{"id":557,"date":"2014-05-23T08:30:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T15:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/?p=557"},"modified":"2021-05-22T23:41:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T06:41:02","slug":"whos-watching-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/whos-watching-back.html","title":{"rendered":"Who’s Watching Your Back?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Bike Snob NYC<\/a> posted a video of an angry man driving around in a truck (with his high beams on) grousing about how he hates bicyclists and buzzing a couple of them.\u00a0 If you’d like to see what things look like from the perspective of those who yell at us, watch this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clearly, angry high-beam man could use some education about the need to share the road. This Norwegian <\/span>video<\/a> (via copenhagenize.com) <\/span>is less scary than the video from angry high-beam man<\/span>.\u00a0 The text says that 70% of bicyclists [in Norway] have experienced aggressive behavior and the video demonstrates this behavior in a different context. It’s unlikely to enlighten angry high-beam man, but it might actually be effective for people who are less hateful.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The bizarre hatred of bicyclists is not limited to men with southern accents driving pickup trucks dangerously.\u00a0 Recently, in one of Seattle’s famous never-ending process meetings, it reared its ugly head in a more passive-aggressive text-based\u00a0<\/a> way.\u00a0 But wait there’s more.\u00a0 More aggressive, but still thankfully text-based<\/a>.\u00a0 These photos come from Babecycle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although being rear-ended on your bike is highly unlikely, if you are rear-ended, and especially if you are rear-ended by someone like angry high-beam man<\/span> performing a “watch this<\/a>“, the result could be fatal.<\/p>\n

\"fatalities<\/a><\/p>\n

Vox recently posted an overview of “How and why bicycle deaths happen in the\u00a0US”<\/a>.\u00a0 The graphics in this post were lifted from it.<\/p>\n

Bicycling is usually safe and is often the quickest way to get around in urban areas.\u00a0 When people are on bikes, they are not in cars… and therefore it’s easier to drive and park.\u00a0 Why don’t the angry high-beam men of the world get this?<\/p>\n

What we who are riding need to do is work with pedestrians (ie- everyone) to improve our infrastructure.<\/a>\u00a0 Meanwhile, bicyclists need to watch our backs… even in Seattle.\u00a0 Urban areas are where people in the US are killed:<\/p>\n

\"location\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Washington Bike Law works to make our streets safer for everyone.\u00a0 But, if you are hurt while on your bike… we’ve got your back<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Bike Snob NYC posted a video of an angry man driving around in a truck (with his high beams on) grousing about how he hates bicyclists and buzzing a couple of them.\u00a0 If you’d like to see what things look like from the perspective of those who yell at us, watch this. Clearly, angry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bicycle-advocates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t