there are a lot of angry people out there so let's not join them

Via various wanderings around the Internet while home sick today, I came up with the following observation:

There are a lot of angry people out there.

Now this is not news to anyone who has had a social interaction in the past decade or so, but it is worth the mention I think.

Much is being said in the media about the "war on cars" etc being led by the pro bicycle movement. Every time there is any mention of creating more bicycle infrastructure, a suggestion that motorists need to share the road with cyclists ,etc, the vitriol in the comments sections of whatever news media outlet publishes such stories reads like a litany of death threats towards cyclists by irate motorists, and Social Darwinism, taking the form of "if you swim with the sharks you will get eaten" type of comments, at its worst. Makes me feel great knowing I am sharing a road with sociopaths. Weeeeeee...

Cyclists don't help themselves though as they knife through traffic, cut people off, and often times act like asses themselves, pissing off the people in cars through irresponsible behaviours seemingly designed to "prove" the negative stereotype of the urban cyclist right, and giving "justification" to the screw loose crowd to risk some innocent person's life in a dangerous game of tit for tat. To them I say thanks for nothing.

Which leads me back to my original observation. There are a lot of angry people out there.

This past year, I have had several motorists deliberately take runs at me in their cars in order to "teach me a lesson" and get me out of their way (in all cases, I was not in their way - I am very careful not to be that ass I mentioned above) for having the nerve to take the lane in order to make a left, avoid a car door, or whatever. All of which, by the way, I am allowed to do - no, supposed to do - according to the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario.

This has prompted me to want to get one of the nice new GoPro cameras. The one with the adjustable focal length so that I can mimic the field of view the naked eye has so that it will be easy to prove how close a person in a car got to cancelling my stamp. So when (notice I said when not if) a person does this again, I will have video for the police.

I have not done so though, as I do not wish to become angry. I am working hard at not being angry, at avoiding situations where this might happen, and why go hunting for reasons to become so? I don't want to litter this blog with videos that show what we all know to be true: There are a lot of angry people out there.

I don't want to be one of them.

That said, as I was watching someone on YouTube have an angry bike ride through downtown Toronto this morning, yelling at other road users who broke the law, who got too close - legitimately too close I might add - that a lot of what I was seeing was actually good. Many people were giving this cyclist a lot of room. They were not cutting him/her off. They were doing what they should be doing. So too were most - as in almost all including the one making the video - of the cyclists that were visible.

So if most of the interactions are good, most of the road users no matter what the mode of transport are behaving themselves and managing to get along, why live in paranoid angry fear?

I don't see the point myself.

Yes, a cyclist has to be cautious. Yes, there are risks. I know all the arguments. But that does not mean that it is worth living in fear.

So I do want the GoPro camera with the adjustable focal length. Littering the blog with good news stories of interactions between road users, high speed "bombs" down single track, and the such would I hope help, for my two readers anyways (heh), inject a little optimism into what I am trying to do here.

And should someone be an ass, I would still have the video for the police.

I just would not fixate on it. I would not waste my time and yours with more pointless negativity designed to give justification for more sociopathic behaviour on the part of motorists and cyclists alike.

Because in a civil society, or in one that pretends to be civil like the one we live in now, we simply don't need any more of that negative crap. We need instead a realization that the other is simply a person. They are not a label.

And the sooner we collectively get that message, the sooner we will live in a civilization that is actually civil.