I do love a good bike-ride (as mentioned earlier), and Kelly and I have been more active on two wheels lately. In fact (we are now entering what literaturists call an “aside“) I competed in my first-ever triathlon (swim, bike, run) at E. P. Tom Sawyer Park (view the results), and it was great “fun” – mostly because I’ve never swum or biked competitively before, and I enjoy doing both.

In any case (he said, leaving the aside), Kelly and I have been riding in Mayor Jerry’s Healthy Hometown Hike and Bike twice a year for the last couple of years. The Hike and Bike now has the honor of being the “the largest non-competitive community bike ride in the United States with some 3,000+ riders. This past weekend, we rode the 2007 Labor Day edition of this ride, and as per usual it was a casual affair involved cyclists of literally every stripe.

The Mayor has done a great job making Louisville a more “bike-friendly” place over the past few years – with events like the Hike and Bike and with laws that put bike lanes into all road projects. Louisville is also blessed to have an active and avid cycling community with one of the “most progressive cycling clubs in the MidWest” leading the charge. In short, cycling’s outlook in Louisville is pretty bright.

If there is one sour thing I have noticed with my increasing (but still fairly minor) involvement in cycling is this: rage and hostility between cyclists and drivers. And mostly from cyclists to drivers!

Perhaps it’s to be expected. Cyclists on the road are smaller, slower, largely defenseless and generally misunderstood. It’s natural that they’d bristle at a perceived wrong – and they’d be right to be defensive. After all there have been some celebrated incidents of late – one involving a death on the Second Street bridge and another with pizza mogul “Papa John” Schnatter being hospitalized in a road-rage incident. Both of those and many other incidents are borne out of one thing: ignorance.

It’s all too easy to get bent out of shape when someone cuts you off or passes by too closely. It very well could be your life if you are the one on the bike. But too many times have I seen an inappropriate response by a cyclist to a driver – and by inappropriate I mean “an action that will not serve the cyclist in the end”. This could be, but is not limited to: flipping someone the bird, yelling at them or calling the cops. Those are things that I’ve never witnessed, though. I have witnessed other actions that I still think are inappropriate, which I lump into the following statement: “generally being a self-righteous ass”. No, that isn’t going to help cycling. In fact, it will only further the stereotype that riders on tricked-out bikes in skin-tight gear that are hollering in the passenger window of a car about traffic laws are holier-than-thou aristocrats that believe they are endowed with some sort of civic blessing.

But, like I said, it’s reasonable to understand someone to be defensive to the point of cruelty when riding a bike. It’s maybe 200 pounds of bike and rider versus 3000 lbs of car and driver. The cyclist is the loser, always. To that end, cyclists are very aware of their rights – it’s the only defense they’ve got out there. Many (though certainly not all) drivers see cyclists as a nuisance and will give them little quarter on the road. These are the ones that require care. And by “care” I do not mean a tongue-lashing or a rude gesture. Flaunting your knowledge of traffic laws never got anyone anywhere in a relationship – and before you get a chance to think “what does dating have to do with the road?”, I’ll tell you it’s everything. Every little “hello” wave and every little “Good morning” you give to someone on the road betters the relationship between that driver and cyclists in general. Every angry confrontation at the stoplight does neither any good.

Cycling is headed in the right direction here in Louisville, headed by a cycling-friendly government and the interest of a number of great and impassioned cyclists. Don’t take a step backwards by being a self-righteous jerk. It’s a big world filled with a lot of people who don’t know cycling as well as you do, and in the end you’ll make more friends with honey than vinegar any day. I know this because I like the cyclists who are friendly and dislike those who aren’t – and I am a cyclist.