Blaming ourselves

As you will see if you follow Dave Moulton's blog and mine, we are enjoying a dialogue about cyclists in traffic, about the way drivers view us and treat us - and how we cope with their lack of respect for us as human beings and sharers of the road.

Here's a link to Dave's blog: http://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/

Dave's feeling is that we are treated as most minorities are treated, and I readily agree. He feels that drivers point at the cyclists who behave worst in traffic - scofflaws and guys with big attitudes - and the drivers say, "Look at that asshole! All cyclists are like that!"

Dave's hope is that our subculture will police itself, that the cyclists with outlaw attitudes will grow up or realize suddenly that they are in truth worthless cretins who bring scorn and retribution raining down on the rest of us riders.

He hopes that exposure in the media of the low esteem in which we are held will bring drivers to realize suddenly that they are in truth worthless cretins, incomparably worse than their cretinous cousins on bicycles, who almost never hurt anyone.

I hope all those things will happen in the fullness of time, but I'm not holding my breath. Many minorities have fought for years to be seen as people, neighbors, worthy elements of society.

Who's gonna fight that battle for us? We're too busy buying roof racks for our SUVs and deciding which carbon frame (or collectible steel one) we'll be riding when the black Tahoe runs us down.

Here's my fear. John Forester talks about a Cyclist's Inferiority Complex, a fear of getting hit from behind (and perhaps deserving it) that keeps us from taking our proper place on the road - taking the lane if need be.

Suggesting that we bring this abuse from motorists on ourselves is another kind of inferiority complex. It isn't the few bad guys riding bikes stupidly and antagonistically who are bringing motorists' wrath upon us. The anger is already there, and we look like handy targets.

Talking about how some of us attract driver anger exaggerates our role in this sad drama. Are the worst of us, as one of Dave's commenters suggested, worse than crummy, aggressive drivers? Are they worse than most drivers? Do they scare people and threaten their lives?

If we have a role in this, if in truth we are the arrogant scofflaw idiots drivers claim, should we be given traffic citations for our evil deeds and attitudes - or should a nation of anonymous, armored vigilantes hunt us down in the bike lane and make our riding lives miserable?

As cops on the TV are always telling kids after their parents do awful things: It's not your fault.

It isn't. It's isn't your fault.