Green Options

So I came home from work today and saw a woman riding a bike loaded to the gills with cardboard boxes on a heavy duty bike trailer. At first I thought it was just another one of the local crazies that rides their bikes from one side of the town to the other all day long, but I’d never seen her before, and if you’ve lived in my town for as many years as I have, you get to know who our crazies are.

I watched her ride her bike around my neighborhood (it’s a small neighborhood) with a bit of a detached interest as I unloaded things from my car. She stopped every now and then, picked a package out of her clown-car-stuffed trailer and dropped it off at various neighbors’ doors.

Earlier this week, I posted a section of the “Missouri State Law for Motorists Interacting with Bicyclist“ for two constructive reasons:

1. To communicate actual-factual, useful information straight from a government horse’s mouth which could benefit the too-common misunderstanding that occurs between motorists and cyclists on the road
2. And as an example that is likely similar to statutes across the country, although each state — and at least some cities — have their own laws. (Read up on your area statutes through Mass Bike’s state-by-state list online.)

Some read that post and selectively seized on certain tidbits, neglecting the rest. Folks, folks, folks. As they say, “You can lead a horse to water, but…”

What is it that makes cyclists so untolerable to some motorists? Is it the occasional momentary delay that a street without bike lanes, which forces a cyclist to ride in the lane (as the law dictates acceptable), sometimes creates?

Where is Dr. Phil when we need him? There are some issues here that need to be resolved. In his absence, I’ll give it a go, Dr. P-style.

Motorist listen up:

“Now, Motorist, do you accept that Cyclist really means you no affront or harm by choosing to be healthy and strong, fiscally unbound to pay record gas prices for a fuel economy-suppressed SUV and self-sufficient in his commute to work, where he too spends his time as an educated, gainfully-employed and productive member of society?”