Chris Writes.

Something has changed recently.  As part of my training regimen for Transrockies, I’ve been riding a lot, and commuting by bike to work more often, and I think I’m noticing an unfortunate upwards trend in car-to-bike aggression.  I’ve been honked at more often, yelled at to get off the road, given the one-finger salute, and been passed at high speeds in unsafe proximity.  If I were a new cyclist, I’d be terrified.  Over dinner with a friend tonight, he remarked that he’s observed the same thing recently in his pedal-powered trips around San Francisco.

But the levels of aggression I’ve seen recently are new, and it worries me.  It makes me extra sensitive on my commute, my training rides, and my lunch rides.  It makes me less likely to be understanding in an altercation, were one to occur (hopefully not).  And it makes me worry that new cyclists might get scared off, or worse, maybe killed, because they never had the chance to learn how to ride defensively.

A few hypotheses about why this is happening:

1. Gas Jealousy: after paying for gas, the feeling of driver entitlement is increased, and cyclists are seen as cheating the system by riding for free.  This of course isn’t true, as most of us own cars, pay taxes, and have to pay extra for the fuel our bodies consume…but emotion trumps logic.

2. Frustration at the perception of being delayed: any cyclist might be the cause for general traffic patterns or delays, and thus all are be treated with disdain.  This is often not the case, but yes, we’re slower, and easy to catch.

3. (and this is a stretch, perhaps maybe even sarcasm) Commuting by bike, and cycling in general, is un-American.  You’re not doing your part to chase the American dream by not driving a big pickup truck to work. Clearly all cyclists are communists.

For sure, not all cyclists are perfect.  Cyclists who disregard stop signs aren’t helping anything.  But neither is infrastructure perfect: sometimes bike lanes don’t exist, forcing cyclists into the lane and blocking traffic.  Sometimes stoplights won’t change for a cyclist alone, because they don’t set off the metal detector at the intersection.  It’s an imperfect world, clearly.  But we all have to live in it.  And I’m getting less and less likely to be tolerant of behavior that puts my life at risk for the sake of someone else’s convenience, or simply because of their intolerance.

And in case you need more convincing that we’re actually facing a problem here, check out this short video.  The NYPD officer in question has since been stripped of his badge and firearm pending the outcome of an investigation.