US road accident casualties: every one mapped across America
This is informative journalism.
The Scaly Scales of Justice
Sure, cyclists should ride intelligently, but having respect for the power of a car is the driver’s job. If they lack that respect then the car should be taken from them.
Being only as interested in the taxonomy of American cycling subcultures as I am in baseball statistics, I have never been a Bike Snob reader. (And sorry, mom in law, I haven’t read that book you gave me.) But as Brooklyn Spoke pointed out, this is a righteous post.
The “power” that Snob is talking about is at the crux of everything that happens on our streets, from the subculture of masochistic cycling to the grateful nod that pedestrians give to motorists for being allowed to enjoy their lawful right of way.
In our society’s submission to this power, we’ve even corrupted the principle of responsibility such that it is far more often critically applied to pedestrian and cyclist victims than the people controlling the powerful vehicles that killed them. In the not-so-old days this social norm meant the very opposite: an obligation of those with power to use it with honor, respect, and care.
But anti-collective, anti-social, mechanized America has almost privatized responsibility out of existence. That noble ideal was rebranded as “self-responsibility”, an obligation not to be maimed or killed (so that no one else has to endure the unpleasantness). But we already have a lower, truer apprecation of that in our bones: it’s called survival. Survival is what’s left, when laws and social conventions are brushed aside.
Is this how we want to live?
Wise words.
No Compassion
I got doored today by a woman getting out of a cab. I was about 1 block away from my apartment, and my concentration was wandering to the tasks for the rest of my day (Hadoop World, etc.) Letting up for 1 second means danger. NYC is a terrible place to ride a bike. I was riding along at about 10 mph and passing cars on the right hand side. Boom! Woman opens door right into me. My left shoulder takes the brunt of the impact. My new iPhone ejects onto the street, but miraculously only the tiniest scratch results. I pick up my phone and try to regain my composure. I could only utter, “It’s your responsibility.” Naturally, the woman tries to blame me! She says there was nothing she could have done. She claims since there was a red light (there wasn’t) that my smashing into the door SHE OPENED was my fault. I sarcastically say, “Thank you very much,” and ride home.
Now I have a large contusion on my left shoulder muscle, and my right elbow hurts when I extend it.
