Take that, you bike-riding hippie! UC Berkeley crackdown has bicyclists fuming

Sure, a $220 fine for locking your bike to a railing instead of a designated bike rack seems severe, but, and I say this as one who abhors traffic and the overpopulation of cars in our city centers, "Deal with it." It's the law. As a pedestrian, I see so many violations by cyclists every day that I have lost all empathy. As a group, you tend to be reckless and frequently disobey traffic laws. You want the same rights to travel the roads as cars have, but you roll (or zip) through stop lights and signs. You want to be able to ride like a bat out of hell down sidewalks and in crosswalks like pedestrians, but you show little to no concern for those same pedestrians when you're on the road like a car. So, again I say, deal with it. You're on a vehicle, and we have laws governing the use of vehicles. Break the law, pay the fine. . . hippies.

Please read the SF Gate article for a more balanced take on this story.

Posted via email from toddx's posterous

Comments

Anonymous said…
I understand your lack of empathy. I ride bikes, but am constantly baffled and irked by how some cyclists treat laws. Riding on the sidewalk is my biggest pet peeve. I'll roll through the occasional stop sign if no one is around, but to your point, I do so at the risk of getting a ticket, and I accept that fact.

We're not all breaking the laws all the time. And we're definitely not all hippies.
toddx said…
You're sweet, Anon, and now you're my favorite cyclist. The hippie thing was mostly a joke because of the Berkeley connection. I should have really said socialist, eco-terrorists.
BosGuy said…
Although Boston drivers seem to have a bad reputation, bike couriers take crazy driving and ignoring basic traffic protocol to a whole new level.
toddx said…
BosGuy, I'm sure your riders are worse than ours. It's hard to run people over while eating a vegan pita and holding a protest sign.

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