Friday’s Mailbag: Motorists versus cyclists; Mari’s Musings; hockey and cycling; and trading cards
The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.
We got the predictable ton of letters regarding Fred Dreier’s inaugural column on a pair of ugly motorist-cyclist conflicts. Some readers proposed vengeance via violence and/or vandalism, others counseled peace, still others recommended leaving enforcement to the law, and a few even suggested that cyclists could police their own road use a little more closely. A representative sample follows below. – Editor
Forget it and enjoy the ride
Editor:Speaking as someone who has ridden mostly in redneck country. (Ontario, Canada) I have learned to be cool, smile, and above all, don’t give a finger to anyone.
The way I figure it, my cycling is the best part of my day, so I don’t let some jerk ruin it by getting upset. Sure, real bad things can happen, and I have wounds to show for it like most heavy-mileage guys. But we’re not going to win a fight on the road, so just be quick to forget the incident and enjoy the ride.
Ken Ross
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Motorists who force confrontation deserve ‘special justice’
Editor:While the rider bears some responsibility for his reaction to the coward behind the wheel, it’s typically the motorist who initiates the ugly confrontation. The “it’s all about me safely hiding in my three-ton SUV” attitude is becoming all too endemic in our society.
If I were to hold a loaded gun to the head of a motorist who threatens my life with his SUV, my ass is rightfully getting hauled to the pokey. Seems to me the ape who uses his vehicle as a weapon should be treated the same way. Until that happens, the legal system offers little protection for us, and the cowardly motorists who willfully puts our lives at risk deserve whatever special brand of justice comes their way.
Fred Baldassare
Murrysville, Pennsylvania
Cyclist’s violence may spur attacks on other riders
Editor:
I certainly agree that dealing with irate motorists is a real problem for all of us. However, contrary to what the article suggests, I don’t believe a great inconsistency exists between the two cases cited by Mr. Dreier. Obviously, in the TIAA situation, the law-enforcement officials responded and filed charges against the offending driver, although I am sure he won’t get what he deserves. Maybe he should have to ride a bike during rush-hour traffic and learn what it feels like to be on the receiving end.
The situation involving Mr. DeBroux is the essence of what makes people mad at cyclists. As cyclists, we have an obligation to obey the same laws that other motorists. The very fact that he saw fit to pass stopped cars at an intersection tells me that he is part of the problem and not a victim. Not to mention a willingness to get into a verbal altercation with these folks. Mr. Debroux deserves to be picking up the pieces of his bike, and the only person who I feel sorry for is the next cyclist who meets the same woman after Mr. DeBroux was kind enough to make a good impression. Maybe he should have to pay for that bike, too.
Now, I do believe the woman’s actions were inexcusable as well, but it is not self-defense if you encourage the hostilities. Thank you, Mr. Debroux and friends, for making the roads more dangerous for the rest of us. I will think fondly of you the next time someone throws a beer bottle at me.
Joseph Williams
Mount Airy, North Carolina
Note the plate number, call the cops
Editor:Cyclists will always lose battles with cars, trucks, buses, and trains. All you can accomplish by physically confronting a driver is training the driver to consider cyclists as targets in the future.
If you feel a driver is being reckless, take the plate number and call the police.
Or: “I am sure you did not mean to hit my elbow with your right-side mirror. I know you would feel bad if you accidentally hurt or killed a cyclist. Perhaps you can allow more room when you pass in the future. Have a nice day.”
Sandy Zirulnik
Oakland, California
No defense for dummies, but cyclists can ride smarter, too
Editor:Fred Dreier’s article was interesting. I live in Niwot and ride most of the roads in the area at one time or another during the year. I know the occasional bubba who passes close, swerves in at the last moment and/or honks their horn, and I don’t like it.
However, as a rider who is approaching 50 years of riding “ten-speeds,” I also experience the occasional knuckleheaded bikie while driving my car – cyclists who just have to ride double on the narrow back roads – and that gives me an adrenaline rush of negativity.
