Threats to cyclists, here and elsewhere

Some of you may have seen the December 27th article by Matthew Parris in the London based paper, The Times. The column, titled What’s smug and deserves to be decapitated?, has sparked a bit of outrage among cyclists on the Internet. In his column, Parris says "A festive custom we could do worse than foster would be stringing piano wire across country lanes to decapitate cyclists." In the course of his article he goes on to make several more threatening statements aimed at the “panting, sugar-gulping, chocolate-chewing, Lycra-clad leisure-cyclist?” Read the article for yourself to see how truly sickening it is.

Bike Biz, the British trade journal for the cycling industry, now reports that the Press Complaints Commission has received over 200 complaints making this the 3rd most complained about article of 2008. Parris has since apologized saying, “It was meant humorously but so many cyclists have taken it seriously that I plainly misjudged. I am sorry." Yeah right. It just sounds to me like he just wants to keep his job (for the record, I don’t think he should).

Since Parris' column appeared in a major world newspaper, it has received a lot of attention. When I first read it though, it reminded me of the article that was recently written by a columnist in the nearby Boone, NC newspaper, The Ashe Mountain Times, about cyclists on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The author of that column, Ron Fitzwater, though less directly threatening, was just as ignorant as Parris saying things like, “Roads are made for cars and are not safe for bikes, these are facts that are not debatable and it is time cyclists came to grips with them.” Fitzwater also suggested to cyclists, “when cars are coming, get off the road. After all, having to stop and start over again is better than getting a real close look at the undercarriage of a Cherokee.” For those of you who have not seen the Fitzwater article, The Incidental Cyclist posted about it a month ago and his post includes a link to a pdf file of it.

The Boone article hits closer to home than the London one, but even closer to home for cyclists in Greenville are the repeated threats and attacks on individual riders that have been made by the driver of a white truck on the route to Saluda. As has been mentioned on the local cycling clubs’ email lists, several local cyclists have had altercations with this driver who obviously wants us off the road. Hopefully, with renewed attention on these incidents, the driver will be caught and off the road himself soon.

Though only one of the people I mentioned in this post is physically acting on his aggression, the behavior of all three of these cyclist-hating individuals should be cause for great alarm. Unfortunately there are others out there who feel the same way and don’t want us on the roads. Personally, these attitudes only increase my resolve to work on “share the road” initiatives and other local cycling advocacy issues. I hope that many of you will join me in 2008 to really push for a cycle friendly Greenville County. We may not be able to win over everybody, but we can definitely work make the streets of Greenville and the surrounding area safer for all users.