Bike Snob - Anonymous [29]
And that’s the real reason everybody is trying to kill you. It’s because they’re self-important. And self-important people are way more important than you can ever hope to be. Consequently, self-importance makes people act stupidly. It’s why certain people spend tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars on cars with leather interiors and climate control and lavish sound systems, yet will drive them in such a way as to endanger human lives so that they don’t have to spend an extra twenty seconds in them. Major purchases such as automobiles are how self-important people measure their self-worth, which is why they’ll sometimes do anything they can to get the keys to as expensive a car as possible—including lie about their address, cut corners in other areas of their lives, and take on debt that they can’t afford to repay. So when you do something as audacious as question someone’s importance by obstructing the physical manifestation of that importance with your bicycle, you are an affront to their very existence. After all, the driver you’re blocking has a lease on a Nissan Altima, and they don’t give those to just anybody.
If this makes you angry, it should. What it should not do is make you afraid. Never be afraid to ride your bike. Once you understand that everybody is trying to kill you simply due to ignorance and bloated self-importance you’re already at a tremendous advantage. In addition to the psychic ego flab belligerent bad drivers are carrying, they’re also coddled by seat belts, air bags, ABS brakes, rain-sensing windshield wipers, and vast crumple zones. These things may make drivers safer than you in theory, but in practice they simply make them lazier. Many drivers have forgotten that they’re operating a machine. Instead, they feel like they’re in their living rooms, and the scenery outside their windows is simply a show on television they passively observe until they get to where they’re going. And you’re just the cat who jumped on the couch, landed on the remote, and unwittingly changed the channel right as the batter was about to swing.
However, cyclists never forget that they’re operating a vehicle. If you forget to pedal you stop moving. If you lose your balance you tip over. You can’t fall asleep. You have to be aware of the road surface at all times, and you feel every inch of it. You actually recognize different types of pavement. You know there will be ice when it’s cold, you know that heat can make the road surface softer, and you know that the painted lines can be slippery in the rain. You’re engaged. Sure, you’re less protected on a bicycle, but the fact is that this makes you a safer driver, because you’re also thinking. Your brain can be a far more effective safety device than a seat belt or an air bag, or even a helmet. And as long as you’re involved in what you’re doing, that safety device is operational. The bike sharpens your mind like it strengthens your body. You’re actually at an advantage over car drivers in the same way those prehistoric proto-mice turned out to have an advantage over the dinosaurs. (You might find a mouse in your kitchen, but you’ll never see a brontosaurus.)
So lose the fear. Cycling is dangerous, but it’s simply not that dangerous. Riding safely and intelligently will take a lot of the risk out of cycling in traffic, even with the high idiot driver factor. Plus, the benefits of cycling far outweigh the dangers. People are afraid to ride bikes in traffic, yet they do lots of other pointless and potentially deadly things all the time without even thinking about it. They take recreational drugs that can stop their hearts, they smoke cigarettes, and they have unprotected sex with strangers. In fact, they sometimes do all three at once. This