So there are two points of view. There is no excuse in either case.
No defense for the moron in the pickup truck, but I would have liked to have seen everything leading up to the event. I was descending Left Hand Canyon when I ran across the TIAA-CREF team coming up the road, completely taking up every inch of the road with their team car in the lead taking pictures and the peloton in train down the road.
There is a lot of traffic on that road and there was no way for any cars (or F-350’s) to safely pass. I remember thinking that I hoped they weren’t riding that way for more than a few minutes or there would be a whole passel of pissed-off bubbas aiming at me the next time I am on the road solo.
As far as the dude who parked himself in front of an already road-rage infected driver, well common sense knows no bounds, does it? ’Nuff said.
We live in a world where anger and frustration seems to be the dominant feature for a lot of people. I ride a lot of miles every year, both on the road and off. I just make it a point to have the little white line on the side of the road as my friend. It still pisses me off when a car comes too close and acts obnoxious, but alas I’ve done my part as best I can, and of course there are always the mountains serenely off in the distance. . . .
Don Keenan
Niwot, Colorado
It’s not strictly an American phenomenon
Editor:I am shocked that you would have the same problems in the USA that we have in South Africa. I have spent some time in Colorado and it seemed that the motorists were less tense than here in SA.
We have motorists doing exactly as you describe in your article – just waiting for a reaction. You see them watching you in their rear-view mirrors.
We as cyclists have to try not to antagonize the motorists while on our bikes as we will come off second best. Try to get registration numbers of vehicles and report them to the police; the more complaints that are made, the better. Do you not have a Pedal Power Association in USA that can lobby the state governor?
Rob Rudman
Sunridge Park, South Africa
Don’t ask for trouble
Editor:I cannot understand while cyclists must provoke motorists – even if it is well deserved. If someone in a car does something mean to you, smile and tell them you are wrong and sorry.
Nothing good can come of giving them the “one-fingered international sign of goodwill.” Doing that is like telling a guy with a gun to your head that his is mother is fat. It’s just asking for trouble, trouble that can be prevented.
Doug Paris
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Ignore ’em or slug ’em
Editor:You have two things you can do. First, ride away and not say a word (the best thing to do). Second, chase them down and kick their ass! Do not stick around for the police. The police hate cyclists. A car runs you down and the police will say it’s your fault.
Talking to these people are a waste of time. Ride up to their window and punch them in the face, or ride away.
John Slover
West Hollywood, California
Don’t take the bait
Editor:Confrontations like this – nobody is right. Sometimes somebody is more wrong in one case than in another. My experience (five years D.C. bike messenger, three years car messenger and 15 years racing USCF) suggests that usually the car driver baits you, then you take the bait, then there is a confrontation. I consider it my duty not to take the bait.
Colby could have just ridden past that driveway. Was the driver wrong? Yes. So? Now Colby’s bike is toast. And I don’t want to spend my time and money explaining to Murphy the Cop why I shouldn’t get locked up.
It is never worth the trouble. You aren’t going to convince the driver that he’s wrong. And how many of his friends is he going to tell, and how many of those people will become anti-cyclist?
Exercise some discipline, and some maturity and don’t take the bait. And daring somebody to run you over – please, grow up. Was the car driver rude? Yes. But that doesn’t make it right to be rude back. And destroying that windshield in retaliation? Who gets flagged in football, huh? The one who retaliates. No fight, no blame.
This isn’t a perfect world, okay? People are mean; don’t let it get to you.
Mark Kerlin
Washington, D.C.
Restraint is better part of valor
Editor:I guess I should have been shocked by your article about the two incidents in Boulder that involved altercations with angry cyclists and angry motorists, but, after riding both on and off road for over 30 years, I’ve seen plenty of incidents to rival the ones you reported.
