The Columbia Tribune's View
Harassment
Heckling the cyclists
By Henry J. Waters III
Friday, June 19, 2009
The new city law punishing drivers who harass bicyclists has the same enforcement challenge as all other forms of hate crime: How can a plaintiff or a law officer or a judge know what's in the mind of an alleged offender?
How can you tell whether that car honk is a mean-spirited attempt to bother an unsuspected cyclist or a friendly warning?
Well, city attorney Fred Boeckmann says you can tell. Like obscenity, he can't exactly describe when it is present, but he knows it when he sees it. He believes a fair-minded person knows when an angry person is leaning on the horn and when a helpful person causes a quick beep.
Since I'm neither a regular cyclist on busy city streets nor an a-hole behind the wheel, I can't personally attest to a problem, but the arrival of enough gripes prompts the city to pass a law. You can say no such law should be necessary, and you'd be right, but that's not to say supersensitive two-wheel travelers are to blame. Judging from the angry attitude many drivers display, it's sadly clear driver rage is enough of a problem to warrant attempted control.
Police officers won't be pulling over many motorists. The law mainly will be helpful if it brings a subtle change of heart and mind so rather than raising the middle finger a driver might swallow his ire and give way for a moment.
It also will be helpful if bikers go out of their way to act right. Having gotten a law passed, they have responsibility for not provoking anger from behind the wheel. After all, people aboard the fragile slow-wheelers do need to remember city streets are primarily built to move motorized traffic. As Columbia takes extraordinary pains to accommodate the non-motorized kind, we are conscientiously creating more conflict on the roadways. More biking is a good thing, most of us think, but it poses a challenge that riders of bikes must do their part to meet.
After all again, bike riders should remember who will come in second if they mix it up with a car or bus. They should not assume they own the road. They don't.
HJW III