[Vision2020] Critical Mass, A Public Menace! Inconvenient Truth -- What WE gonna do

[Sunil Ramalingam]

Ted,

I have no interest in making a point about sharing roads with bikes from 
either a body cast or the little urn where my ashes would reside.  That's 
why I try to stay as close to the curb as I can while riding in the correct 
lane.  I'm not looking to put myself at greater harm.  I try to show 
consideration to drivers and hope they show me the same.

I agree that car and truck drivers should share the road with bike riders.  
I don't think we can make them do so by blocking the road.  You're talking 
about the attitude people ought to have, and I'm saying that taking the 
actions you describe won't get people to agree with you.  That's my opinion, 
and I may be wrong.  I think other methods of education are more likely to 
get drivers to respect the rights of bike riders to share the road.

I do think that car drivers can get irrationally angry when faced with an 
effort like Critical Mass.  I think you know I'm not endorsing or defending 
that attitude.  I'm just saying it exists.  If a bike rider gets angry with 
others for wasting resources by driving, and decides to try and run the cars 
off the road, I know who's going to win, at least 99 times out of 100.  
Perhaps the one other time the car might swerve to avoid hitting the bike 
rider, but I'm not betting those odds.

As for 95, I think extra lanes will make the drive safer.  If it leads to 
economic expansion, I don't object to that.  Right now there are few places 
where people can safely pass.  Dangerous passing is a risk to everyone in 
the vicinity, and four lanes will mitigate that risk.  In the years I 
commuted daily, I often saw dangerous passing.  Those drivers don't just 
remove themselves from the gene pool; they often take others with them, or 
worse, send them along while remaining with us.  I'm glad the expansion is 
taking place.

Sunil


>From: "Ted Moffett" <starbliss at gmail.com>
>To: "Megan Prusynski" <megan at meganpru.com>, "Sunil Ramalingam" 
><sunilramalingam at hotmail.com>
>CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Critical Mass, A Public Menace! Inconvenient 
>Truth -- What WE gonna do
>Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 13:13:45 -0700
>
>Megan, Sunil et. al.
>
>Megan, thanks for the info on Critical Mass.  I did not witness this
>particular ride when someone was ticketed or arrested.  The police were not
>as aggressive on the rides I did with Critical Mass, though police cars 
>were
>following along our route, some positioned to take pictures, as you 
>reported
>occurred on the rides you participated with.  It did seem rather 
>incredible,
>but, hey, maybe they got a call from Homeland Security that terrorists were
>trying to pose as bicycle activists in Moscow Idaho, so they needed those
>photos to run through their face recognition data bank.
>
>Sunil, I think it is legal for a bicyclist to be in the middle of a lane of
>traffic (correct me if I am wrong).  The issue is not to just "make a 
>point"
>in the abstract when riding in the middle of the lane.  The issue is to
>increase drivers respect for the fact that bicyclists have a right to use
>the streets of Moscow as well as cars and trucks, that they can ride
>together out in the street legally, which in some ways is safer than being
>on the side of a street with passing traffic, and should not be regarded as
>a nusance, which I assure you is the attitude of many harried rushing
>drivers, whether the bicyclist is on the side of the street or the middle.
>
>Angry drivers?  You make my point for me.  Drivers should not be angry at
>bicyclists using the streets of Moscow, even if it does slow them down.  
>All
>the talk on Vision2020 about how we should encourage more bicycling, if
>followed large scale, would result in a high density of bicyclists on the
>streets of Moscow, with, yes, bicyclists sometimes more out in the street,
>and car and truck traffic would have to adjust.  Angry at a bicyclist,
>helping to solve one of the major crisis facing our planet?  Are you are
>implying a bicyclist is not to be angry at those who waste a non-renewable
>resource and pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gases?
>
>Let's rewrite your statement to read "Angry bicyclists don't appreciate the
>point the drivers want to make, they just want to beat their heads in."
>
>I agree that bicyclists on sidewalks are a hazard, and that separate bike
>paths off road are best.   However, at this point in time, if we are to
>encourage dramatic increases in bike use in Moscow, many of the streets 
>with
>no bike lanes will be used for bicycling, which would necessitate more
>tolerance on the part of drivers to respect the presence of large number of
>bicyclists on the streets, even if it does slow their trip to Wal-Mart or
>the U of I by a couple of minutes.
>
>It is amazing to witness the psychology of drivers who will speed to a red
>light in a hurry to save a few seconds, then wait at the red light they
>would have reached at a slower speed anyway before it turned green.  I see
>people on the Troy Hwy. every day who speed at 65-70 MPH, saving, lets
>assume they are going to Bovill from Moscow, about 5-10 minutes as they 
>risk
>the lives of themselves and other drivers.
>
>The dominance of the use of private motorized vehicles in our culture felt
>to be a "right," an aspect of our economy and lifestyle that is so
>integrated into our psychology that it approaches religious significance,
>results in abuses of this form or technology that appear to be taken for
>granted as "inevitable."
>
>As far as the expansion of the Moscow/Pullman Hwy. and Hwy. 95, are you
>figuring the inevitable economic growth these developments will allow,
>increasing the absolute amount of traffic and fossil fuel use in our area.
>Wanna bet?
>
>Let's deconstruct the position of your narrative on critical mass and
>bicycling in the context of the power structure of economic and status
>driven identity legitimizing or delegitimizing various ideological
>authority constructs regarding the position of bicycling vis a vis 
>motorized
>traffic on the streets of Moscow as a valued means of transportation to be
>encouraged or not.
>
>Ted Moffett
>
>
>