Thread by @svdodge

Police depts across the country routinely are lazy/lying/victim-blaming when it comes to crashes involving bicycle riders and cars.

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If there are no witnesses or video, almost always it is assumed that the bicycle rider did something wrong, and the driver was in the right.

But that's just not reality. There are endless cases where drivers break laws, kill+injure bikers/peds, but are rarely/never prosecuted.

When bike+pedestrian advocates get angry about this stuff it's because many times police don't treat bikers/peds as legitimate road users.

We fight for good sidewalks and crosswalks, even Walk signs. Why? Because when a driver kills a pedestrian it's almost always preventable.

We fight for bike lanes+paths, trails. Why? Because distracted+dangerous drivers kill bikers even when the biker is following all the laws.

Thankfully MKE hasn't had an abundance of bicyclist deaths, but in the existing cases, prosecution of the driver is near impossible.

Why? Because the laws are dumb, because police take driver's side, because DA's don't want to push for prosecution.

It's an endless battle.

Bike+Ped advocates are rarely if ever anti-car, we just demand safe and reasonable facilities for all users. Cities do not provide that.

Your urban planners and DPW's and DOT's are stuck in some 1950's fantasy, dreaming of 90mph highways from your garage to the mall.

They are ignoring the reality that people love to bike+walk, they love to experience the city in a smaller, closer scale than a car window.

Until we demand better infrastructure for all road users, people will continue to needlessly die. Our kids, parents, our neighbors. Dead.

Until we demand that society places value in people who choose to bike+walk, valuable citizens will continue to be injured and killed daily.

AND DON'T FORGET: There is a huge class+race component to many of these discussions. Econ+Race Minorities are treated worse than white folks

Look at where the best bike+ped infrastructure is built, it's where the rich people live. Cities don't even repave roads in poor zip codes.

Cities don't fix sidewalks in poor areas either. How does that affect a handicapped transit user? It shoves them into the gutter, literally.

Ever seen a person in a motorized wheelchair in the street and said "What an idiot!"

They're in the gutter because cities don't care.

They're in the gutter physically because cities don't fix/install sidewalks.

They're in the gutter societally because of elitism.

They're in the gutter economically because society keeps cutting their bootstraps and then saying "you should just try harder."

Next time you're behind a bicyclist in the road and they're "delaying" you from your destination, count how many seconds are you delayed.

I've been honked at, nearly hit. Why? I made someone in a car wait 4 seconds.

4 seconds.

Is a person's life worth 4 seconds of your time?

This is a big fight for relevance against many political/societal/governmental forces. It's not a quick fight either.

It's draining to be treated as less because we don't want to drive.
It's frustrating to be treated as less because we choose to ride a bike.

There are so many great bike/ped advocates out there, working every day to get better facilities around the country.

But they're also the same advocates who have to console the families of people who have been killed while walking or biking.

Cities/Police offer platitudes and zero solutions.

Advocates offer support, hope, and realistic solutions to keep people alive.

I don't know how to end this rant because even when faced with dead children, Govs, police, and drivers turn a blind eye to these issues.

If you want to examine your biases, take a walk in your neighborhood. If you feel unsafe, do something about it.

If you want to understand the danger drivers create daily, take your child for a bike ride in the city and watch your blood pressure rise.

If you refuse to get out of your car except to walk through a parking lot, understand that you risk complicity in this drivers-only culture.

Again, this is not about eliminating all cars. That was never the plan, it's not the plan, advocates realize that is not the solution.

Fixing+Building proper bike+ped infrastructure is the solution. Getting cities to care about bikers and pedestrians is the solution.

Getting police depts to believe bike riders and witnesses is the solution. Forcing people to address their biases is the solution.

This is not rocket science.
There is no need for billions of dollars of funding.

Just f'ing care about people in your community.

If you have no compassion for the person, standing in the rain at a bus stop, maybe stop+think about that.

The answer is not "Get a car."

The answer is:
- Good bus shelters
- Faster bus timing
- BRT's even!

Uber+Lyft can't fix this crap, so stop believing them.

If your city wants to widen a road, say no. Why?
Wider=
- More cars
- Faster cars
- Peds eliminated
- Bikes eliminated

Bad solution.

If you still think the American Dream is buying a 1/4 acre lot in a suburb that's 10 miles from a grocery store,

That's a lie. Stop.

The American Dream can be a lot of things, but making it exclusively car-dependent is shortsighted and deadly.

Going back to the start of this thread, take a minute to meditate on the family of the man killed in NYC by a driver.

He was a person, a human. He was killed because someone didn't think his life was worth waiting 4 seconds before passing.

4 seconds.

If it was your child, father, sister on that bike, would you not implore that driver to wait 4 seconds?

You would plead endlessly.

You would beg and scream that life is short but 4 seconds can be a gift that provides life or death.

So please, wait the 4 seconds. Take a walk. Ride your bike. Find understanding of people's transportation choices. Find compassion.

And please, demand that your elected officials do the same. Demand that they care. Demand they write strong laws that protect all citizens.

Because right now, they don't. They have created a situation where legally the cities+police can be ambivalent towards its citizens.

Is that the American Dream? Being ignored by our government?

I believe we can do better. There is a place for all in our society.

I didn't start this thread to get preachy, but it's hard to hold back when you see story after story of preventable killings in the streets.

Remember that driving is not the safest thing you can do: 40 Thousand killed in the US last year: nytimes.com/2017/02/15/bus…

So please care about your community.
Love, learn from, and understand your neighbors.

And stop running red lights! And put down your phone!

</thread> Thanks for listening, liking, retweeting, and most importantly, feeling the same pain I do. Hopefully we can make a difference.

ALSO, If you're reading this and think I'm lying or exaggerating, please ask me a specific question and I will calmly provide resources.