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Misc: Bike dudes are an angry bunch
Poor Emily Katseanes. She likely figured she’d write this hilarious column and get a few angry dorks firing back at her. I can’t imagine she knew she’d run into what she got: a bunch, and I mean bunch of angry, repressed, overcompensating bike nerds firing away at her weight, looks and eating habits, and also wishing ill health and even death upon her. Such is life, I suppose.
Back in July, I wrote about similar things as Emily, and I drew a little ire. My point then was that bikes have rules, and they should follow them. But not enough care is taken to ensure bike riders know the rules. I put this squarely on those people who are promoting the bike culture as a great alternative and way of life. They should be teaching these people themselves! If more care was taken to learn and pass along the knowledge necessary to ride safely and legally as is paid to what clothes to wear and what bag to carry while riding, articles like Emily’s (and mine) would be completely unnecessary.
I think the comments following her column demonstrate two things: bikers are haters, and Emily is correct.
I think that when someone generalizes, the first reaction by the generalized is to claim it’s not true of all of that type. Of course not. But when so much bile is spewing out of hate-filled pieholes, it’s a little harder to believe. Here’s why. We all know the people riding around town on bikes are doing exactly what she says they’re doing. We know it because we all see it every day. We see the running of red lights, jumping from sidewalk to street and back, riding the wrong way, and all the other stuff. The generalized party gets defensive because they want to see their ilk portrayed in a more positive light.
Except.
Then they think about how they really act, and they can’t guarantee they always follow the law. Then they remember what their fellow bike dork told them the other day about how he successfully tricked his way through traffic and pissed off X number of drivers. And they realize their argument doesn’t hold water for shit.
So they get pissed.
And they focus on what the writer said about her own smoking, or her own eating things that aren’t on the Hipster-approved List™. And next thing you know, all hell is breaking loose. We have people who would probably talk your ear off at Satellite about how in tune with the environment they are, but they can’t be decent to another human. We have a bunch of dudes who wear girl pants telling a girl writing for her college paper she’s unattractive and should die an unpleasant death. We basically have the manifestation of the daddy issues they’re asking her about. Only they’re the ones with the issues.
The bottom line on all if this is that she was writing to be a bit funny, but the bike guys either don’t know funny, can’t handle a girl making fun of them, or are just generally law-breaking assholes. I think it’s all three.
Comments
crazeee-___b., Nov 20, 08:04 PM #:
I’m using the new ‘graffiti’ Gmail theme because it’s dangerous. Just like me. And this blog post. Read my lips: Danger.
I take offense to what you say because I ride my bicycle, and you lie.
I don’t take offense because I’m not part of this group that you seem to believe is the equivalent of the entire bike population in Reno.
Stop generalizing. Address the specific group. Win-Win.
Nico, if everyone who says they follow the law actually followed the law, I wouldn’t see what I see. You’re breaking it just like the rest of them. The generalizations write themselves.
biker chick, Nov 21, 09:50 AM #:
the ignorance is astounding. my father taught me the hand signals, proper bike etiquitte, and respect for the road when I was 6. since then i’ve logged tens of thousands of miles on various bikes over the years, and have always followed his rules. should i generalize and say because you’re a journalist, specifically blogger, that you are biased and make up your facts?
As an answer to your question: of course you could say that. It would be laughable, however. Therein lies the difference.
it’s the same exact story no matter what you look at. fans are horribly uncentered people; whether they’re fans of pretty little fixed-gear bicycles, the BeeGees or a religion, they can always be counted on to retaliate on any perceived attack on the subject of their fandom. And this is why I love them sooooo very much.
I think Adkins nails it to the wall. Well said, dude. I won’t waste my time here like I did on the last bike post, trying to say something funny and getting the wrath of the bikers up my ass…I think it would be more fun to just play into their “daddy issues” (classic, Jerz), and make some sweeping generalizations about how their dirty emo fashion sense makes me itchy.
Seriously, WTF is up with the attitudes though? I think some of these dudes just need a hug.
You’re wrong Jerz. And the primary reason is that you don’t ride a bike. It isn’t about laws or whether or not we break them, which we do. It’s about having, or not having, a fundamental right to the road. The reason bikers get so hot is because they are keenly aware that the less respect drivers have for them, the greater the threat to their lives.
