Motorist Ignorance Made Me Swerve

Andy, of Carbon Trace, took offense at an ignorant and unwarranted anti-cycling statement by a police officer in his blog post here. I certainly hope that the officer represents a minority view, though I've encountered similar attitudes, as reported here. That is not what today's post is about. You see, just Friday, riding on my way to work, I noticed the sign above. As I recall, I was feeling lazy and decided to go around the hill that's my usual route. No swerve yet.

After reading Andy's post, and the news article, in contrast to my usual practice, I had read the comments in the news article.

One comment that caught my eye stated:
"9:38 AM on June 13, 2011
It's difficult to have a lot of sympathy for the "rights" of bicyclists getting a literal free ride on roadways that are usually paid for with motor fuel taxes, licensing, and registration fees for motor vehicles."

Tonight, on the way home, I recalled Andy's post, and the sign. Hmm, SWERVE!!!!! DETOUR!!!!!!

I guess that ignorant commenter doesn't look at the roadwork signs, or maybe he/she doesn't know how to read - only mouth off. OR, maybe (if you are a conspiracy theorist) our government is lying to us about where they get the money to fix up the local streets that cyclists use and they don't really spend our sales and property taxes on local roads. However, if I believe the lies, one reason my property taxes are so durn high are all the overbuilt roads around these parts! Regardless, the memory of the comment - and the sign caused me to swerve from my usual going home route so I could take this picture. The next time someone tells you that cyclists don't pay for the roads, tell, them to simply read the source of the funding for almost any local street project in the US. Fuel taxes mainly pay for main highways and Freeways which are rarely used by cyclists. Besides, just as in the case of parks, libraries, and even the services of police who do not know the law, such are PUBLIC services. I don't feel I have more rights to the local streets than my motorists just because I pay more sales and property taxes than many of them. I DO share my road!

UPDATE
Via email from Cliff Cox; two sources that suggest that, at least in this case, it is motorist commenters (rather than government lies) that simply are clueless about how our roads are paid for and how major highways are largely funded by "user" taxes (neglecting stuff like stimulus spending and other infusions from general funds), while local roads are paid for disproportionally by funds entirely unrelated to road use.

here is a summary of how major state highways are funded in Texas
here is a summary of how various roads get paid for various places

Rule of thumb in the US - Big State and Federal Roads tend to get paid for by fuel and motoring taxes. Roads you'd bicycle commute on get paid by sales and property taxes, utility fees and such.

Apologies to Dottie

Dottie of "Let's Go Ride a Bike" made an excellent post about red light running, here. I highly recommend it, along with the roughly ten million comments that follow. As you might expect, I did not endorse the notion that cyclists ought to be running red lights. Hence the title of this post  - since I DID run a red light this morning. In my defense, I thought about it quite a while first. Besides, it's been quite a while since I have used the "hypocrisy" post label.

I was on my way, southbound to catch the TRE for a cup of coffee at the Sundance Square Starbucks this morning, and I stopped at the light where Bellaire intersects Highway 10. I had about four minutes to get to the train station which was about another block south. So I waited, and waited, and waited. "Crimeny, where ARE those induction signal trigger pavement cuts?" Finally, when it was clear, I went, because an ulterior motive other than not wanting to miss the train popped into my brain.

You see, it happens that one of our managers, who also happens to be a City Councilman of the jurisdiction this light is in, frequently tells me how dangerous cycling is, and how one of the reasons he is in his job is because his predecessor was killed while cycling along Cheek Sparger Road (which is about two blocks from my house). He has never come up with an explanation why all the close calls I have had seem to involve commutes when I'm taking the Land Rover rather than the bike. Maybe it's all just coincidence, or maybe I just forget how traffic works when I get off my bike and into a motor vehicle. Or maybe it's just conventional wisdom.

Anyway, Monday, rather than calling the traffic department, I'll call a City Councilman. During the course of the conversation, I expect to note, "You know, the thought occurred to me that if I didn't do all that cycling, that embolism might have killed me. Maybe, in a small way, it's balance for the guy that got killed on Cheek Sparger." Two messages are intended. #1 - Maybe cycling ISN'T tantamount to a death wish. #2 - I'm back on the bike and none too apologetic about it.

PS: I'll post about the ride later, including a photo I took involving "cyclist friendly medicine."

BETTER Advocates

Not too long ago, I wrote a draft of a post, noting how advocates, specifically BIKE advocates, don't thrill me, with their stridency and ideological approach to things involving bikes. I threw that post away today. Because this isn't all just policy and sniping at people and arguing about minor points. Sometimes, "the journey IS the reward. Without further comment beyond the photo captions, I went to the Irving Bicycle Festival. It wasn't particularly big, or fancy, but it demonstrated advocacy as it SHOULD be - leading by example. Thanks!

Steve's Road Bike at the Centrepoint TRE Station

Multimode Travel allowed extra time for the Coffee (sitting on the trash can)

Note the Thumb ALMOST Wiping out the Shot

Seattle isn't the ONLY Place Where Sharrows

are Painted too far Right. Irving, TX is Even Worse.

