BIKE: If biking is so fun, why am I so grouchy?

[Librik or Babich]

Mike Dahmus wrote:

> So I hope I'm getting this straight:
>
> On the one hand, you're mad that your rights are being violated,
>
> and on the other hand you expected to be able to turn left (as a
> vehicle) when cars weren't being allowed to do so?

As so often happens, Mr. D observations are accurate, but some evil enchanter
has caused him to state them in so brusque a manner that he sounds like some
kind of asshole, which he is not.

dana_price wrote:

>I love riding my bike. But reading about and experiencing so many negative
>encounters has left me really irritable. How do you keep a positive
>attitude when you're always treated like a second class citizen?
>
(snip)
>
>On the return trip yesterday, once we left the Expo grounds we were able
>to ride on Smith School Rd. to the intersection at Burleson with no
>problem. As I stopped at the intersection with my left-turn signal arm
>extended, one of the traffic-control people asked "where are you going?" I
>stuck my arm out more firmly, thinking "What part of a left hand turn
>signal do you not understand?" She said "we aren't allowing left turns,
>where do you want to go?" I immediately got upset. "HOME! and this is the
>only way I can get there! Now let me make my turn!" Finally someone came
>over and advised me to cross with the pedestrians (who were on the
>opposite shoulder). So I did and we were soon underway. But Liam who
>witnessed this all from the trailer was disturbed by the whole thing.

Kudos to whoever it was that suggested that you "pedestrianize" the bicycle. It
seemed from the way Ms. Price got into the expo center that she is no stranger
to this tactic. I think with more experience (and I know Ms. Price already has
plenty of experience, but this is a subtle situation not quickly mastered), the
cyclist knows to immediately bail out, pedestrianize thoroughly, get clear of
the intersection, then vehicularize once again and be off, thus letting the
traffic control person off the hook. It seems clear from the description that
bicyclists were not being discriminated against (as if the cars could turn left
but not bikes, "because it isn't safe").

Digressing for a moment, the development of my own odd style of biking in
traffic went through a couple of distinct phases, and I imagine that I am not
unique in this regard. The first phase was "curb hugger," based on my parents'
warnings to stay of traffic on my wee bike. Then I got older, grouchy and
politicized, and I realized that I have rights dammit, and that by exercising
these rights I could get better treatment in traffic. But I still did not quite
get it right, thus entering the "My Own Little Critical Mass Ride" phase.

In this phase I tended to run up my own blood pressure along with that of the
drivers around me. There are these big, sticky injustices hanging off of the
ugly and ubiquitous automobile problem, and so deep are these ingrained in the
culture that that the hopelessness of undoing them is frustrating to a
maddening degree. This leads to cyclists road raging against incompetent
motorists, which pretty well embodies the act of stressing out both oneself and
the motorist in one's righteous indignation. But it is one's own stress that
lingers, long after the motorist is gone, and must be lugged home.

An incompetent motorist was not Ms. Price's problem, but the effect is the
same. In frustration, coupled with a little righteous indignation, the cyclist
is left stressed out by the encounter and feels miserable afterward. The
presence of stress in traffic and its lingering effects is a subject of the
Urban Cycling class. When a beginner, in the curb hugger phase, gets
over-stressed by allowing traffic to pass them too close, he/she gives up and
quits cycling, to society's detriment. When the more experienced cyclist in the
MOLCMR phase gets over-stressed because of a perceived injustice, (s)he rages
about with the old righteous indignation and then feels awful afterward. At
least I know that I have.

This problem can be overcome, and the MOLCMR phase eventually transcended, but
the problem must first be identified. This is why Ms. Price's letter is
significant food for reflection. No, there was not much cause for her feeling
persecuted, as Mr. D succinctly pointed out. But I will bet that everyone must
deal with this on the way to becoming a traffic ace.

--
Mike Librik, LCI #929
Easy Street Recumbents
512-453-0438
45th and Red River St., thereabouts
Central Austin
info
www.easystreetrecumbents.com
www.urbancycling.com

"Is it about a bicycle?"