Troy Tucker
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Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 10:35:57 -0400
Subject: FW: Bicycles and Cars Don't Mix
From: Moving Image <movi-@netunlimited.net>
To: <Bike-@aol.com>
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From: Mick Hitz/Moving Image <movi-@netunlimited.net>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 10:38:19 -0400
To: <dvassi-@tribweb.com>
Subject: Bicycles and Cars Don't Mix
Your article yesterday (Bicycles and cars don't mix) is a poor attempt to
find excuses to hide the problem that you and many other automobile drivers
have today: You think that just because you are in your car, everyone and
everything should be removed from your path, post-haste, because you have
some sort of divine right to full-speed-ahead driving. Your thinking is the
seed that, once germinated, develops into full road rage. Just because you
are a motorist who has paid fees to drive doesn't give you the right to own
the roads. This is America. You have to share the roads with other cars,
trucks, buses and yes, even bicycles.
Your argument that only those who pay should ride is ludicrous. Most if not
all bicyclists are paying motorists also. And under your argument, if those
who pay the most were to get right-of-way, you should get your car off the
road along with the bicyclists and we should allow only buses and trucks to
use the road. They pay the most in fees and taxes for roads.
And while we are at it, according to you, let's do the same thing for
sidewalks. Only the people who pay the most in taxes should get to use
them. Keep those poor people off the sidewalks. You're an important man
who's got someplace to go. No sense having the sidewalks cluttered up with
the poor who don't pay their share. And while we are at it, let's get those
wheelchair-riding slowpokes off the sidewalks too. They are a menace,
right?
And your safety arguments are made without any respect to speed and impact.
Cars have to have the safety features they do because of the potential for
high-speed (55-75 mph) impact, and because motorists do stupid things in
their cars. You will probably never hear of a bicyclist being pulled for
drunk driving, or eating while riding, or eating and talking on a cell phone
while riding. They are riding for their health and for fun. And if you are
driving as a responsible motorist you should not do anything to place
yourself or any bicyclists in danger. Unless, of course, your think, as a
motorists, you just cannot slow down for any one any time (it is your divine
right to unimpeded high-speed motoring, right?).
Bottom line, you need to stop and ask yourself: Where is it that I have to
go and what is it that I have to do that is so important that I cannot yield
a few seconds of my time to allow these people on bicycles to ride? If you
think your "right" to get somewhere is more important than letting a
bicyclist occasionally get in front of you on the road, then you are the one
with the problem.
Sincerely,
Mick Hitz
Winston-Salem
North Carolina
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