The above graphic is of a bumper sticker I did for the Texas Bicycle Coalition and the League of American Wheelmen back in the early '90s (membership applications are on the reverse side). I also did a giant, better version of this (Three colors! Count 'em!) that were used as bus-boards (the ads on the side of transit buses) for the City of Dallas and DART for Bike Month in 1994.
My idea was one of gratitude and courtesy rather than demand and entitlement. I had noticed that cyclists who felt they weren't being treated right (getting their fair share) often behaved in a way that invited confrontations. I also noticed that cyclists who rode predictably and courteously seldom had confrontations with motor vehicle operators. This observation has remained consistent over the last 15 years. As you act, so you are treated (exceptions always occur, but they are rare exceptions).
Even though I have a legal right to the roadway (Sec. 551-101 Texas Transportation Code), with minor but significant restrictions (the Far Right Law), nonetheless I've found that courtesy and predictability delivered better results than entitlement and demand. With this message of "Thank you", I wanted to communicate, motorist to motorist, that their courtesy was not unappreciated.
After a while, TBC felt that the message wasn't "demanding" enough (being "demanding" helps rally the unhappy, who then send in their contributions). The message was changed to, "Share The Road. It's The Law!" and then to "Give Bikes The Right!" So we went from trying to impart a "feel good" message to motorists, to imparting a feel-good message to bicyclists... which had the side-effect of "preaching" to motorists. You know how much people like being preached to by strangers, right? That's going off message.
But there's more here. The original message presumed the road was shared. The modified message assumes that it isn't, and "sharing the road" came to mean more and more having "my share" of the road... rather like a three year old child shares a birthday cake by taking HIS share. More and more broadly, the idea of sharing the road meant dividing it up into discrete areas: that's your share, and this is my share. The three cyclists' deaths in Tallahassee, Florida last year were in large part the result of cyclists attempting to hold their share of the roadway (a segregated bike lane), rather than integrate themselves as part of a shared roadway.
So, what does "share" mean to you? Do you want your share, or do you want to share?
8 comments:
Sharing the road goes both ways. I realize that if we cyclists always try to be the nice guy it is tough to get any respect from drivers. But I also find from personal experience that I get a lot of smiles, waves, and thank-yous when I do my best to keep traffic moving.
For instance, if I have to take the lane for a specific situation (narrow road or whatever), at the first opportunity I peel off to the side and wave car traffic that has stacked up behind me through as quickly as possible.
I know some riders that take the lane whenever they can, even if there is a wide lane or shoulder or bike route. Or on group rides, lining up three or more abreast is not uncommon, with bikes spilling into adjacent lanes. If you wonder why cagers dislike bikes, there's your answer.
If you want to be treated courteously by the cagers, you have to treat them with courtesy. If you act like a road hog, so will they. If you unnecessarily slow them down by taking the lane when it's not really necessary, you're going to p!ss them off.
So share the road.
If the majority of cyclists acted in a little more orderly and accommodating fashion, I think cars would more readily share the road. But everyone does their own thing, so I don't expect too much change.
Luckily for me, on my local routes most drivers are pretty laid back.
I don't get this whole road hog thing. I've never met a cyclist who would purposely hold up cars when there was an alternative. Vehicular cyclists get slandered with this label a lot... sometimes it's misinterpretation, sometimes it's a deliberate attempt by our adversaries to mislead people about how we ride.
Yesterday, after a failed attempt to use DART, I rode from North Irving to downtown Dallas. I've never even been to Dallas before this week, so it was all new. I was following a route PM fed to my iphone as I started riding.
It was a full-featured route. I used roads with wide lanes, very wide lanes, narrow lanes, 2 lanes, 4 lanes, 6 lanes, I rode through industrial, residential, and urban areas, even got a construction zone. The only place motorists couldn't pass was the construction zone. They were patient. I waved a thank you when I turned off.
Throughout the route, and on Wednesday's ride in downtown, I found motorists to be exceptionally courteous and accommodating:
-Changing lanes completely to pass on multi-lane roads, without fuss. No objection to my center-left lane position.
-On 2-lane roads, moving over the center-line to pass even though the lane was wide enough to share (and I was sharing). They even waited a few seconds to give me that extra space.
-Driving slower when passing. This was odd. In Orlando, motorist almost always speed up when passing.
-Waiting for me to cross an intersection before turning left, even though they could have made the turn before I got there (this is something I really appreciate and acknowledge with a thank you, because it's often the motorist behind that one who will turn into the cyclist without looking)
-Allowing me to merge, sometimes even before I signaled— they just took in the situation and knew I'd need to come over. In one case I was chugging up a hill, there was a moving van blocking the right lane and the motorist in the left lane slowed for me even as I was doing the shoulder-check.
-Thanking me and exchanging pleasantries when I left room for them to turn right on red.
-Thanking me when I wave them through (acknowledging their right-of-way) at 4-way stops. Especially around White Rock Lake, motorists seemed to freeze as I approached a stop sign.
All-in-all, I've gotten a surprisingly good vibe from people in motor-vehicles here.
It is a tragedy that advocacy organizations have gone off message and promoted such an adversarial relationship in the last decade. There are problems in the traffic culture that need to be addressed. But painting all motorists with a broad brush because of the sins of a few has been a disservice to both sides. And carving up the roads to create illusions has made things worse instead of better for cycling.
Be very grateful you don't have bike lanes here. Keep them out. Trust me. You don't want motorists to get the idea that cyclists only belong in bike lanes.
I waved a thank you when I turned off.I think that makes a lot of difference. When one tries to interact positively with drivers, they respond positively.
Well... mostly anyway.
Doohickie & Keri are trying to have an argument when they fundamentally agree!
Myself, I was encouraged to hear the positive report out of Dallas. I know things are nice here in Tarrant County, but occasionally, reading the Dallas scare stories, I wonder if there isn't some evil force at work that might migrate here. I'll bet Keri's experience riding in to Dallas was a lot more positive than mine DRIVING was.
What the heck is a "cager?"
Hey Steve-
A cager is a BikeForums.net term to describe a poor soul trapped in a motor vehicle.
Last night, Keri and Lori told us that Orlando has terrain constraints. The plethora of lakes funnels all traffic onto just a few through roads- High volume and short tempers.
Dallas has the luxury of multiple paths to anywhere, and it results in lower volume of traffic per street.
Getting "trapped" in a motor vehicle is an individual choice and is not irreversible. You just have to get out.
Every place has terrain constraints. Look at the Trinity and some of the freeways around here. It's something we all work with.
Without motor vehicles, how would the debris get swept from the roads? Better we refer to motorists as "unpaid volunteer street sweepers" and salute them for their civic mindedness...
Steve_A said:
"Without motor vehicles, how would the debris get swept from the roads? Better we refer to motorists as "unpaid volunteer street sweepers" and salute them for their civic mindedness..."
That's the spirit!
Thank you for sharing the road with cyclists. When operating a motor vehicle everyone was expected to use due care.
Share the road, it's the law! When using a car was so commonplace that the grave responsibility of it no longer seemed incumbent on motorists.
Give bicycles the right! Cyclist's are increasingly becoming exposed to auto-ism (the anti-cyclist bigotry based on vehicle type)by the general public and our judicial system.
Paint and special rules won't restore the sense of responsibility and duty to operate with due care in the public spaces.
It will not change as long as we look to others (government, "stay out of my way") or things (technology, infrastructure) to fix the results of our cavalier behavior. We must return to the noble values of personal responsibility and turn away from the evil of cutting corners on safe conduct.
We must stop tolerating this behavior and rationalizing it in others. Now we not only put up with it, we make excuses for others as well.
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