But a Sharrow is Pretty Meaningless

I Rode About a Foot Left of the Left Edge

Irving Police, Connecting with People

Chandra, Caught by Me, From Behind a Tree

Checking out the Girl Scout Cookies

Chandra and I Were BOTH Captivated by a Mercier Mixte

and its Owner. The Bike was Remarkably Original

Built in the Late 70's or early 80's

Chandra, as a Volunteer, Pumped up the Mixte Tires

Myself, as a "non advocate," Watched and Recorded the Event

I Actually Thought About Letting Air Out of my Tires Just to see if he'd Pump Them Up

The BikeDFW Table

There were at Least Four LAB LCI's There

Bike League Director Gail Spann

She was Gracious Enough Not to Mention that my MP3

Player Seemed to Have no Earphones!

(They were in my pocket, safely hidden)

While These Guys Might not Meet Cycler's Standards for Cool Bikes,

They're Not all that Bad!

That Windshield is Better than my Photo!

Offense Taken and the Trouble With Words

Almost any reader of this would agree it is not OK to go over and trash somebody's house by spraying graffiti all over. In the world of blogs, it is considered gauche to visit blogs and leave ads for in blog post comments.

Some blogs post only items that provoke little disagreement of any serious nature that is likely to be expressed in comments. Birdwatching blogs, for example. Photography blogs for another. If you don't like the picture, the next post is likely to have one you will like. Still, even on such blogs, it's bad form to attack the blog author personally as - in "your dog ought to get poisoned!"

This is not that sort of blog. Mostly, I relate my experiences commuting by bike, with an emphasis on related things I have observed or learned, and which others might find useful as well. I think the "cycling community" (as if there really IS such a thing) often takes itself a little too seriously, and so I poke fun on occasion at my fellow bloggers. Twilight Zone, here, was such an attempt. Fundamentally, cycling is fun and safe and I'm really NOT a policy wonk. SOMETIMES, however, healthy disagreement or attempts at humor in writing are misunderstood, or taken the wrong way. It is ironic that the writeen world is at the same time both more precise and easier to misunderstand than the spoken one. If you are the target of one of my own posts and feel offended, please email me. I respect someone bringing a problem to my attention so we can deal with it like adults. The email is at the top. If necessary, Chandra knows my phone number and I give him permission to give it to you if he concludes you are not a telemarketer or crazy whacko.

However, I really am disturbed at comments that have come to my attention on Citizen Rider, summarized here, that I believe go "Beyond the Pale." Words do hurt. At least one of the commenters may have made comments on this blog. In all cases, his comments here were precise and I was happy to recieve them. It makes this perhaps more puzzling to me. Reading his comment below, it is somewhat LESS puzzling and so I have modified this paragraph.

Spam is easy to deal with. You just delete it. Disagreement is fine. Disagreement keeps things interesting and helps us all learn new things. Light ridicule, likewise - sometimes I get a little worked up about stuff and need to be reminded that I am not the sole source of knowledge in the Universe. Long personal attacks. Those bother me. To this point, I have never removed a comment made at this blog, and I hope I never do, but I do not promise never to do so. I applaud the way that Citizen Rider has dealt with this.

Gail Was Right!

When I was in bike school, Gail Spann, who did the lion's share of the lecture, asked if anyone wore earphones while riding. Alone, I defiantly shot my hand up, and cited John Allen's excellent analysis, here, as evidence why I should not feel guilty about doing so. I think that Chandra, sitting next to me, momentarily wished he'd been sitting on the opposite side of the room. Later, I mentioned to Gail that probably the strongest reason to avoid earphones is that it might give a motorist's insurance company a lever to weasel out of some liability in case of an accident where their client was at fault. Still, as I found out yesterday, Gail was probably more right than she knew.

I was innocently riding home on my last leg, in the frigid 59F afternoon sun, listening to talk radio as usual, when Charles Krauthammer came on as a guest. I tend to like him, because, even when I don't agree with him, his opinions are usually well considered and expressed. Yesterday, however, was a whole different matter.

Somehow, the radio conversation digressed to his youth in Montreal. As he noted, when he was growing up, he had to walk eight miles to get to his destination. Through the snow. Barefoot. Even before he added the inevitable "uphill," I was laughing so hard I almost ran right off a perfectly good road and into a tree. Those earphones almost killed me!

You see, I often explain to my daughters that I ride my bike, twenty miles each way, through storms and sleet, occasionally through snow flurries and boiling heat, with 18 wheelers and concrete trucks trying to kill me at all times, except when the police are considering whether to club me into submission. Of course, the ride is uphill, into the wind, both ways. Why do I do this? It's all so they can drive the Jag a mile and a half to school. Yes, they do roll their eyes and mutter about crazy Yeti...

Yup, Steve's a BIG FAT Hypocrite

Mama Vee wrote about her accident, commenting about "Land Rover Rules," in part, "...someone waved a car through traffic and they hit me. I was in a car too."

I'd written about NEVER going just because some well-meaning soul waves you that it's OK. Well, I'm a hypocrite. I've lost count of all the times in the last few weeks that I've done a little "Keri wave" to encourage motorists to illegally pass me on two-lane roads with double yellow lines. Mostly they obey, not considering how they'd explain it if I misjudged and they hit something (almost certainly NOT me). I never do it unless I can see that it really IS safe for them to pass, but the Land Rover Rule would NEVER allow ME to take advantage of some idiot, er, authoritative cyclist waving that it was OK to pass illegally.

Thank you very much, but if I'm going to illegally pass a cyclist (or anybody else), I'll pick my own time and place and do it when I can see for myself that I can do it safely.