I’ve had many things thrown at me, been run off the road many times, been hit in the face with a wet towel while riding, had a tube of toothpaste squeezed out all over my back by some kids who were joy-riding, had four young guys jump out of a car and try to pick a fight with me because, as they stated, I was “riding in the street and the street is for cars” and was even shot in the leg with a pellet gun (fortunately not at close range). I’ve also been hit by cars several times, fortunately none of them very serious accidents, and even had one guy blame me for “hitting his car with my bike” even though he cut me off in traffic and apparently didn’t see me.
Every serious cyclist knows that when it comes to a bike-versus-auto showdown that bikes always lose – always. It has taken years for me to re-train myself to simply not respond negatively in these types of circumstances as, time and time again, I’ve never seen any good come from a confrontation with an angry motorist who has at his or her disposal a very large lethal weapon.
I think the other realization that most of us need to keep in mind is that we have a responsibility to our fellow cyclists to not increase the general enmity toward cyclists that many motorists have by keeping our cool around motorists despite the negative encounters we have on the road.
Just because you got away safely, content in the realization that you gave that motorist a piece of your mind, doesn’t mean that the next cyclist will be so lucky. Restraint is perhaps the better part of valor when it comes to altercations with motorists on the road.
Bruce L. Ross
Santa Cruz, California
Mari’s diaries are (Napoleon) Dynamite
Editor:Reading Mari’s Musings made me want to bake her a cake. Or maybe draw her a peecture.
Chris Kelley
Dubuque, Iowa
Yeah, but will you spend like three hours shading the upper lip? Gosh! – Editor
Regarding bikes and wilderness
Editor:Quite frankly, my hard, Vibram-soled hiking boots do more damage to a trail than my soft mountain-bike tires will ever do. Around here, I always see more hikers and horse riders. My bigger question is, are horses with steel shoes getting banned?
Michael J. Kubes
Oakdale, Minnesota
Regarding the rant
Editor:I’m a cycling fan and a hockey player, coach, etc., in Aberdeen, Scotland. I have to say that I agreed with most of Patrick O’Grady’s rant, except for the bits where hockey was a little unfairly treated. However, the last paragraph sums up the labor dispute in the NHL perfectly.
As a pro in any sport, you are there to earn a living, whether its earning 50,000 or 5,000,000 of our pounds, your dollars or someone else’s currency, and right now there are hundreds of the best players in the sport not doing that. How bad would readers feel if the pro cycling ranks were in the same situation?
Pro teams have a finite budget and work their salaries, bonuses and running costs around that annual budget – nothing more, nothing less. Discovery Channel and the Toronto Maple Leafs have to do the same sums, if x + y = more than they can afford, something has to give. The NHL Players Association has to see that as well. An organization must recognize that its resources have limits – allow overspending and you eventually go broke.
I believe that the NHL commissioners have put an agreeable deal on the table to ensure the NHL survives in the long term just the same as the UCI has put the ProTour together to evolve and grow cycling as a sport. Both sports need to survive and fight to gain recognition and greater incomes across the globe, and the managing organizations are doing the best they can to ensure this. Pity some of those involved want a lot more than their fair share.
Donald Young
Aberdeen, Scotland
Trade ya two Levis for a Lance
Editor:In his last foaming rant, Mr. O’Grady writes that “Canadian kids traded hockey cards the way Americans swapped baseball cards.” I looked on eBay and only found one cycling trading card, that of Duncan Gray, the man who won Australia its first Olympic cycling gold medal in 1932 and has a velodrome named after him in Sydney, Australia.
With Lance and Levi leading teams, and other Americans doing well in international competition, and U.S. teams all over racing, this would be a good time to launch a set of cycling trading cards, both in bubble-gum packs and inside coffee cans, to put cycling more into the public eye. Maybe then more folks would send requests to their local papers to include pro race results from U.S. and international races in their papers, and maybe even get weekly TV coverage of the early European races and/or US national races. Collect The Entire Discovery Team! Collect The Entire Jittery Joes Team!
Tom Murphy
San Diego
Correct us if we’re wrong, but didn’t Shaklee do trading cards back in the day? Anyone besides us remember that? – Editor
The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.