mac@uvacs.UUCP (Alex Colvin) (06/07/85)
***replace this line by your point*** Regardless of my opinion of Sanjay's opinions, he has well expressed a popular attitude. However, I won't add to the numerous counterflames. Surely no one is pursuaded of anything by USENET news! I will point out that bicycles aren't the only sufferers. I understand that motorcyclists also contend with incompetent and hostile drivers. As a frequent roadside pedestrian I've been the target of bottles, cans, spit, and verbal abuse. Something about being in all that armor makes one despise the weak. As to bike paths, I recall a posting by the late but great Joe Bike on their drawbacks. Pedestrians, equestrians, trash, joggers, the need for street crossings, and indifferent upkeep among them. As to history -- PAVED roads were originally for the benifit of bicyclists. Roads were originally for pedestrians. Both are now disposessed. I myself have negative reactions when I see bicyclists (without helmets) blithely going the wrong way down one-way streets, riding on the left facing traffic (and colliding with me, who am riding on the right), running over pedestrians in crosswalks as they try to beat a red light, etc. Someone last year posted an article by Colman McCarthy of the Post, decrying the behavior of his fellow bicyclists. mac the naif