So here’s a thing.
I’ve received even more feedback through emails from cyclists and drivers about my recent blog about how drivers don’t seem to get all that upset when road victims are on bicycles.
The cyclists who respond all supply their full names and seem willing to go on the record with their stories about their dangerous lives on mean streets of Burnaby.
Drivers, not so much.
Nearly all of the angry responses from drivers are anonymous.
Is that just a coincidence? I doubt it. I think in the backs of their angry minds, they know their animosity towards defenceless cyclists is misplaced and dangerous.
Here’s a sample anonymous response:
“Don't just blame the drivers, there are an awful lot of bad cyclists out there too,” someone wrote me on Saturday. “And I dare say that they played a large part in building the animosity between drivers and cyclists. Like cyclists that cross several lanes of traffic with no signaling or warning to make a left turn. Or the ones that think stop signs don't apply to them because they're on a bike.”
I never once said that cyclists don’t ever make mistakes on the road. I’m sure there are a few cyclists who haven’t done everything exactly according to the rules. But drivers also like to cherry-pick a few missteps compared to the thousands of terrible decicions drivers make on Burnaby roads every single day. It's not even close.
But that’s not the point. Everybody makes mistakes. The difference is that when a driver makes a mistake driving a two-ton killing machine, people pay a heavy price. We’ve seen one recent fatality in which a cyclist was killed on Gaglardi Way.
The thing this response also misses is that the “animosity” that this driver admits is out there is leading to drivers deliberately targeting cyclists by “buzzing” them (as one cyclist called it).
What’s the worst an angry cyclist could do? Shake a fist?
Child, please.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
