Some dude hollered this at me last night when I was getting off of Amtrak. I had just come into Sacramento Station from Oakland. There were about thirty passengers--six of us had bicycles. Two of us were walking our bikes among the crowd in the space between the trains. The other folks rode their bikes among the pedestrians... one of them shouted that at those of us walking.
We were SQUARES, obviously.
I walked my bike, commenting to the other cyclist that it wasn't about fun--it was about living with our neighbors, whether they have bikes or not.
Despite walking my bike all the way to the road, I caught up with the guy riding his fixie along H Street. I couldn't think of anything to say--I mean, what do you do? So I didn't. But what the hell?
It was funny because I had just seen the Facebook page put together by some UCB freshmen who are trying to resist traffic laws. These are students who have not yet learned to take responsibility for their own actions: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BikeBusters/154749877901782
It struck a chord with me. I just got rid of my car--I think more people should. Just the same, I believe that cyclists can share the road with motorists. The trick is to follow the rules. The trick is to remember that they are people too.
Even people we don't agree with are people that we have to share a planet with.
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