Walking home yesterday — all of 3/4 mile — I saw five separate incidents of people being silly on the streets. Upon seeing the first one, I thought: Oh, good blog post! Then the silliness just kept coming to the point where I thought: Oh, different blog post! And the silliness continued this morning — the last incident being a guy who tried to squeeze me at a stop sign and then ran the sign.

So here’s my upshot: Cars and bicycles, as media that allow us to write and interpret a text called the street, are separated by massive differences but share at least one uncomfortable trait: both moving machines encourage humans to understand convenience as a primary value of writing the text of the street. Within this similarity in an important difference — perhaps only of scale.

Author Robert Pirsig once wrote that riding in a car was “just more TV” because one experiences the world through a screen. Indeed, one is separated from the world by the screen in a way similar to the separation TV creates. This situation encourages people to understand other street users as objects.

The bicycle has no screen. One of its greatest strengths as a mode of transportation, however, is also a problem: Bicycles are fun to ride and encourage us to move, and keep moving, based on the sheer joy of ease of movement and maneuverability. How can this be bad? Well, just hang out for a few minutes at the 4-way stop at Hammons and Cherry. (There are actually people who argue that stopping at stop signs is difficult because — and this is just a head-scratcher  – getting moving again is somehow inefficient and difficult.)

Both sources of bad behavior are equally self-righteous, and, therefore, utterly galling.

Among the silly incidents I saw yesterday was the near collision of a bicycle and a car at National and Grand in which both parties were displaying, in the particular ways of their given media, a self-righteous disregard for other road users.

We have a cultural problem on our streets that finds its expression in the media of bicycles and cars: lack of courtesy, civility, care — take your pick. To the extent that these qualities are lacking in the driver (of any vehicle and for whatever reason) is the extent that our streets are sites of fear and danger instead of a commons where we all benefit from our collective investment.

Now you’re ready to listen to my recent interview on KSMU. I used my grumpy voice.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle culture, bicycle safety, car culture, crazy drivers, cycling, pedestrian safety, traffic law, transportation, walking

Technorati Tags: crazy drivers, cycling

That’s good advice.

Drive your video game.

Huh?

I don’t drive a car very often. But my family does own one. And now we own a new one because the old one died.

So that’s a picture of the new one — a 2010 Toyota Prius.

It’s like driving a video game. It doesn’t have a stick-shift. It has a joystick. I’m not kidding. And the display is located in the center of the dash — speed, gauges, etc.– rather than in front of the driver. That way the passenger may enjoy the game of driving, too. You can display all kinds of distracting information. And the owner’s manual actually suggests that to get the best gas mileage you should keep an eye on a particular display to keep a status bar within a particular range.

Like I said, video game

Should one play video games while driving a car?

I’m glad we have it — not because I want a car, but because if you must have one (and in the USA we often “must”) I think it’s best to have one that’s easier on the enviornment and the pocketbook.

No car, BTW, is green. No car is easy on the environment. Some are easier than others, but all are black.

I drove it home from Chillicothe yesterday — about four hours away. Car buying has changed. I really wasn’t involved except at the end to nod approval. My wife decided what she wanted, used cars.com to find it, then we went to get it.

When will I drive it next? Hmmmmm… Perhaps soon because, like a video game, there’s a lot to learn about how this thing works. And, also game like, it was a bit confusing at first. Our conversation upon taking it for a test drive.

Wife: Is it on?

Me: I don’t know.

Wife: How do you tell?

Me: Beats me.

Wife: That light says “ready.”

Me: Cool. Put it into gear, and let’s go. Use the joy stick.

Wife: Is it in gear?

Me: I don’t know.

Wife: ‘D’ is highlighted.

Me: Hit the gas.

We pwned it!

Technorati Tags: crazy drivers

I mean, really … other people? They’re just objects in the road. Something to get around. And if they piss you off, then scare them or put them in danger.

Here’s what a road bully pulled on me this morning. He didn’t realize, however, that wasn’t scared of him.

(Click for larger image)

That’s the intersection of National and Grand. I pass through this intersection everyday following the route indicated by the red line. While it might look scary, this intersection is easily traversed even by novices. All it takes is a basic understanding of how traffic works and the bicyclist’s role in it.

Since I head west through the  intersection, I position myself to command the right-hand through lane. There’s a long sight-line to my rear, so car drivers may easily decide if they want to pull in behind a bicyclist or not. If not, they simply take the left-hand through lane. This reasonable, adult behavior works like a charm the vast majority of the time.

Then you have the bullies — their numbers are quite low, but their behavior can be disconcerting.

So this guy pulls in behind me at the light instead of taking the left lane. His behavior tells me that he’s comfortable with the fact that I won’t be traveling the speed limit through this intersection.

There were five cars to my left, and all of them passed me easily as we passed through the intersection (red line). The guy behind me stayed behind me until we reached the turn-out. Then he gunned the engine and passed me on the right using the turn-out despite the left lane being entirely clear (yellow line).

What an asshole.

Now, I have enough experience on the road that I was merely angered by his behavior, i.e. taking a chance with other people’s lives. But such a stunt is exactly the kind of thing that could frighten a novice off the road for good. And that really makes me angry.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle safety, crazy drivers, cycling

• Beware Springfield! There are outlaw nuns on the loose! Had a car full of them run the 4-way stop at Cherry and Hammons right in front of me this morning. What traffic laws would Mother Teresa ignore?
• STAR Team member Rick Scarlet and I are working on holding a CyclingSavvy class (possibly a weekend in September) for lady bicyclists. I’m working on getting a female CSI to co-teach the class (two have agreed — one from St.L. and one from FL — so it’s now a matter of scheduling). If you’re a female bicyclist who would like to learn how to ride confidently in traffic, please contact me. Read this success story: I Am No Road Warrior. Very cool! [Note: Taking the weekend class would then allow an interested bicyclist to take the CyclingSavvy instructor training. We could use more bicycle educators in Springfield. Please think about it.]
• I have published my last honk report. These posts have served their 2-fold purpose: 1) To demonstrate how rare such occurrences are for me (attributed to my lane positioning and rule following), and 2) To come to some understanding about why people honk (most seem to be merely territorial hoots).
• There are a lot more people riding bicycles around downtown. We need to do updated traffic counts. The change seems to me to be significant since I moved here seven years ago. I arrived downtown this morning at 8:00 to find the bicycle corral nearly full.
• I do believe I have overcome my anger at stupid automobile drivers — you know, the rare few who do dumb stuff that puts you in danger (danger that proper bicycle driving largely mitigates). I’m looking at you, you car-full of stop-sign running nuns! Man, I prefer being mellow out there. Now I have to work on my consternation (not anger) with “challenged” bicyclists — you know, the road salmon, the unlighted night riders, the serial red-light runners, the serial red-light runners that pass me on the right when I’m stopped at a traffic light… it’s a long list.
• Been riding my Kona Bike a lot lately — mostly as my going-downtown bicycle. The darn thing is a fun ride I’m also happy that all my bicycles now have internal gear hubs. The Bike is described as “super Rasta.” I have no idea what that means, but it sounds cool
• Hot. Geez. Hot outside. Good grief it’s hot…
• Seriously. Will someone please step up and start a Springfield Cycling Chic blog? I’ll help set it up. I’ll even host it. I’ll even help take pictures. Please!

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle culture, bicycle education, crazy drivers, cycling