Driver Brags About Hitting Cyclist on Twitter; Learns Police Have Internet

[deurbano]

89. I agree there is plenty of arrogance to go around...

I haven’t ridden a bike in decades, but I fully support bike lanes because bike riding is beneficial to the environment (including MY environment)… takes some of the traffic off the roads (including MY roads)… and contributes to a more active (and healthy) populace. I want my tax dollars to support these benefits.

That said, quite a few cyclists (in my town, San Francisco) DO seem to exhibit an entitlement mentality, as they run stop signs and lights… come (too) close to mowing down my (pedestrian) children when said children are simply trying to cross the street in a crosswalk… etc..

Of course, many drivers of SUV’s and other large vehicles (and why people want such large vehicles in a city with scarce parking-- and often narrow streets-- escapes me) also exhibit an entitlement mentality. When we are coming at each other on a narrow road, I (the driver in the compact car) am the one who always yields (finding a space to pull to the side) as the behemoths hog the street and barely slow down. (And drivers of cars of all sizes have had a much more profound—and tragic—impact on pedestrians in my town than cyclists ever could.)

And then there are the entitled-acting Cal student pedestrians who descend on the streets around Berkeley (my alma mater) in oblivious hordes, with no consciousness of the traffic around them... and no acknowledgement of pesky annoyances like stop signs, crosswalks and traffic lights. I have to admit, though, when I find myself in such a pedestrian mob, it is very easy to just follow the herd, even when I have been a driver just moments before, silently cursing that mob. (It’s catching!)