Motoring Induced Schizophrenic Syndrome
Ed at CycleDog is hilarious.
Recently, I read about the danger faced by cyclists and motorists on a narrow, winding road outside of Nashville. Some homeowners want cyclists banned. It’s too dangerous to pass slow-moving bicyclists because motorists have to cross the road’s centerline. What happens if there’s an on-coming school bus or a station wagon full of nuns? The almost Pavlovian imperative to pass, regardless of the consequences, might require impaling the front end of a bus with a speeding Chevy Suburban, causing wide spread carnage and the end of civilization as we know it.
And don’t miss his previous post offering bike security tips for weight weenies.
I think this is a case of cognitive dissonance.
Culturally we are told that we are all equal, and that thinking you’re more important than someone else is wrong. So saying, “They’re in my way; they have no right to make me go so slow” is generally considered unacceptable.
(There are exceptions to this, like Hybrid Man’s comments on the Chain Gang blog; he has no problem with saying motorists are superior to cyclists.)
So instead they have to tell themselves that passing is inevitable or an imperative, and that the cyclists are making the situation impossible, as though there is no alternative. In this form of “reality” passing is a given; cars pass the same way a herd of bison stampedes — as a force of nature that cannot be tamed, and bicyclists just need to stay out of the way.
I’ve seen some mind-blowingly stupid passes. They pass into oncoming traffic and actually make the oncoming cars brake or drive off the pavement, simply because they can’t be bothered to take a foot off the gas for a second. People get in their cars and think they’re more important than everyone else.
Brian and I got video of a UPS truck on Hanging Moss passing without a sufficient gap. It caused an oncoming car to brake and then turned right into a parking lot 50 feet later. (Gave us plenty of passing clearance though.)
Motorist: “Get on the sidewalk!”
Cyclist: “The side WHAT?”
I’ve had cars pass me on the approach to a stop sign such that they end up stopping completely on the wrong side of the road, as I pull up next to them on the correct side.
John said: “I’ve had cars pass me on the approach to a stop sign such that they end up stopping completely on the wrong side of the road, as I pull up next to them on the correct side.”
Me too! Many times. And almost all of them on 25mph streets.
I actually had a motorist do that to a group of students on a Road 1 road test… with me in the back, on the left side of the lane, looking over my shoulder and giving her the straight-arm. I was wearing a bright yellow shirt with “League Cycling Instructor” written on the back of it, too.
Some people are just way too stupid to have a driver’s license.