Bicycle zealots
What is it about riding a bicycle as an adult, or a putative adult, that turns one into a self-righteous zealot?
I write in defense of poor Sheila Rothenberger of West Hanover Twp., Pa. Ms. Rothenberger wrote to the Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., on June 20 complaining that bicyclists ought to be more careful in how they ride. She suggested they stay off certain roads entirely, such as one where a 19-year-old woman from Lebanon, Pa., was killed tragically in early June while riding her bicycle.
From the reaction, you'd think that Rothenberger, who I've never met in my life, had confessed a desire to take part in the annual baby seal hunt in Canada. First to take up the stick and beat Rothenberger to the ground was Mike McKenney of Mechanicsburg, who suggested that the fault was entirely Rothenberger's for being angry at slow-moving bicycles and that she ought to confine her motoring to interstate highways. Or else, he sniffed with moral superiority, she ought to slow down. Then came a letter from someone who said bicycles have a legal right to be on the same roads as cars, blah, blah, blah.
In my hometown of Holland, Michigan, I distinctly remember my first encounter with bicycle zealots. It was on the busy street that runs past my parents' house. It has two lanes and is divided by double yellow lines, which means, of course, no crossing into the opposite lane to pass. There would be plenty of room to pass a single bicycle, or a procession of them, except that these two bicyclists insisted on riding side by side and blocking the entire lane. I tapped on the horn once, then again when there was no reaction. After the second time, one of the riders turned around with a look of pure hatred on his face. I don't recall if they moved to the side of the road or not.
Of late, bicyclists in my bike-loving hometown have proclaimed a right NOT to ride on bike paths built for them at taxpayer expense. Some Rothenberger out there (probably Van Rothenberger, given the town) had complained about bikes being on a really busy road with lots of fatal accidents. Why couldn't they use the adjoining bike path? Silly woman. She was cudgeled into the ground by the bicycle zealots and informed that the bike path ALSO HAD PEDESTRIANS, which forced dedicated bicycle zealots to slow down, greatly annoying them.
I do most of my daytime driving in the city of Harrisburg, where I observe bicyclists without helmets weaving through traffic, running red lights, running stop signs, going the wrong way on one-way streets, and generally behaving in a dangerous and obnoxious manner.
Rothenberger is right. There are some roads where bicyclists don't belong. No one in their right mind, for example, would commute to work on a bicycle on Second Street in Harrisburg at 7:40 a.m. You can ignore common sense but you can't ignore the laws of physics. Big crushes little in an accident. We may not be South America, where the big vehicle has the right-of-way over the smaller one, but it's time for the bicycle zealots to be a little more considerate if they want the right to ride where they please.