Asked and answered by the SF Chronicle's Jon Carroll...
When it comes to ignoring other people while cycling I have to plead guilty with an explanation. I can't seem to operate a bike and swivel around to see who is shouting out my name from a passing car window. Nor can I stop to chat with every dog walker, although many of them seem perfectly wonderful. I'm afraid that self preservation trumps manners for me when I'm out on a ride.
But yeah, Jon, we all know exactly what you mean. Are we at the point where we must conclude: the faster the rider, the less he or she seems to care about other humans?
(Thanks for another good link, Steve Fox.)
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I think I rhetorically answered your title-query back on July 16th in the posting about Portland:
ReplyDelete"Assholes [cyclists who seem to be on a mission] do seem to bring out the asshole [people not on bicycles at the moment] in others."
Every one of us can submit example after example of rude / arrogant / apply your own descriptor, fellow cyclists.
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I didn't see it in Holland, where bikes were just part of life. What the hell is going on here?
ReplyDeleteCould be a kind of creeping consumerism that saddles every activity--fishing, walking biking--with a complete and complex set of equipment and a uniform. You don't just go fishing; you equip for it and you dress for it. In biking the snobbery is clearly related to the cost of the bike: "my bike cost MUCH more than your bike and weights 9 oz less--and check out what I spent for a carbon fiber water bottle mount!"