Fear and Loathing

It's been almost a year since Randy was murdered on Sprague Road doing something that he loved, on his way to meet up with the love of his life. On an arrow straight road on a clear, sunny, mid afternoon day a drunk driver, with malice in his heart, used his vehicle to run down a father, husband, son, friend; human being. On that day everything changed for the Gibson family but not much has changed for cyclists as a whole. It was amazing to see the outpouring of love, compassion, empathy and support that the cycling community showed during the Ride for Randy that was held shortly after Randy's death and then again in May during the annual Ride of Silence. We have so much capacity for love if we just allow ourselves to focus on finding commonality amongst ourselves.

After Randy's death several news stories followed and as is usually the case, reading of the comments should be avoided unless you're a fan of the worst that society has to offer as an example of humanity. Most of the comments are the same hatred toward cyclists, the same lack of compassion shown to those whose loved one was killed and the same victim blaming bull shit that happens in every article concerning a cyclist killed while riding on the road. The vile vitriol spewed in those comments is just disgusting and despite the first amendment, should not be allowed to sit out on the Internet for the world to see and give fuel to someone's anti cyclist view or fuel for someone else's anti automobile view. It doesn't do anyone any good and only helps to divide us as humans but it makes for good reading and translates to more views on the article and more traffic for the website; money over morality. In a world where traditional media outlets like the newspaper struggle to find their place in an increasingly non-paper world, they encourage this type of behavior because clicks, no matter how hateful or negative, mean revenue down the line, so the keyboard warriors of the world have a platform to express their hatred in relative anonymity. If you're a person who frequently engages in debate on these type of forums, choose kindness, choose positivity, choose words that unite rather than divide; be the example. It amazes me that we try to teach our children that bullying other kids that are slower, shorter, fatter, skinnier, a different color, race, sex, religion or just a little bit left of typical is wrong; yet some of those same people sit behind their keyboards and vomit hatred on the Internet, especially, it seems, on any article concerning cycling or cycling infrastructure. What is it about the bicycle and it's rider that causes so many people's blood to boil at the very mention of them?


I am a cyclist, I do not have a death wish, I do not think I can win a collision with a car and I don't break the laws of the road for the most part (there are times when the laws of automobiles put cyclists in greater harm than breaking them does) and I certainly don't break the occasional traffic law just to spite the driving population; that is not why I ride. I love cycling because it allows me to escape from the grind that is daily life, it gives me a sense of being free in a way you can't get while confined in a metal and rubber object, sitting in a long line of other like vehicles. I ride because it helps me to maintain a fitness level most folks my age don't posses and it's something I love and will probably do until I can no longer do it.


 I am an automobile driver, I do not have murderous hatred for another human being that just happens to be in the path of my vehicle because they are in my way. I don't intentionally swerve toward people inside another vehicle or outside of a vehicle, I don't accelerate rapidly when I pass or try to blow exhaust on others to teach them a lesson. I enjoy driving at times, it allows me to see friends and family in places that it would take me too long to get to by bicycle, it helps me to carry large amounts of "stuff" that I might need to move from one location to another and it's something I will probably do until I can no longer safely do so.

 For some people it's not an either or, for some of us it is both the bicycle and the automobile, cyclist and driver in equal parts; double agent to neither cause. Cyclists are not some uber green fascist group trying to save the planet or some highly organized anti establishment group scheming up ways to steal your roads or waging a War on Cars. What we are is a group of people who utilize the infrastructure provided for both of us to share, operating a much smaller vehicle; a mode of transportation that is simple, inexpensive and allows us to enjoy our surroundings in a way you cannot in an automobile. Above all we are not just cyclists or bikers or any other terms spewed with venom or typed with hatred on some random article or forum to try to vilify us because you chose not understand us; we are human beings the same as you, nothing more, nothing less. A bicycle doesn't hate the automobile and the automobile doesn't hate the bicycle, neither is aware of their own existence let alone the existence of the other. We are more the same than we are different and I refuse to believe we cannot find compassion and respect for each other, to get past getting hung up on what vehicle we chose to use and instead see each other as mothers, sisters, daughters, fathers, brothers and sons. We can be better than this, we need to be better than this and I believe at our root we are better than this.