Drivers hate because bikes don’t stop at stop signs, run red lights, and ride the wring way. I’m constantly getting waived through stop signs (which i usually refuse). Hardly ANYONE stops at stop signs (police included). And riding the wrong way isn’t smart, can’t defend that. My point is: Put a web cam on your dashboard, I’ll put one on my helmet and at the end of the week those without any offenses can throw the rocks.
If anything drivers are pissed cause they feel that they are disproportionately punished for offenses and bikes get off scott free.
And don’t give my that crap about that article being satire. That was a bad article. if it was satire it was bad. if not it was bad. you write crap, you get flamed. she learned a lesson. She needs to sharpen her shops of keep them shut.
-M
It didn’t really strike a nerve with me, because she’s just a kid. I wrote rubbish like that when I was her age. Her main fault is that she probably just doesn’t have enough time in the real world. Straight from momma’s house to a day care campus setting.
Having said that, biking is much more than a “hobby” to me. It’s a way of life. But I really don’t care if people get it or not. I’m not angry. In fact you’ll find that my biking friends and I are almost always smiling! We have fun wherever we go.
All the heartburn about cyclists not following the rules! We are such a small percentage of the overall makeup of traffic, that I hardly think it’s worth complaining about. Speeders, aggressive drivers, inattentive cell phone talkers, drunks, rolling discos, over-siszed low visibility behemoths…I hear the rescue crews heading to auto accidents DAILY. Cyclists should be the least of drivers concerns. Maybe drivers are just so frustrated at being stuck in a miserable car, that they are focusing the anger on a cyclist, the person that seems to be having fun or is different, small and vulnerable, not having to follow the culture of rules that they seem to be stuck in. Or as the president would say, “They hate us for our freedom”.
I’ve been commuting to work by bike for over a year now, and for the most part, drivers are courteous and friendly. It’s easy to coexist. I think the cyclist haters are a small, insignificant group.
Mike,
That’s all great. But it doesn’t address the fact that all those comments show your people (a lot of them I’d guess are even your friends) being complete and total assholes. There’s a major flaw that’s being shown, and that would be the maturity level of the representative bike dork here.
Of all the people to not give a crap about jokes and satire, you should not be one to talk. But striking a nerve turns normally rational people into hating dicks, too. Funny how that works.
Jeff,
I believe you and agree. All of these relationships could be improved by everyone following the law better. Those emergency sirens you hear are the result of drivers being asses to other drivers. When I was riding, I took it upon myself to do whatever it took to stay safe. I think you’re probably the same. Here’s the problem…cyclists, while they should be the least of drivers concerns, often make sure they become the biggest concern. The behavior I described, which I witness daily, makes every driver have to be hyper-aware and even alter their normal habits. That’s never good. If you’re paying attention, then fine. If you’re not, it’s the biker that suffers. For that reason alone, bikers need to be the good guys out there. If you choose not to be, then don’t bitch to the world and call a writer fat.
What I’m most pissed about is that she called bikers out, and a shit ton of them became pansy little name-callers (yes, and I did that on purpose). As with any defensive driving course, bike groups should be teaching riders that you have to watch your own ass. And that means learn the rules yourself and don’t ever expect someone to do what you think they should do. Unfortunately, what we have is bikers saying that we all need to be watching out for them when they hold the keys to making the positive change. Hence, the inadequacy issues.
Thanks to Jefe for the voice of reason.
My two cents: The real issue with biking in urban settings is that, somewhat idiotically, most American cities were designed around vehicle traffic; hence, an inherent adversarial bike/car dynamic. Had civic design given more consideration toward pedestrian traffic of all sorts, a bit like in certain European cities, these conflicts would be severely minimized as the would be little reason for them to exist in the first place.
That said, biking is a great way to exercise and commute. I personally gave it up in Reno about four years ago (and I was one of the original — albeit, short-lived — Critical Mass organizers waaaay back in the day, something I can attest to by getting UNR Prof. Jake Highton to ride with us over the Wells Ave. bridge at a peak commuter hour … oh what fun) simply because I was too tired of nearly daily run-ins with motorists. Feeling violent in my soul just didn’t sit right with me. And I was not willing to strap bear mace to my bike for use on the next driver asshole has some of my friends did.
