How can we be clueless to how much you hate us if you won't shut up about it?

After Courtland Milloy's piece about how cyclists are worse than biker gangs and like terrorists, the Post called for a ceasfire in the war between cyclists and drivers. At the time I thought it odd, since there was only one side shooting. When was the last time you saw a MSM article by a cyclist that called drivers terrorists or noted that drivers were lucky that people didn't try to kill them? It never happens. But I can think of at least a half-dozen such articles written about cyclists that take a bit of an over-the-top attitude. Here's the latest from the Washignton Blade.

While D.C. has a relatively robust bike riding and sharing rate among U.S. cities, it’s possible to count on fingers and toes the number you’re likely to see pedaling to work and home each day on a commute by foot, bus, subway, taxi or car. A near-negligible percentage of residents use a bike as a commuting or transit method.

In DC it's well over 4% and in some neighborhoods it's closer to 10%. I'll let others decide it that's negligible, but it is way more than you can count on your fingers and toes. 

I suspect they may be clueless how irksome many perceive the tiresome whining that biker desires are not being met, there aren’t enough dedicated bike lanes, they’re inadequately lauded as environmental angels, they shouldn’t be subject to common courtesies or city rules.

We do want more dedicated bike lanes. But the other two claims are total strawman. No one asks to be lauded as angels. 

It’s time for bikers to make the transition from roadway rebel to responsibly sharing the same small streets.

Already done. You'll note how few people we kill every year. 

It won’t be easy, alongside all the cars, taxis, buses, someday-streetcars, pedestrians, business delivery trucks and other vehicles crammed on the city’s narrow thoroughfares. It is dangerous out there.

Y'know what would help with that? Dedicated bike lanes.*

Let’s also try to remember that this is not one of D.C.’s most pressing problems.

We aren't the ones who keep bringing it up. 

hyper-sensitive two-wheel drama reads ridiculous.

How does hyper-sensitive four-wheel drama, like Milloy's, read?

Let’s keep that in mind while we finally start acting adult about accommodating mutual access and shared usage. 

You mean like drivers? Like this one? 

*And a little lauding for our environmental belevolence wouldn't hurt either

Comments

[Greenbelt]

I think the Post's ugly click trolling strategy seems to be spreading.

Insult a minority, get lots of clicks. Seems like that happens a lot, doesn't it?

Tangentially, my brother tells a story of some guys who were complaining about gay people at the bar. Barkeep told them, "Yeah, they should have a separate lunch counter." That shut them up.

The forbears of the complainers, of course, had suffered extreme discrimination and hate and violence themselves.

Sort of puts all the cheap hate talk and whining into perspective, doesn't it?

[drumz]

Let’s also try to remember that this is not one of D.C.’s most pressing problems.

At the risk of speaking for all cyclists. We know. We'd prefer that DDOT or whomever just go ahead and install bike lanes and cycle tracks wherever.

But people still keep berating planners and write angry letters to their council members about how X will happen if a bike lane is installed and that's bad.

Which leads to cyclists speaking up in defense of basic infrastructure needed for something the city already explicitly wants to see more of.

[Joe]

It's sad how often I skip rides because I'm tired of being told to get off the road or trail.

Regardless of bicycle amenities until politicians, DOTs, NPS (etc) support and promote cycling the hate speech (and worse) will continue, because it works.

[SJE]

This is all a bit rich coming from DC's leading LGBT newspaper.

It was not that long ago that LGBT people were denied legal rights, assaulted,tarnished with many false accusations, and generally pilloried. Before bikes, it was the black churches versus the gays. When the LGBT community asked for laws to protect them, or give them rights that others had, this was cast as "special rights for gays" and that the LGBT community had to stop its "histrionics." .

I suppose its progress than the LGBT community can now feel mainstream enough to attack cyclists. Still, its sad.

[dynaryder]

14+k at Bike to Work Day,but we're 'negligible'?

[dynaryder]

BTW,SJE:completely agree with you. Would be fun to see how they would react to you posting that in their comments section.

[jeffb]

It's sad how often I skip rides because I'm tired of being told to get off the road or trail.

It's been a long time since I've had a negative interaction with a driver which is why, personally at least, I think all the rhetoric of a war or of heightened tensions is just headline bait from the media.

Though I did have a driver, the other day, inform me that as a cyclist I needed to be either in the bike lane (there was none) or far over to the right (it was a narrow street with on-going construction that had rendered half of it continuous potholes).

