Andrew Cuthbert responds to a few of the recurring accusations leveled against cyclists as posted on the ‘comments’ section of a Vancouver-based news story involving a cyclist-motorist conflict.
“On this particular news article there were two sides,” writes Andrew Cuthbert, “basically those for and those against cyclists. As one would assume, it was those commenting 'against' which were the scariest. It seems that there is a vocal portion of the population that believes that cyclists deserve to die or get injured simply for being a cyclist.”
Cuthbert observes some of the most common complaints directed at cyclists to be that:
- Cyclists don’t obey the rules of the road;
- Cyclists are rude;
- Cyclist are not always in a bike lane;
- Cyclists don’t pay taxes so they shouldn’t be allowed on the road.
To the final charge, Cuthbert replies “check with your local government on this one. Sure, cyclists don’t pay gas taxes. They don’t use gas! However, criminals aside, everyone pays taxes that contribute to different infrastructure projects (including roads).”
Read the full story: In Defense of Cyclists
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