If you ride your bike on the street, chances are you've seen this face, this sentiment. You may have experienced being buzzed by the motorist or worse. Just this week, Brett was buzzed by a truck while legally riding on the road. When he went to calmly discuss it with the driver, the man continued to verbally threaten him. Brett persisted only to finally have the man relent and apologize the next day. This was on a road with no traffic and all the driver had to do was move over to give space to the cyclist but he refused because he was angry to see a cyclist on the road. 

This woman in the photo did much more than buzz the cyclists:
On August 24, a group of bicyclists, led by a safe and experienced rider, was out for a ride in Waxhaw, south of Charlotte. As they rode along in a tight double paceline, a woman in a Mercedes sedan, with her daughter in the front seat, buzzed the group, veered in front of them into the bike lane and almost to the curb and then slammed on her brakes. Instead of screaming or pounding on the car, the cyclists tried to talk calmly to the woman, but she was not to be calmed. As the now viral photos show, she flipped them a double backwards bird with a possessed look on her face. Full article.

This summer's tragedy in Kalamazoo has deeply effected our entire cycling community.

As the tragic events of this summer have unfolded, we have all been seeing the insensitive, illogical, and victim-blaming sentiments springing up in the comments sections of articles reporting what happened to Lisa, Francisco, Virginia, and Blaine. All four of these cyclists were hit by commercial vehicles. These were four responsible cyclists that lost their lives. Instead of compassion, commenters have been trotting out those old sentiments - cyclists don't pay for the roads, cyclists cause the accidents, cyclists are dangerous, etc. And as John Greenfield so clearly stated on WBEZ on Monday, there's no comparison between a 3,000 pound vehicle and a bike. I followed up with safety tips not only for cyclists but for motorists, infrastructure, and talked about the impact of construction on our safety.

Additional reading on myths about cyclists:

http://www.bicycling.com/rides/safety-etiquette/pay-to-play-the-myt...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-bicycling/...

I think it all goes back to enforcement - stiffer penalties for rage behavior like the woman in the Mercedes, enforcement of motorists breaking the laws, and accepting cyclists on the road (like the change Michael Keating was instrumental in writing).

What do you think? Do you think the new Active Trans "Clear the Way" campaign is the way for us to start making a difference? What else can we do?