[*BCM*] Bostoncriticalmass Digest, Vol 39, Issue 27

[Rachel Elizabeth Dillon]

I wasn't going to respond to this, but over the past couple of days,
it's made me think a lot, and I wanted to share.

On Sat, Sep 22, 2007 at 06:04:22PM -0400, Jeff Young wrote:
> Dear Mr. Scooter-driver,

While the Vespa may get me chicks, I doubt it can give me a penis.
 
> I hope you recover soon so that you can return to riding your bike. 

Thank you! Hopefully it will only be another month or two, I keep seeing
people on bikes and getting jealous. Sometimes I go down into the basement
and stare longingly at my bikes. Believe me, I would rather be riding
a bike than riding a scooter.

> Until
> then, please stop polluting this thread with your nonsense--and, stay out of
> the bike lane!!

So there's two statements here:

 1. I am apparently "polluting" a thread on scooter laws with "nonsense."
 2. Scooters should stay out of the bike lane. 

I've done three things in this thread (up until now, which totally counts
as meta-discussion): Cite law, provide personal anecdotes, and provide
opinions based on my own experiences. Other participants in the thread
have done the same three things, except that they've been against scooters
riding in the bike lane. How am I more "polluting" or "nonsense?"  If you
don't agree with my opinions or find my anecdotes interesting (and who
can compare with those two bike theft stories? Those were _priceless_),
well, that's fine. But they're not any less valid because of that.

Bikers often get into debates like "Should you run red lights or not?"
where some people think that it's important to follow the law and some
people think it's important to maximize safety or convenience even if
that means breaking the law. In these debates, people use law citations,
personal anecdotes, and opinions based on experience to back up their
views.  You know, _rhetoric._ Things can get a little tense, but in the 
past here and in other forums people seem to be able to avoid outright
name-calling in their discussions. We're all bikers, after all, and we're
all in it together. Or something.

When it reaches the point where we're not all bikers, though, things seem
to get way more hostile. I wasn't even _attacking_ cyclists --- I saw
myself as a fellow cyclist using a different method of transportation
because I was in a bad way. I don't think anyone who posted saw me
that way; I think that for some reason I came across as The Enemy. I
can't know what's going on in anyone else's head, but it doesn't even
seem like some of y'all are even reading what I'm saying. (For example,
you got my gender wrong; "Rachel Elizabeth" isn't terribly ambiguous.
When people arguing with me mess up something like that, it's hard to
feel taken seriously.)

Feeling all this made me realize something --- is this how people who
don't ride bikes at all feel when I'm talking to them? I mean, we all
have horror stories about dangerous drivers, poor pedestrians, crazy
cyclists, and, yes, stupid scooters. I know I tell them to people and 
sometimes they are like "Man, you are so anti-car!" and I thought that
it was just them, but maybe it _is_ me! I'm going to have to pay attention.

All of those times that I've yelled at people to share the road?  Which
I'm sure a lot of people on this list have done too? :) That shouldn't,
I realized, just mean with other bikers. Some people can't or shouldn't
bike for whatever reason, and they need safe and efficient ways to get
around the city as well. If providing them with resources to get around
means making life a little more inconvenient for bikers, well, too bad
for bikers! Providing bikers with resources doesn't make car commuters
very happy and you don't see us standing up for _them_. Bike-only culture
isn't any better than car-only culture. ...OK, well, it is better for the
environment and better for people's health and supports local businesses
and discourages crowded roads and keeps the air cleaner... but in some
ways it's just as narrow-minded.  And I never realized that before your
patronizing flame. So thank you! :)

As far as your second point --- that scooters should stay out of the
bike lane --- I'm inclined to agree with androidqueen's interpretation
of Cambridge law that scooters are only banned from bike-only paths, not
lanes on shared roads, but I'm not 100% sure either, so I'll find out.
But your exhortation, unless backed up by something rhetorical like
cited law, personal anecdotes, or opinions based on experience, falls on
deaf ears. If this is how you try to convince fellow bikers of things,
expect to have even less success with people who _don't_ share your cause.

<3,

-r.