Anti-bike propoganda

I’ve decided to take a slightly different approach in my bicycle advocacy efforts.  Below, you will find a collection of random quotes that I’ve collected around the internet – all of which advocate for a decidedly anti-bicycle mentality.  For anyone that has read more than an article or two here at Just Another Cyclist, it should be obvious that I will have objections and counter-arguments to all of these.  But for now I’ll post these below without commentary – save what is written hear in the introduction.

It is somewhat sad that many of these were found as user comments on the end of news website postings on cyclists getting injured or killed in vehicle-bicycle collisions.  In fact, the vast majority of these came from my own home-town paper, the Sacramento Bee.  However, as cycling supports and perhaps advocates, we must understand and acknowledge the opposing arguments, if for no other reason than to construct reasonable and rational counter-arguments.  Know thy enemy seems to apply.

  • I don’t mind sharing the road with cyclists but they need to abide by the same rules that we drivers do, for example, stop at stop signs/stop lights, yield to pedestrians. You can’t play pedestrian and vehicle at the same time ( I see bike riders all the time on streets and as as soon as pedestrian, which is defined as person not on or in a vehicle, walk signal gives them the right of way, the cyclist also goes..) The road rules apply to you as well if you want to share the rode, than follow the same rules as car drivers do. You are not a pedestrian when you are on the road so dont think you have the right of way.
  • why does agendist [sic] special interest garbage like this get passed, ignoring the obvious problem, bikes ARE NOT CARS and they never will be. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been approaching an intersection, or moving slowly and a bike has squeezed IN BETWEEN be and the car in the lane next to me, for this to be legal is clinically brain dead and creates instant libability to those already driving safely for the sake of not hurting biker’s feelings. I’m all for bicycle transportation, in bike lane’s only, it just makes sense. It kills me to see millions of dollars of tax money spent on bike lanes we can’t afford just to have them not used by bikers.
  • Share the road. Make insurance mandatory along with license plates on bicycles, they can cause accidents just as cars, and be used in crimes just like cars so the laws should be made “center of the road” so it is equal for both parties using the road. Simple.
  • so when do the cops start writing tickets for cyclists who ignore stop signs and refuse to move to the right as required?
  • Another tragic result of bicyclers ignoring traffic laws. If I recall my bicycle education program I had when I was a kid, we were taught to walk our bikes across busy intersections, crossing as pedestrians. Sad for the youngster, hope he recovers.
  • I’ll share the rode [sic] with bikers when they follow the rules of the rode like those of us in cars
  • I believe he [vehicle driver] would only have to yield if there was a cross walk. Unless they were both traveling in the same direction then the bicycle would have the right of way, because a bike is treated as a vehicle and must follow the same laws as a vehicle. Most bicycle riders do not stop at red lights and stop signs…
  • I have always said that when the bikes that are on the road with me are licensed AND insured, then I will respect them as an equal. That being said…. I DO allow them more than enough room because I do not want to hurt anyone, even the ignorant ones.If I hit a bike, I pay out the nose…. A bike hits me…. NADA. If you want to be considered equal on the road, then like I said above, get your bike licensed and insured!!!
  • Bikers/pedestrians should share the sidewalk when theirs no bike lane.
  • In Sacramento bicyclists run red lights all the time. I almost hit one on J St. near Mercy Hospital yesterday.
  • In my opinion,the fact that bicyclists use pedestrian rules when they feel like it and motor vehicle laws when it suits them contributes to the number of car vs. bicycle collisions. Then there are those who follow no laws whatsoever. Drivers never know where the bikes are going to appear from. They are supposed to follow MV codes.
  • You are absolutely right…..they run red lights and pretty much violate all laws on the road….
  • If there is a bike lane than that is where bike riders need to be.  If someone is opening their door it is the bikers responsibility to stop and wait until the driver is safely out of their car.
  • Sad that he’s dead, but can we really blame the driver for the cyclists death when the guy on the bike wasn’t even smart enough to put on a helmet?
  • Dawn

    Man, those comments display a lot of ignorance. Some of those comments remind me of the rapist defense “Well, she had a short skirt on….” Please post your reply article soon so I can get some closer.

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  • OGOF

    I hate to say it, but as a cyclist since the early 70’s (still commute daily, maybe 5K mi/yr total) I am disappointed in the way many cyclists totally ignore the traffic laws. To get respect, you give respect, and by that I mean respect the traffic laws. Sure, it saves time to run the lights, but the same can be said for a driver, or motorcyclist. I have very little problem with cars (and I live in urban LA) I think mainly because I ride predictably and try to work with the other road users, not against them.

    • OGOF,

      While I understand your point, I’m going to have to disagree. I hear it a lot from withing the cycling community. Statements such as “Until we follow the laws we have no right to complain.”

      My issue with that statement is that it seems to have, built into it as a presupposition, that the motorists that cyclists are being compared to in this argument predominately follow the rules of the road as well.

      While it definitely doesn’t bother me to hear cyclists make this argument in and of itself, it does bother me how many times this argument gets turned around against cyclists as an excuse by drivers to assume any car-bike accident is the cyclists fault. Far too many immediately think “Well, they all run stop signs. I’m sure this guy did and that’s why the truck ran him over. Not the truck’s fault”

      When they hear fellow cyclists saying the same thing, it just justifies their position.

      We (cyclists, as a group) should not have to wait until each and every cyclists follows each and every law each and every time before being given equal consideration. At least, that is my perhaps idealistic opinion.

  • Splob1

    These anti-bike people tend to generalize e.g. ‘I’ve seen cyclists go through red light so all cyclists are law breaker’s -Cyclists are individuals just like motorists.nnBikes have their own VC and so not subject to ‘all’ of the laws that apply to motorists. Many motorists don’t really care to know these codes, they’re too busy seeing red.nnIf bikes were ‘registered, insured, license plates + cylists all followed ‘the law’, etc.u00a0it would not mater in the end because:nnThe real reason motoristsu00a0rant and rail against bikes =u00a0bikes are in their way.n

  • Chickman

    You soun uneducated.u00a0 Learn to spell and I’ll try to respect your opinoin.

    • Chickman – if you u00a0are referring to the article, did you not catch on to the fact that this article is a collection of quotes collected from other sources, and the quotes are in factu00a0representativeu00a0of the exact opposite of my opinions in most cases?

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