Am I the only one noticing that there is a common theme to a lot of the people in these articles... It looks most have had thier licenses suspended or revoked, and at least a couple seem to enjoy baiting the cops by flaunting or using the grey areas of the laws.
It's an unfortunate truth, though, the Media focuses on the people that give the rest a bad name.
Case example: A year and a bit ago riding my bike to work (pre-motorizing), a 10-ton truck with a tank back passed me and I went down over the curb onto the grass. I felt the edge of the tank unit against my shoulder and arm as it brushed by me. After I'd picked myself up and settled down a bit I got to work, looked up the number and called the dispatch of the company involved. I couldn't tell them the number of the truck, but I was just down the road from thier yard and knew what time, so that helped.
What the dispatcher said to me right off the top was "Oh, you're one of those 'm@$$holes' aren't you?" The rest of the call went downhill from there (and there is now something very pointy inches from my left hand that the sidewalls of tires don't like on my bike).
The 'm@$$hole' reference comes from a group of idiots and worse here in Vancouver, who call themselves "Critical Mass". The idea was to 'take back the streets' for cyclists, which I won't disagree with. In fact, when I first heard of it I thought it might be a good thing. When I started to read up on these people, I began to understand. I don't agree with the way they do things though, in that they'll ignore all signage, traffic and so on and get from A to B in such a way as to often deliberately incite anger in the rest of the commuters just trying to go about thier day. Quite often, they'll proceed to one of the few bridges that connects the cities and take up the whole bridge standing around and doing thier own thing for an hour or more. Before I heard that others were using the term, I started calling them 'm@ssholes' myself.
Making others mad at the next cyclist they see (muscle or motored) doesn't help any of us. Being a part of the problem without being a part of the solution solves nothing.
It's an unfortunate truth, though, the Media focuses on the people that give the rest a bad name.
Case example: A year and a bit ago riding my bike to work (pre-motorizing), a 10-ton truck with a tank back passed me and I went down over the curb onto the grass. I felt the edge of the tank unit against my shoulder and arm as it brushed by me. After I'd picked myself up and settled down a bit I got to work, looked up the number and called the dispatch of the company involved. I couldn't tell them the number of the truck, but I was just down the road from thier yard and knew what time, so that helped.
What the dispatcher said to me right off the top was "Oh, you're one of those 'm@$$holes' aren't you?" The rest of the call went downhill from there (and there is now something very pointy inches from my left hand that the sidewalls of tires don't like on my bike).
The 'm@$$hole' reference comes from a group of idiots and worse here in Vancouver, who call themselves "Critical Mass". The idea was to 'take back the streets' for cyclists, which I won't disagree with. In fact, when I first heard of it I thought it might be a good thing. When I started to read up on these people, I began to understand. I don't agree with the way they do things though, in that they'll ignore all signage, traffic and so on and get from A to B in such a way as to often deliberately incite anger in the rest of the commuters just trying to go about thier day. Quite often, they'll proceed to one of the few bridges that connects the cities and take up the whole bridge standing around and doing thier own thing for an hour or more. Before I heard that others were using the term, I started calling them 'm@ssholes' myself.
Making others mad at the next cyclist they see (muscle or motored) doesn't help any of us. Being a part of the problem without being a part of the solution solves nothing.
)
