What’s up with bicyclists on the road?

Now before I lose all of you health- and environment-minded
people, let me be the first to admit biking’s awesomeness. It’s healthy, saves
the planet and is more efficient than walking.

And I can definitely understand how cyclists could get
frustrated with bad drivers, prompting critical-mass-type events and a general
share-the-road attitude.

It’s true: Many drivers are careless, and without much more
than a plastic helmet for protection, cyclists have extra reason to be
suspicious and resentful.

The problem is that this fair frustration has a tendency to
lead to a holier-than-thou mentality that ends up harming cyclists more than
anything.

How often have you seen someone biking two feet to the left
of the clearly marked bike lane?

Cars stack up behind Mr. Spandex Shorts as he moves five
miles an hour stubbornly proclaiming, “I am a vehicle too and the road must be
shared!”

But rather than consider his plight, and the plight of the
other 800 UCSD affiliates who bike to campus each day, all drivers behind him
are thinking is, “Man, that guy’s an asshole.”

And I don’t think they’re necessarily wrong.

What is Mr. Spandex Shorts gaining by ignoring the bike lane
in favor of the road? This is something I see every day as a driver, bus rider,
pedestrian and cyclist. No matter what mode of transportation I’m using, it’s
clear to me that most cyclists are harming, not helping, their cause. By
blatantly disregarding the bike lane, they’re just deepening the distrust
between cars and bikes, making drivers resent them and putting themselves in
very real danger.

But that’s not all cyclists do to stab themselves in the
cleated foot. Another example of this self-destructive attitude at work, which
is arguably more dangerous, is when cyclists pull up to a red light where cars
are stopped but go ahead anyway. The hypocrisy here is mind-boggling.

How can cyclists preach about being treated as equals, but
then act as though major traffic laws don’t apply to them? Not only is this
common ignore-the-red-light practice illegal, it’s pretty annoying to drivers
who come across that same rule breaker later, stubbornly biking down the middle
of their lane. Again, this kind of arrogance harms only the cyclists
themselves, as they offend law-abiding drivers and put their own safety at
risk.

You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
And the way cyclists should convince drivers that they, too, own a share of the
road certainly isn’t by recklessly stealing it.