{"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&#8217;s Watching Your Back?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, <a href=\"http:\/\/bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">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&#8217;d like to see what things look like from the perspective of those who yell at us, watch <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MF3HNNbQuPU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"text_exposed_show\"> Clearly, angry high-beam man could use some education about the need to share the road. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Dqs4q5iFZjI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"text_exposed_show\">Norwegian <\/span>video<\/a> <span class=\"text_exposed_show\">(via copenhagenize.com) <\/span>is less scary than the video from <span class=\"text_exposed_show\">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&#8217;s unlikely to enlighten angry high-beam man, but it might actually be effective for people who are less hateful.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The bizarre hatred of bicyclists is not limited to men with southern accents driving pickup trucks dangerously.\u00a0 Recently, in one of Seattle&#8217;s famous never-ending process meetings, it reared its ugly head in a more passive-aggressive <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/oR94VngwPi\/#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">text-based\u00a0<\/a> way.\u00a0 But wait there&#8217;s more.\u00a0 More aggressive, but still thankfully <a href=\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/oR7_CiAwM9\/#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">text-based<\/a>.\u00a0 These photos come from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/babecycle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Babecycle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>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 <span class=\"text_exposed_show\">angry high-beam man<\/span> performing a &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MF3HNNbQuPU&amp;feature=player_detailpage#t=88\">watch this<\/a>&#8220;, the result could be fatal.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/fatalities-by-type.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-560\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/fatalities-by-type.png?resize=718%2C459\" alt=\"fatalities by type\" width=\"718\" height=\"459\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/fatalities-by-type.png?w=718&amp;ssl=1 718w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/fatalities-by-type.png?resize=300%2C191&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/fatalities-by-type.png?resize=700%2C447&amp;ssl=1 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 718px) 100vw, 718px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Vox recently posted an overview of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vox.com\/2014\/5\/22\/5738626\/how-and-why-bicycle-deaths-happen-in-the-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;How and why bicycle deaths happen in the\u00a0US&#8221;<\/a>.\u00a0 The graphics in this post were lifted from it.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8230; and therefore it&#8217;s easier to drive and park.\u00a0 Why don&#8217;t the angry high-beam men of the world get this?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/working-to-make-vision-zero-a-reality.html\">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&#8230; even in Seattle.\u00a0 Urban areas are where people in the US are killed:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/location.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-563\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/location.png?resize=723%2C338\" alt=\"location\" width=\"723\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/location.png?w=723&amp;ssl=1 723w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/location.png?resize=300%2C140&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/location.png?resize=700%2C327&amp;ssl=1 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Washington Bike Law works to make our streets safer for everyone.\u00a0 But, if you are hurt while on your bike&#8230; we&#8217;ve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wabikelaw\/photos\/pcb.890688124281200\/890657877617558\/?type=1&amp;theater\">got your back<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217;d like to see what things look like from the perspective of those who yell at us, watch this. Clearly, angry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bicycle-advocates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/WeAreTraffic.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.washingtonbikelaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}