From Twitter: A PSA from the U. S. Department of Please Don't Kill Other Human Beings
October 7, 2009 at 8:43 am | Transit & Infrastructure | Tags: Bicycling, complete streets, Infrastructure, transportation
Streetsblog sent us this link to New York’s Craigslist via Twitter. It’s an entry from a girl almost hit by a driver attempting to park his SUV in the bike lane while she was still in it.
Nevertheless, we can’t all live in Amsterdam, and the frustrations of sharing the road with me do not change the facts: You are in a car, and I am not. You are protected from collisions by airbags, fenders, and a steel cage; I’m not. You are piloting a one-ton pile of steel; I am piloting something that weighs as much as a dog. (Not even a big dog — we’re talking Welsh Corgi, here.) And if your frustrations at sharing the road get the better of you, and you want to get in a fight with me, sir, there is no doubt whatsoever that you will win. You’ll win… and, in all likelihood, I’ll be dead. This is what I wanted to say to you: You may not like cyclists, and that’s fine. But you have a responsibility to the human race, and I don’t cease to exist the second I step off my bike. I am someone’s wife. I am someone’s sister. I am someone’s daughter. And if you have any of those things — a spouse, a sibling, a child — do me this favor. Picture them. Imagine yourself on your way to meet your wife for lunch; imagine yourself waiting for your daughter to come home from school. Now, imagine getting a phone call, hearing the voice on the other end telling you that that person — the person you love — is dead, because some asshole in an Audi thought her life was less important than waiting another five seconds to park his car.