by Diana Nelson Jones/Nov 3
Jack Leonard reports in the Los Angeles Times on the conviction of an emergency room doctor in injuries to two cyclists on a twisty, narrow road in that city's suburb of Brentwood.
Bicyclists nationwide are pleased that justice validated their right to be in traffic and, most important, to be safe in traffic.
Christopher Thompson, who according to testimony had a history of antagonism toward bicycle drivers, faces 10 years in prison for a road-rage incident in July in which he claimed that the cyclists made obscene gestures and yelled at him after he yelled at them from his car window to get in single file. The cyclists claim that he drove up very fast behind them, barely missed them in passing them and then stopped abruptly in front of them, causing them both to crash.
Read the whole story and sidebars on this subject at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cyclist3-2009nov03,0,761131.story
Also visit www.la-bike.org for comments.
You may be thinking, yeah, but that's L.A.! We're not nuts here in Pixburgh.
If you think we are sane here in the 'burgh, you ought to answer the phone at a newspaper...
As a result of my Walkabout blog and other reports about bicycle drivers in the city, I have heard from lots of people whose attitudes made me think of this doctor's actions.They rightly claim bicyclists should obey the rules of the road, but some have such a mean spirit about bicyclists that I think someone in a psychology department should be studying this hostility for underlying reasons. We have all seen bicyclists run red lights, ignore stop signs, make illegal turns, etc., but we have all seen car drivers doing the same thing.
The real issue is why we can't all get along, and I will venture that the solution is empathy. The solution to most all ugly situations is empathy, the folk remedy of putting yourself in the other fella's shoes, as my grandfather used to say.
If a cyclist is pedaling hard in front of the car you are driving, imagine yourself trying to get where you are going on a bike with a driver in a moving weapon breathing down your neck. Empathy will make you chill out and slow down. I know because I use empathy to avoid my own frustration.
The only people who should be in such a hurry are people driving ambulances.
And speaking of ambulances... it was an emergency room doctor who caused these people to crash. One victim had a lacerated face, the other a separated shoulder.
Doctors are people too, but if your job is to patch injured people up, how could you possibly put people at risk of a trip to the ER? The Hippocratic oath instructs to first do no harm. If an emergency room doctor is capable of doing this, is anyone safe driving a bicycle in traffic?
(*Hippocrat: a word I just made up)
Posted
Nov 03 2009, 11:52 AM
by
Diana Nelson Jones