Boston Bike Party

My girlfriend just sent me this story from the New York Times about efforts to improve Boston as a cycling city. A pretty standard tale about a city trying to jump on the cycling bandwagon. Mostly you hear about how efforts are slow but going in the right direction. And that's probably as much as you can hope for in these budget strapped times.

What first came to mind as I read it though was the summer I lived in Boston. This was back in aught four (isn't it fun that we can say stuff like that now?), before I did very much bike commuting and I did absolutely none while I lived there. But I did take a bicycle tour of the city. And I have only fond memories of the experience. I imagine I didn't really cover the ground that your average bike commuter would face. However the reason I tried the bike tour in the first place was because I had repeatedly heard the best way to see Boston was by bike. So things couldn't have been that bad, right?

It was interesting that the story didn't have any quotes from angry drivers, tired of cyclists slowing them down and breaking the law. The closest thing was this graph:

City and state officials are also backing up their efforts to turn Boston into a bike-friendly city with a crackdown on bad behavior against cyclists. The legislature recently passed a law holding drivers liable if they open a car door in the path of an approaching cyclist and injure a cyclist. And the City Council is considering a fine for motorists who park in bike lanes. There are few legal penalties — at least so far — for cyclists who ride recklessly and do not obey traffic signals. But Ms. Freedman said city officials hoped more bike lanes would lead to more riders’ and drivers’ following the rules.

I'll be watching to see how these efforts turn out. I think all too often drivers get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to incidents with cyclists. But my attitudes about bike and car interaction have been changing lately (maybe because I've moved to a new city and do a whole lot less bike commuting). I once believed (while I bike commuted in Charlotte, N.C.) that riding my bike was a bit like putting a target on my back for some drivers. But that's really not true, drivers would have to notice you exist before they see any kind of target on your back. What I think is probably more accurate is that cyclists are simply more vulnerable when they fall victim of road rage and as a result such incidents are more fatal and headline grabbing. Drivers and cyclists who rage around the road don't care whether it's a bike, person or SUV in their way, they hate all things that they perceive as an obstacle to their destination. And yes, cyclists show a lot of road rage as well.

I wonder, though, whether it helps or hurts cyclists to believe they're being targeted or abused because they're cyclists. Certainly any efforts to raise cycling awareness should help reduce wrecks in which someone just failed to see a cyclist because they weren't looking for them or expecting to find them. But does an us versus them mentality lead to overly aggressive behavior from extreme members of both communities? I don't really know. It could be that these people would be slamming into each other regardless. Think about it.