1. Link to report.
2. Response received by email.
3. Response to response.
1. Link to report.
http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/new-englands-top-radio-station-mocks.html.
2. Response received by email.
Just for some context here, some of us who ride bikes feel that mandatory bike helmet laws (for adults) are primarily exercises in victim-blaming, promoted by motorists whose primary motivation is to divert attention from the fact that most deaths and serious injuries of both cyclists and pedestrians are the fault of motorists, frequently (e.g. Isaac Meyer in Central Square, the recent death in the Back Bay, etc.) to a criminal degree which is rarely if ever prosecuted.
3. Response to response.
First of all, my report includes a spectacularly good record by me as a bicycle activist.
Secondly, last Thursday afternoon, June 6, 2013, I was trying to cross on foot Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA, at its intersection with Albany Street. I was going from the southeast corner to the northeast corner on a crosswalk protected by a signalized intersection. I carefully looked at the traffic on Massachusetts Avenue in both directions. The traffic had a red light and was stopped. Nobody was turning in my direction from Albany Street.
I carefully looked forward. I had a WALK signal.
I stepped off the sidewalk. I was nearly maimed or killed by a bike running that red light. If it did not touch me, it came within less than an inch of me. Rapidly traveling directly in my path, it did not even slow down. This is normal behavior on the streets of Cambridge, MA.
I have a friend who was laid up for six months after being run down by a sidewalk bicyclist with no more ethics than the person who nearly killed me on Thursday.
I have seen bicyclists behave in abusive manners to blind or disabled trying to lawfully use crosswalks. I have commonly seen bicyclists respond with obscene gestures at being reminded of red light laws or one way street laws.
By far the most dangerous threat when I am riding a bike is that damn fool on a bike who WILL NOT OBEY TRAFFIC LAWS.
As a bicyclist and a pedestrian, and a driver, it is total nonsense to talk bicyclists in general as victims. Bicyclists in general are the most lawless and irresponsible members of a very dangerous pool of participants in the traffic pool. There is a minority (and perhaps an invisible majority) who are decent, responsible members of society. They are irrelevant to this discussion.
Too many pedestrians in New England are not fit to be trusted with their own lives. Too many drivers, including too many uniformed police officers, would be thrown off the road in civilized parts of the world. Too many bicyclists belligerently and defiantly are doing their best to combine the worst of the other two.
We are talking about people who claim that they have “all rights and no responsibilities.” Clearly, according to the writer, one of the responsibilities bicyclists do not have is to take basic, minimum safety precautions.
I will not dignify this nonsense any further.
