common one.  She asked,  “Where can you ride a bike around here?”

My stock reply to this question is to ask for clarification.  “What kind of riding are you looking for?”  I asked.

Her replies were the kind that I really like to hear.  She wanted to go to the store, to run errands, to be able to ride her hybrid for fun, and she was interested in the idea of using her bike to support her photographic business pursuits.

My immediate thought was a warm one.  This person was a vehicular cyclist.  She wants to use her bike for transportation.  Yes!

I started to extol the virtues of this general area for transportation cycling.  I was explaining, with the aid of a popular online mapping utility, various good routes and more tricky ones.  I thought we were having a great conversation.  But then the woman asked me about bike lanes and paths.  Of course I mentioned the path network in Peachtree City, and then, as per my usual, I explained that we don’t have many bike lanes around these parts, and that shoulders are scarce too.  I was continuing to explain why that shouldn’t be a problem, but I was halted in mid sentence.

“Oh.  Your one of those V.C. People,” the lady said, somewhat frostily.  She then proceeded to rip into me.

I was caught off guard.  It took me a long couple of moments to catch up to what this person was saying to me.  The gist of it was that I (and all like me) are arrogant, macho, smug, and self-righteous.

The usual reaction to something like that is to become defensive.  I was on the verge of that particular reaction, but something about the what this woman was saying caught me and stopped me.  It was her repeated reference to “You V.C. People.”  By this she meant,  Vehicular Cyclists.  More, the lady was correct.  I am one of those Vehicular Cycling People.  I am in complete agreement with John Forester, when he states,  “Cyclists fare best when they behave, and are treated, as the operators of vehicles.”

That said, the woman had some strong and valid points.

• Riding on the road, amid fast moving and often inattentive motor vehicles is intimidating.
• Motorists don’t know how to act around cyclists, and often make bad choices out of that ignorance.
• A minor error on anyone’s part will usually cause the cyclist to pay…  sometimes dearly.
• Separate the cars and the bicycles and the pedestrians, and these conflicts are removed.
• It should be possible to ride a bike to local destinations without being in fear for one’s life.

And possibly most telling:

• Vehicular Cyclists actually enable motorists by further intimidating other cyclists.

That last one is pretty thought provoking.

I can refute any of those points, and do so at length.  But there is another thing going on here.  The lady is correct in much that she says.  If she feels that she is in danger, then her fear will keep her off of the bike.  There is a place for bicycle transportation facilities.  I’m speaking of bike lanes separated from motor lanes, and dedicated bike/pedestrian pathways.  The predominant thought, here in Georgia, seems to be that facilities are for recreation, and not transportation.

It bears some thinking about, doesn’t it?