Hatred Against Cyclists
If you commute by bicycle in Portland, you don’t have to be told that there are drivers out there that are hostile to cyclists. It doesn’t take many miles in the saddle before you get cut off, flipped off, screamed at, or run entirely off the road. Even in a city that prides itself on being ‘bike-friendly’, there are plenty of drivers that resent the presence of bicycles on the road, and all-too-often their resentment translates into action.
As a bicyclist, this can be terrifying. When a driver begins yelling angrily, or gesturing obscenely, or comes a little too close when they pass, you begin to appreciate how vulnerable you are as you compete for space on the road with those cars, trucks, and buses.
Jonathan Maus over at BikePortland.org has posted an article reporting how the hosts of ‘The Playhouse’ on 95.5 Jammin’ FM were joking about cyclists getting injured in car accidents. But they apparently went beyond joking, to encouraging their listeners to commit violence against cyclists. Jonathan quotes Portland cyclist Lanette Noble, who indicates she heard the radio host say
“When I hear on TV that a cyclist has been hit and killed by a car I laugh, I think it’s funny”
and
“If you are a cyclist you should know I exist, that I don’t care about you. That I don’t care about your life.”
Now, if you head over to the “The Playhouse” website, it is instantly clear that this program uses whatever shock tactics they can to generate ratings. And that’s fine. If I don’t want to listen to their style of radio, I can turn the channel. But when they start advocating violence against any particular group of human beings, I think they’ve crossed the line. And when they start advocating violence against a group to which I belong, well, it’s hard not to take it a bit personally.
BikePortland.org provides the name of the company that owns Jammin’ 95, as well as the name and contact info for the station’s General Manager. There’s no shortage of outrage in the comments left at BikePortland, but personally I’d like to see a transcript of the show, hear a recording, or hear additional accounts from folks that heard the program before doing anything rash. Like demanding someone’s head on a plate.
So, did any of you hear this broadcast? What did you think of it? Is this the kind of message we want broadcast here in Portland? If it bothered you, let them know.
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Hey PAgent,
Thanks for picking up this story. I think we will see some action on the station’s part after all the backlash.
One technical issue…for some reason you trackbacked to the wrong post so I deleted it. Please fix and republish if you’d like.
thanks.
You know there is an other side to this. Many drvers frustration come from Activist cyclists. You the ones. Quite often on my commute to work I see groups of cyclists. There is one of these groups that I see repeatedly that anoys me to no end. The whole group with the exeption of one lone ranger all ride together in the bike lane and just enjoy their ride. But this one activist rider has made it his personal mission to prevent cars from passing by the group by rideing in the middle of the auto traffic lane.
Or there are the more pasive aggressive riders that I encounter regularly that instead of riding in the bike lane ride with their wheels on the white line marking the lane with half of there body and cycle in traffic.
Come on people you surely must understand the in any accident the cyclist will be the biggest loser. Also, you will have a hard time getting an auto insuance company to pay your bills if it is determined you were riding outside of the bike lane.
You can complain about rude drivers all you want but please accept the fact that much of this is brought upon your selve through the actions of Pasive aggressive activist riders.
Please do not interpet my opinion as a statement in favor of aggresive behavor between cyclist and drivers. Regardless of you mean of transport; If you have so much anger, frustation, aggression, or whatever it is that you feel you must act out against your fellow citizens then; please by all means speak to your doctor about your uncontrolable nature. Perhaps medication or some other remedy will reduce you negative tendancies to a more healthy level.
If everyone (Drivers & Cyclist)would just make the simple effort of not actualy going out of your way to harrass and annoy I believe this would have a very minor issue.
As a cyclist, I get very frustrated at other cyclists that ignore traffic rules. Every time a bike blows through a red light, weaves through traffic, or intentionally and unnecessarily disrupts traffic, it makes for a more hostile riding environment for the rest of us. My pet peeve is when I see two cyclists riding side by side in a bike lane, instead of single file. That’s not what they’re there for, and the inside rider ends up riding in traffic.
But I have two points for you to consider. I often have to hug the lane of traffic, or even ride in it, to avoid obstacles that might otherwise cause me to wipe out in the bike lane. Some are visible, like storm gratings. Some are more difficult for a nonbiker to appreciate, like sand and gravel. A bike on loose gravel is much like a car on black ice. Believe it or not, sometimes it’s safer for me to edge out into traffic than to hit a patch of gravel at full speed.
And second, I don’t agree that when the cyclists of Critical Mass block a street downtown for a half-hour, this translates into all cyclists bringing hostility upon themselves.
And that’s really the whole point of what I find so frightening about the alleged content of The Playhouse program, or whenever I hear people making blanket threats against cyclists. It’s the idea that I could be injured or even killed because some other cyclist annoyed some other driver.
Threats of violence should be simply unacceptable, regardless of the so-called ‘justification’ you can point to. To argue that we are all ‘asking for it’ by our behavior is just another way of reducing the value of our lives.
The host of the radio show was venting, although he said some harsh things he was talking about those bikers who just like you are disobeying traffic rules. He just ellaborated on his show once again he has no problem with bikers who follow traffic rules but has great disdain to bikers who think they are better people driving in cars and can do whatever they please.