Biking as culture, cont.

So, you might remember me condemning bikers, pedestrians, and car drivers equally for their poor road skills last week; if you read the comments, you might get the sense that I am especially annoyed with people who bike to work and feel that they are the superior brand of citizen. That sense would be correct. And if you don’t understand how someone could get annoyed with the sanctimonious nonsense one sees from the biking cohort, well, you haven’t read this post by Will Wilkinson:

People complain about bikers breaking traffic laws. Well, I’m guilty, and I’m damn well going to keep doing it. A lot of traffic regulations make sense for cars, but just don’t for bikes. For example, I ride home almost every day the wrong way up a one way street, and nobody coming the other way gives a damn. Why should they? I honestly don’t give a fig about my carbon footprint (and anyway, since I’m not a breeder, I really should get carbon carte blanche). But I like biking because it’s faster than driving — because I blow through stop signs, go the wrong way on one-ways, etc. Were I suddenly to become fastidious about heeding traffic laws intended to regulate cars, one of the main advantages of biking over driving would evaporate. So I think people who do give figs about carbon really ought to encourage bikers to break traffic laws. …

Though I am by no means an expert in jurisprudence, constitutional or otherwise, it seems to me that Wilkinson has created an entirely new concept of law, one rooted in choosing not to follow statutes…solely because they inconvenience you! Now, I don’t think every law should be followed blindly–there are times when a law is so unjust it should not be obeyed–but I don’t think civil disobedience extends to refusing to obey the law because it tacks three minutes on to your commute. Lest we think that this is an idea unique to Wilkinson, we see similar (though less obnoxiously phrased) thoughts over at Megan’s joint.

The hypocrisy of the biking community is kind of breathtaking. On the one hand, they demand equal access to the roads and get incredibly angry when car drivers suggest that the dangerously slow speeds at which bikers travel might hinder the flow of traffic. On the other, they proclaim that the laws of the road do not apply to them, and car drivers are just jealous. You can’t have it both ways, dears. Make up your minds.