Gazette letters-to-the-editor: anti-bike rage
Click and read: there's actually a couple of letters on our side, believe it or not!
many angry letter writers (is there another kind?) filling the Gazette newspaper's letter section again today.
We will summarize: Cyclists needs to wear helmets/don't need to wear helmets, cyclists need to get off the sidewalks (this one is correct), cyclists need to get off the roads and onto bike paths only, and cyclists need to have a bicycle license, and cops need to enforce bike traffic laws.
Lastly, the foaming at the mouth furor seems to have removed the wrath directed towards jaywalkers from the letters section.
We encourage all the bike haters to get on a bike and see what it is like to ride among Montreal's crazy drivers and chaotic traffic. Because we are sure their perspective would change from a few hours spent on a bike seat.
As for people riding on busy sidewalks, get the hell off the sidewalk you maroons! What part of "side walk" do you not understand?
posted by Cycle Fun Montreal @ 7:09 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
It is human nature to complain about the 'bad' ones of a certain segment society; drivers against bad drivers, pedestrians against drivers, apparently everyone against cyclists.
The fact is that there are alot of bad drivers, inconsiderate cyclists and unaware pedestrians out there who do not seem to have enough of a sense of self preservation to use common sense and caution on and around the roads of a major city.
However, if you check Google News for 'cyclist' any day of the week, there will be dozens of reports of cyclists killed and injured by cars and not a single one about a cyclist hurting a car.
You scanned the dead tree version of the Gazoo?! Old school! You know the letters are online, right?
http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/letters/index.html
Anonomo: no, we did not scan the page, we snapped a photo. This means no dead links, this means you see exactly what the gazoo reader sees.
Cyrono: A pedestrian was killed in Toronto recently by a cyclist.
I don't know how accurate this is, but from people I talk to in Montreal and my own observations, it's generally the 'English' speaking people who are the biggest complainers of cyclists in Montreal.
Re; Pedestrian killed by cyclist in TO...
It was amazing how the media ran with that story. They went on and on about it for two weeks!
A couple of months earlier, close to 20 pedestrians who struck by cars in the GTA (with about 3 or 5 dying); it received almost no media attention.
Since then many more pedestrians have been killed by cars with it being pushed to the bottom of the news list.
It seems getting hit by a car is something we should come to expect now.
Earlier in the year (February or March), a pedestrian was killed in Vancouver by a cyclist.
The media and the regular anti-bike crowd went on about how horrible all cyclists are and something needs to be done.
A few days later police released what happened...The pedestrian who was wearing all black (at night), walked right out into the road, and that the cyclist was not at fault.
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