I want to talk about drivers who use their phones at red lights or when they're stuck in traffic. I know that this behavior is normalized and trivialized but I don't most drivers spent much time pondering why or how it endangers people who are walking or riding a bike.
I've never seen data on what drivers know about the laws governing such phone use but guess most drivers know it's illegal yet feel it's about as logical and binding as a 30mph speed limit sign. I think many folks who won't text while driving feel it's fine to do so at red lights
Every driver has given a polite or annoyed toot to someone in front of them who isn't attentive when a light turns green. If you're driving that's the extent of it—a tiny delay that can be annoying. I bet most folks don't flip out because they've been in the other driver's shoes.
The conversation about trans athletes has really pivoted lately. It's not so much folks saying the rules give trans women an advantage and must be adjusted. It's people saying trans people don't exist, that trans athletes are con men, and it's not bigoted to say this.
In all my decades of following sports, I've never seen an issue where suddenly tons of sports fans are loudly in alignment with people like Matt Walsh, Piers Morgan and Megyn Kelly. Most of these folks have nothing to say about women's sports other than obsess on this one thing.
It seems many folks are in denial about the bigotry that has blossomed in our culture. OK, you have questions about fairness. Do you want to be allies with bigoted people who say trans people don't exist and are malignant groomers who don't deserve human rights and health care?
If you hang out on #biketwitter there's a decent chance you've seen it before but thought it might be useful to quickly discuss. The Hierarchy of Controls is one of the more powerful tools to understand why bike helmets are not the safety solution our culture pretends they are.
The Hierarchy of Controls is used by governments and industries worldwide. It's a proven, systematic approach to protecting workers by controlling exposures to occupational hazards. This informs how safety is pursued on construction sites, factories, and tons of other situations.
If you stare at this inverted triangle, the executive summary is that decades of practice have determined that the stuff at the top is way more effective of impacting safety than the stuff at the bottom.
One thing that always mystifies me. I drive an SUV almost every day and no one every tries to hold me responsible for all the weird shit done by other folks who drive SUVS. But as a bike rider, I'm constantly being asked to condemn or answer for naughty riders.
Seriously: Why?
I see this every day from people who say they ride. As if it's our job to call out our own if we want a seat at the table. Nearly everything about this point of view is a fallacy.
I'm not saying riders should get a pass for doing dumb-ass or dangerous things, especially around pedestrians. I'm saying linking that to the conversation around hating riders or improving infrastructure or updating laws is a bad-faith or misguided effort 102% of the time.
Don't be dissuaded otherwise: When people make "jokes" about bike riders wanting to act like pedestrians or cars when they feel like it, they are expressing a grievance—that cyclists are naughty and entitled rule breakers.
These folks have no idea what it's like to ride a bike on a regular basis in a US city. It often is different in small towns and on quiet roads, but in a big city riders have to act like pedestrians sometimes because they don't feel like dying.
Almost every day in LA, I get to intersections where the only safe, practical way to cross a street is to push a beg button and wait for a walk signal. Almost every day I'm on dangerous high-speed roads with no facilities and I ride on the sidewalk because the road is so hostile.
I have seen people go BALLISTIC if you touch their car. It does not matter what crime they committed before that, to them a stranger slapping the side of their car is a huge escalation. I think that's ridiculous of course but I don't want to go to the hospital over that.
Second, I'm not surprised by this: "The Virginia tags come up in D.C. DMV records with almost $9,700 in unpaid fines, two dozen of them for speeding on the same stretch of Southern Avenue Southeast where a pedestrian was killed last year." (from news story on the incident)