From: elr@trintex.uucp (Ed Ravin)
Subject: Re: Politics of Cycling Speed
Organization: Bicycling in the Dark
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 18:34:30 GMT

In article <71508@cup.portal.com> JForester@cup.portal.com (John - Forester)
writes:

>Well, if Ravin had swerved in front of me, endangering my life
>instead of just a motorist's paint, I would have been extremely nasty
>to him. The cyclist who swerves around in traffic deserves anything
>he gets.

Ah yes, here we have an example of the "less-educated-cyclist-hating"
complex, where bicyclists who thinks they knows more than all other cyclists
make bold pronouncements on who is right and who is wrong and who deserves
retribution for their faults.

John Forester seems unable to do anything but a literal reading
of anything posted on Usenet -- I didn't give an exact description of
what I was doing at the time, but needless to say I didn't deserve to
have a motorist try to run me down.  Perhaps "swerve" was a poor choice
of words when posting to an audience that includes our rigid-thinking
and cyclist-hating Forester.

> In another paragraph he describes cycling as being up
>against psychopathic maniacs armed with automobiles. Ravin defines
>defensive driving as "assum[ing] that everyone out there on the road
>is going to do the wrong thing and cause you grievous bodily injury."
>That is certainly a phobic statement [...] because it cannot possibly be
>true in either possible sense.

Of course it can't possibly be 100% true, John, it's an exaggeration.  But
it's true enough and it explains the gist of defensive driving in a simple,
one sentence bite suitable for net news.  You hope that other drivers will
obey the rules of the road, just like you are doing, but you have to 
assume that some of them won't and you must be prepared to take action
to avoid being hurt by their mistakes.

It also depends on what you define as "psychopathic maniacs".  Here's a
motor vehicle operator who is speeding somewhere, running lights, cutting
off other vehicles, blocking crosswalks while waiting at lights, and
abruptly speeding up whenever there is an opening in traffic ahead that he
might be able to duck into.  You might say he's just inconsiderate, or
careless, or impatient -- all I know is that the manuevers he is making
can cause me grevious bodily injury if I happen to be "in the way".  Whether
he really is a psycopathic maniac trying to kill me isn't the issue -- I
will be just as dead or injured if I am indifferent to this type of driver.
Unfortunately, I'm seeing these clowns more and more -- especially when I
operate on heavily-trafficked streets with a high quantity of motorist
frustration at stuck traffic.

>To take the other possible interpretation of Ravin's statement, he
>says that I should have assumed that [every motorist who's ever driven by me]
>going to turn toward me and I should have taken the appropriate
>action. That is totally impractical. You cannot take the precautions
>necessary under the assumption that every motorist will turn toward
>you and still retain mobility, or in all probability remain sane.

Hmmm.  Perhaps you can begin to understand the pressures cyclists in
urban areas are under.  Again, Forester seems capable of only extreme
interpretations, at least here on the net.  Cycling in the middle of a
lane to ensure visibility to other motorists is a good example of an action
one can take to avoid accidents and still operate with mobility and sanity.
This also avoids getting doored, another common cause of bicycle/motor
vehicle accidents.  Unfortunately, cycling in the middle of your lane tends
to draw motorist anger, occasionally even aggressive or reckless behavior,
causing the cyclist to think that all motorists are homicidal psychopaths.

-- 
Ed Ravin- elr@trintex.uucp| I like to think (and the sooner the better!)
  elr%trintex@uunet.uu.net| Of a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers
           +1-914-993-4737| Live together in mutually programming harmony
my opinions, nobody else's| Like pure water touching clear sky.  -R. Brautigan
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.soc