I've been thinking lately at all the crazy thing that "cyclist" do. Then I realized people in general do crazy things. They break laws. Just because they are on a bike doesn't change things. Pedestrians jay walk, run in front of traffic. Drivers run red lights, don't come to complete stops and drive under the influence.

I'm burned out of all the politics for and against cyclists. People do crazy things, whether they are on a bike or not. We're just more in tuned to what cyclist do because we like to ride bikes.

Evan MacKenzie wrote:
Evan
OK, nobody has ever labelled me as politically correct before, and after all you people read this, you most certainly won’t.
Sunday afternoon was a pretty normal day, coming back from the Silverton road race. I’m just getting back into Hillsboro, sitting at the traffic light at Hwy 219 and Oak Street. Here comes this guy on a bike, riding the WRONG WAY down Oak Street (a one-way street), into the intersection, against a red light (which of course he could not see because they don’t put lights facing the other way on one-way streets. I WANTED to hit this guy. I wanted to get him off the streets, because he is the perfect example of why so many people hate cyclists. He was breaking every law out there, and on top of that had the nerve to give the finger to the people behind me, who were also returning the the Silverton RR with bikes on their roof.
Part of the reasoning going through my head at the time was that I had better get out into the intersection, because it would look a lot better for this guy to run into the side of my car than for me to hit him head-on.
I don’t care if this guy was on a bike or not. He was an idiot. He certainly doesn’t deserve to die, but he does deserve to get a severe attitude adjustment.
Which all brings us back to the simple fact that regardless of how or where we ride, what we ride, how we dress (in lycra or in flannel), that moron represents us. No outreach by OBRA, or the BTA, or even the police will get someone like this to obey the law. And until that changes, innocent people like Mr. and Mrs. McDaniel and their friends and families will all pay the price.
Bicycles possess the power to do so much, yet the people who use them possess even more power to abuse and confound any effort to show people the benefits that bicycles can offer us on a personal and a national level.
That’s it.
-Evan

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