There’s no doubt car drivers are downright hostile to bikers, to the point of not giving a shit if they were to run one over — it’s happened to me. That being the case, the risk isn’t worth it to me. As a driver I try to be extra cautious of and courteous to bikers. As an occasional bike commuter (now in Carson City), I try to follow the laws to the best of my abilities.
At the end of the day, this is a no win argument: Motorists will always be hostile to bicyclists with our civic design standards; and bicyclists will retaliate as they see fit. This will not change until the structure changes. Bike lanes don’t cut it.
-Bob
This is a bit off topic, but I should add: An ultimate irony of our car-based civic design is bars in strip malls. Consider it.
Brian Duggan, Nov 23, 11:09 AM #:
Ryan,
You’re right. Bikers, more specifically scalleycats (wtf?), are haters. I was the editor of the sagebrush last year and we ran a story about these guys that I thought was actually positive. It was about their competition in San Francisco, so we sent a reporter to follow a couple of the scalleycats. Things went well, the bikers had their fair share of debauchery and my reporter covered it all. Mike Henderson, a fellow scalleycat said this: “Alleycat is like a full contact, no-rules sprint through traffic. And when I say no rules I mean no laws.” Full story: http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2008/03/17/stoked-about-spokes/
Things were going great until the guys who run the whole thing suddenly decided they didn’t want to be named in the story because they didn’t want their names to be made public because of all the funny, but ultimately illegal stuff they do (one of them is a teacher, if I remember correctly). They gave my reporter a whole lot of unnecessary grief all the while talking trash about our newspaper and the merits of journalism. After the article ran, they ran some whiny post on their blog (http://www.scalleycat.com/?p=58) about how we misspelled scalleycat (we spelled it scalley cat.) So while Emily’s column could have used a better argument and a little more irony, one thing is still apparent: these dudes are hipster, trolling assholes.
-Brian Duggan
Yikes, Brian. Thanks for posting that. It would appear, due to the second most recent story on that Scalleycat blog having 7,308 comments that the community is more vibrant than ever. Except it’s all spam. Not so vibrant!
It’s too bad that stuff ever happens. I thought the article was decent. You should be leery (as I’m sure you are) anytime someone won’t use their name, either to be quoted, profiled, or when writing for “themself.” First, they are probably up to no good or lying, second, it’s way easier for them to turn into an asshole namecaller who stoops to impugning your education, skills, or dedication to your work with no recourse. That wold explain just about every comment on the current story of at The ‘Brush.
I wonder what Mike would say about his quote there. Full-contact, no rules and through traffic doesn’t exactly sound like an attempt at improving driver-bike dork relations.
Marcel Levy, Nov 24, 12:40 PM #:
Although I’m a committed bicycle commuter (through rain, sleet and snow, etc.), Emily’s column didn’t really bug me that much. When I was the Sagebrush editor, I wrote or published pieces that were dumber, more incendiary, or both. Bob can provide supporting detail as to my level of intelligence and quality of judgment at the time.
I’m more interested in the emerging idea that there is a “smarter” way to run traffic. Having commuted in both Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Reno, I have to say that I prefer Reno even though roads in this town are definitely (and appropriately, for now) designed with cars in mind. Amsterdam is great for bicyclists in that they have more formal and informal power, but it also requires a hell of a lot more concentration and skill to navigate a vehicle.
I actually prefer Reno because most drivers give me a wide berth, especially if I behave in predictable ways. Amsterdam? Let’s just say that if they can get used to speeding down narrow streets with an inch of two of clearance between their car and any other object, they damn well expect you to be able to do the same. It’s just a different league of vehicle operation, be it car, truck or bike. Add the general disregard for traffic signals and laws on the part of the majority of Amsterdam’s bicyclists, and then you create a very challenging traffic pattern for everyone involved.
As a solution I advocate that we reduce the amount of control humans have over their vehicles to just the simple task of letting them name the destination. Even that is probably too much for some people, but we’ll all just have to pitch in and tell them where to go, or where to get off.
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