I like bicycles, but the peculiar thing is, I have often found cyclists to be even more breathtakingly obnoxious than motorists, and this news story is a case in point. Unfortunately, I have enough experience of these things to know that this is not an isolated incident*. That is, the resulting death may not be that common, but the unbelievable arrogance is common enough.
Of course, it would be better if there were proper cycle lanes. It would also be better if cyclists actually followed the highway code like everyone else (is supposed to). When I cross the road, guess who never stops for me at a zebra crossing. That's right, the cyclists. As I said, I like bicycles, but human beings are basically such complete cunts that they can ruin anything, no matter how good it starts out.
I remember when I was living in Kyoto, I took a bicycle everywhere. I avoided, as much as possible, riding on the pavements, since I know what a nuisance this is for pedestrians, with whom I have much greater sympathy than cyclists. I also stopped at traffic lights, and cycled on the right side (which was the left side) of the road. The amount of cyclists cycling on the wrong side of the road, towards me, in heavy traffic, was unbelievable, and I often felt like killing them. But I didn't. Not even accidentally, however close that came.
I had a friend at that time, a fellow of very high standards who has, therefore, inevitably, left me behind (hello if you're reading, you big gaylord!). Anyway, when we would walk on the pavements of Kyoto together, there would almost always be the impatient ringing of a bicycle bell behind us at some point, and he would simply ignore the person, or say, as if to no one, "That's right, ring your little bell." And I have to say, I do have some sympathy with this attitude. If you were a pedestrian walking along the pavement, ringing a bell to tell people to get out of the way, people would rightly think you were a complete arsehole. So, yeah, "We are the cyclists" and all that.
At the end of this, I have a confession to make. My own bicycle-riding was not beyond reproach. Because I often used to cycle long distances to places where I would be forced to get enormously drunk, and because leaving a bicycle in a public place meant the risk of having it impounded (which happened to me two or three times), I often used to cycle home, and often in lashing rain, in a state of stupid drunkenness when I couldn't even have walked straight. When I think back on this, it seems to me that it's miraculous I'm still alive. I knew another student who used to do a similar thing. One day he came off his bike and skidded across the concrete for some distance… on his face. He didn't look pretty afterwards. So, don't try this at home, kids.
[*Just in case anyone thinks it never occurred to me that this news article might be biased, well, actually, it did occur to me. In a sense there's not much more I can say than that. It might be – probably is – biased. One thing that interests me that I haven't written about EXPLICITLY in the above blog entry is this kind of dynamic that builds up in public debates of X versus Y, for instance, cars versus bicycles. Each side begins to accumulate arguments, ideologies and worldviews like barnacles, and after a while it seems like neither side can move. They have both become totally encrusted.]
