Play Stupid Games, Get Stupid Prizes

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Story 1:

Some guy riding a bicycle in downtown Minneapolis at 11:30 at night.  Blows a red light, collided with a motorcycle and was struck by a car.

Plainly, the drivers of the motorcycle and car, being wanton spewers of carbon dioxide poisoning our Mother the Earth, were at fault for failing to recognize the moral superiority of the bicycle rider and to acknowledge his right to disregard the traffic laws governing lesser mortals

Story 2:

Some gal riding a bicycle in Stillwater weaves around the barrier and falls into the river when the lift bridge began to rise.

Plainly, the bridge operator and the pilot of the boat for whom the bridge was opening, being wanton spewers of carbon dioxide poisoning our Mother the Earth, were at fault for failing to recognize the moral superiority of the bicycle rider and to acknowledge her right to disregard traffic laws governing lesser mortals.

Plainly, there is a crisis in Minnesota.  When will Governor Dayton act??  When??

As biking has become more popular (especially in places like the Twin Cities, were perverse incentives drive a lot of people to bikes), it’s axiomatic that a lot of those new people will not know what they’re doing.

Our Passive-Aggressive Overlords

A friend of the blog writes:

Thought you’d enjoy this, from the people who say, “it’s not about entitlement for bicyclists, and we don’t hate cars” oh really? Yet you say Summit Ave should look like this, congested for one bike rider?

 

Which links to…:

First things first: I love biking. I love biking on Summit. And there are days when Summit, especially down by Lexington, does look exactly like that.

But the correspondent is right.  When you watch “Urban Planners” (the people who make cyclocentrism possible) when they think nobody’s watching, the level of Urban Minnesotan Passive-Aggression is nauseating.  The primary goal is as much about sticking it to drivers as it is about “bike-friendliness”; de-timing stoplights, putting obstacles and chicanes in roads to “calm” (read: snarl) traffic, and giving away traffic lanes to bikes, transit and trains.

Or whatever.  As long as the Car People end up getting pissed on.