The driver also informed me that "people" need to be able to get home - presumably I was not a person and my presence on the road was hindering him somehow.

He further admonished me to be safe - which is what I thought I was doing. After all it was HE who passed me on the narrow street by going completely into the on coming lane.

[Michael H.]

I've already started modifying my purchasing behavior, and looking for alternatives to Amazon.com (which was started by current W. Post owner Jeff Bezos). While The Post and Amazon are not directly connected, Bezos is a central figure in both organizations. If he wants to allow The Post to continue the hostile, click-bait anti-cyclist tactics, then I will shop at places other than Amazon.com when possible.

Some purchases are most convenient at Amazon.com, but there are alternative choices for many/most products, whether virtual (like MP3s and eBooks) or tangible. I had thought about buying a new Garmin GPS watch from Amazon this summer. But after the Milloy rant and ongoing attacks from The Post, I bought the Garmin at an actual store.

I know Amazon and Bezos are not going to go broke because of my decision. But it's a little something that I can do to express my displeasure with The Post. I would encourage others to do the same. This is not an economic boycott. It's a political/social response to ridiculously racist and pro-violence rants on The Post.

At the same time, The Post does have other, more reasonable reporters who look at transportation and cycling issues with a more balanced and civilized view. (No, Mr. Milloy, your rant was not civilized. And King's response was just a joke.) I also keep in mind that The W. Times and other media can sometimes be relentlessly hostile to cycling, so it may be a case of choosing the bad over the worst, or the lesser of two evils. Or choosing neither at all in this age of multiple news sources online.

[SJE]

Dynaryder: done, and submitted to the Blade.

Today I was riding in local National Park, on a road with a 25 mph limit, and was aggressively honked at by the two cars that passed me about 10 seconds before they had to stop in a long line of traffic. Thank you Mr Virginia and Mr and Mrs Florida.

Instead of getting into an altercation with them, I decided to get off the road, and onto the nearby bike path. I approached the curb at too acute an angle, and now have my first serious scraping of 2014. I likely would have been better off (physically) getting into an altercation with the drivers.

[contrarian]

Here's my take: if you're a reporter, especially covering a local beat, you spend your day going to events and meeting people. You spend a lot of time driving, and a lot of time stuck in traffic. And reporters tend to have "assertive" personalities, it's kind of a requirement of the job. There are more bikes on the road now, but what these guys are really writing about is a societal change where cycling is no longer viewed as a fringe activity. The corollary is that it is becoming increasingly socially unacceptable for motorists to act aggressively toward cyclists -- and you're more likely to get told off by the cyclist if you do.

I read Cortland Milloy's column, and I reconstruct his day this way: on his way to work, he got stuck behind a cyclist. Despite his honking, tailgating and engine revving, the cyclist refused to yield, and just rode along. When he had the chance to pass (too closely) he yelled some choice words, and the cyclist had the audacity to catch him at the next light and give him a piece of his mind.

And he considers himself the victim of thuggish behavior!

[ACyclistInTheSuburbs]

we're here, we bike, get used to it.

[Smedley Burkhart]

As to the LGBT community, my outsider's impression is that there is a strong strain of "we're just like everyone else", i.e., fat and suburban in our tastes and attitudes. Beside, what oppressed minority, with the possible exception European Jews, seems to have developed any particular empathy for other groups as a result of their suffering?

[Crickey7]

Fine, don't give me bike lanes. I'll just ride in the middle of whatever lane I am in, wherever that is, at whatever speed I want.

[Ken]

Oh Smedley, let's avoid the stereotyping. FWIW I'm a member of *both* communities - gay bicyclist.

[Smedley Burkhart]

Apologies, Ken, and I'm sure there are many, many, who share those affiliations. Let me put it this way: It is unfair, in my opinion, to get huffy when members of a socio-sexual class fail to see their own struggle reflected in the treatment of those who make an unpopular transportation choice. The analogy may be vivid enough to you, but I think my gay brother (fat, but not remotely suburban, in his tastes and attitudes) would find it ridiculous. Anyway thanks for the response and I'll try to keep my invidious little generalizations to myself.

[Crickey7]

It seems a questionable assertion that some identity politics are fine, and others are being uppity.

Questionable for its conclusion, and questionable that there are identity politics at play. Cyclists did not push for CaBi. We pushed for bike lanes, but only got them because transportation departments thought they were a more efficient use of limited resources.