What most annoys about bikers

Ryan Avent writes:

I certainly struggle to understand a pedestrian getting indignant about a cyclist’s law-flouting — running red lights and stop signs and such. This is just how things work, for all modes. Pedestrians break the law all the time; I’ll admit to jaywalking on a regular basis. And while drivers protest about Idaho-stopping cyclists, they too are constantly breaking the rules. They speed, they roll through stop signs, they double-park, and so on.

I think the real problem here isn’t so much that pedestrians and car drivers get annoyed by bikers flouting the law (as does Ryan, I frequently break the letter of the law as both a pedestrian and a car driver). Rather, it’s the impunity with which they do so. There are no red light cameras for bikes and if the cops have ever written a ticket for an idiot cyclist going the wrong way down a one way street or doing 5 mph on an uphill stretch of road where the speed limit is 35 and the cyclist is seriously messing with the flow of traffic, I’ve never seen it. But do 10 mph over on a 40 mph stretch of New York Avenue with no traffic anywhere near you and get ready for the $50 ticket coming your way. Because, you know, that’s so dangerous. Same thing with jaywalking on empty stretches of road: No big deal, not terribly dangerous, still gonna get you a ticket.

What I think we pedestrians and car drivers would like to see is, at the very least, fear of getting caught for doing something illegal and a lack of sanctimony if a cyclist ever was to get busted. This may sound petty (indeed, it may BE petty); I’m just trying to explain why we get frustrated. My rolling through a stop sign/speeding/jaywalking is no more dangerous than your rolling through a stop sign/screwing up traffic/ because you can’t pump those little legs fast enough/going the wrong way down a one way street. Yet I’m the one who gets a ticket.