The Bicyclist
I just read the latest entry from another NorCal Blog, "26.2 Reasons Why" in which the writer lists 10 wishes he as a cyclist has for the motorists who may or may not share the road with him. Dennis Shmidt makes some great points and is very diplomatic in trying to make a car driver understand the plight of the road cyclist. The battle between cyclists and drivers has some interesting dynamics which you don't always see between two groups who must share the same resource (the road).
Obviously the motorists out there outnumber the cyclists by 1000 to 1 or more. The american driver, sealed from the world in his protective, air conditioned, sound proofed bubble tends to see everything and everyone else on the road as either a threat or an obstacle. The cyclist is too small to be seen as as threat, so he is therefore seen as an obstacle. The interesting thing about this conflict is that probably less than one percent of motorists are also cyclists, so very few of them see the cyclists perspective. The opposite is true for the cyclist, however, since 99% of cyclists are also motorists. Being a cyclist will help a person to be a more thoughtful motorist, to see that those obstacles are actually people.
Dennis, in his blog, tries to appeal to the better nature of motorists so that they will see the cyclists as a fellow human being. That is a good thing. But also consider this; Many of those cyclists out there, and I have met them personally, are lawyers, judges, doctors and professionals of all kind. If you take one of them out you may find yourself in a criminal and or civil lawsuit that could ruin your entire decade. A few extra feet of space can change the destiny of many lives.