[*BCM*] scourge of the roads?

[Lee Peters]

Good job, I hope they print it.



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Andrew Toomajian 
  To: list at bostoncriticalmass.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 12:40 PM
  Subject: [*BCM*] scourge of the roads?


  wow, that letter to the editor was a little foamy at the mouth for me.  i just sent a reply to the globe, posted below.  id encourage others to do the same..


        First off, thanks for printing Marika Plater's wonderful letter "Bicyclists belong on the road, too".  Anyone who has traveled by bike in our fair city can attest that she speaks the truth:  Far too many Boston drivers think they own the road, and are willing to put your life in danger to assert their territorial rights.  Which brings me to David McCaffrey's response to her letter, "Bicyclists: scourge of the roads".  Mr. McCaffrey has clearly seen the streets of Boston from one perspective - behind his steering wheel.  As a cyclist, his attitude that bike are the problem, not cars, is all too familiar.  Lets see, which is more dangerous on a Boston roadway, a human powered (and non-polluting) vehicle that takes up about 4 square feet of space, has a maximum speed of around 25 mph, and can stop and turn on a dime, or a metal behemoth weighing in at several thousand pounds, traveling at up to 80 mph (or more!), requiring more than 30 feet to come to a full stop, and all too often piloted by someone juggling a cell phone and a latte?  Think about it for a while and get back to me.
        Mr. Mc Caffrey complains about seeing bikers who fail to observe the laws of the road.  I won't disagree with him, I see bikers doing the same things from time to time.  However, what I see more often, that he seems to somehow have missed, is cars running red lights, swerving between lanes, cutting each other and everyone else off, and nearly mowing down pedestrians and cyclists.  There are bad apples in both barrels, but I'm willing to give bikers a little more leeway, because their brazen carelessness rarely causes fatalities.  

        As far as his suggestion that cyclists should be required to pay excise tax and other fees to maintain the roads they use, many cyclists do - for their cars!  As for the Boston cyclists that don't also own a car, the damage caused to our public roadways by a 30 lb. bicycle is so minimal, that I would suggest we start think of theses as cases of one less car on the road, and perhaps even offer a premium to these brave individuals (say, in the form of a tax credit) in order to keep people cycling and thus preserving our roads.
        Ms. Plater's letter embodied a common plea of cyclists:  we are asking drivers to respect us, and to observe the laws that protect us, because we don't want to die.  It's really that dangerous out there, and it's really that simple.  Mr. McCaffrey may be right that some bikers break laws too, but Ms. Plater's letter not a plea for law and order, it was a plea for safety and human dignity.  Both cyclists and drivers have some work to do if we are going to be able to share the roads, but it is important to remember that cyclists have a lot more at stake. 

    Andy Toomajian
    Somerville



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