Made To Maim

 In many rural areas of the southern and western United States, the only way between Point A and Point B is a highway.  Cyclists and pedestrians therefore must share these thoroughfares with motor vehicles, including 18-wheel trucks, running at speeds of 60 MPH or more.

In some of those areas, as cycling has grown more popular, shoulders or lanes of those highways have been designated as bike lanes.  This causes resentment—and aggressive behavior—from motorists angry that cyclists are “taking “ their roads.

Sometimes the aggressive behavior includes driving that endangers cyclists—and, often, pedestrians and other drivers.  I’m talking about drivers who swerve into the lanes, brush by or throw debris at cyclists and shine their high beams into the eyes of cyclists riding in the opposite direction.

Other times, though, the aggression is more passive and includes breaking glass containers and leaving other hazardous debris in bike lanes. Some of the perpetrators may believe they are merely inconveniencing cyclists by puncturing their tires.  But from what I’ve seen and heard (especially from people who don’t know I’m a cyclist), some are trying to injure, or even kill, us.

How else can anyone explain leaving these on the bike lane of a Mesa, Arizona highway:

Several hundred of these spikes, called caltrops, were found in that lane—after a woman riding with a group flatted.  Fortunately for her and them, she was riding behind them at moderate speed.  But had she been riding in front of someone—say, if another rider had been “drafting” her—or riding at a higher speed, the results could have been catastrophic, given that the spike punctured her front tire.

I can’t help but to think that a more dire outcome was the intention of whoever left the caltrops:  Unlike broken glass and other kinds of debris, a caltrop always points one sharp spike upward from a stable base, no matter how it’s placed.

People have also reported finding these weapons of destruction on local hiking trails.  Tonto National Forest encourages anyone who finds them to report it to susan.blake@usda.gov  or 602-225-5200. Caltrops or other hazards in the highway bike lane should be brought to the attention of the City of Mesa.

The Law, In All Of Its Majestic Equality

In Le Lys Rouge (The Red Lily), Anatole France wrote, "La loi, dans un grand souci d'egalite, interdit aux riches comme aux pauvres de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain."  The law, he says, in all of its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor from sleeping under bridges, begging on the streets and stealing bread.

Inspector Javert, who pursues Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, could have uttered that--without irony or sarcasm.  France, though, meant it as an indictment of folks like Javert and what they represent:  They might pursue justice "blindly," but the wrath of it falls more on the poor and otherwise vulnerable and marginalized:  Not only are we less able to defend ourselves if we're stopped, arrested or charged; we are more likely to be arrested and charged--or simply stopped and questioned--whether or not we committed any offense.

(Trust me, I know from whence I speak.*)

Moreover, those stops and arrests do little to nothing to enhance public safety and do little to nothing besides undermining people's trust in the police and the criminal justice system.  

The previous paragraph isn't my opinion, or that of a public defender or judge in the Bronx.  Rather, it's a paraphrase of the rationale a State Attorney in Hillsborough County--at the western end of Florida's I-4 corridor, politically one of this country's quintessential "swing" areas--gave for a new policy.

Six weeks ago, Andrew Warren issued a memo sent a memo saying that it's no longer appropriate to prosecute someone stopped on a bike if their only offense is that they resisted an officer without violence.  In that memo, he noted that while Black defendants make up a third of misdemeanor cases in the county, which includes Tampa, they represent 49 percent of all "resisting without violence" arrests.  And more than 70 percent of such cases that resulted from a bike or pedestrian stop had Black defendants--even though roughly one in five county residents is Black.

These findings did not surprise Black residents of the area, especially in light of a 2015 report documenting that Tampa police stopped disproportionate numbers of cyclists, 80 percent of whom were Black.  Those numbers were so egregious they drew the ire of the Department of Justice and helped to popularize the lament, "Bicycling While Black."

Warren's memo became the basis for his declaration that it is no longer appropriate to prosecute those stopped on bikes if their only charge is resisting an officer without violence, and as long as the "stop" is not related to some other, more serious, offense. While the number of affected cases, he admits, is small (about 40 or so per year), it will not tie up police time and other resources that could be deployed against crimes that are true threats to pubic safety, but also make, if in a small way, the criminal justice system fairer by not burdening poor and Black cyclists, most of whom are young, with criminal records for minor offenses.   

After all, the law, in all of its majestic equality, not only allows the poor as well as the rich, Black as well as White, and female as well as male (or genderqueer) to cycle or simply go about their business.  At least, it should. 

*--More than once, I have been stopped by police officers who had absolutely no reason to do so.  Once, in Lido Beach, Nassau County, the officer claimed I was "riding between cars'--where in the books such a law is embedded, I don't know--when, in fact, I was riding on the shoulder of the road, to the right of the two lanes of traffic.

Just Another Road Obstacle

In my decades of cycling, I've toured, commuted, road raced, ridden off road and done just about anything else one can do on a bike besides BMX or Polo.  And, on the roads and trails, I've encountered all manner of obstacles. They include include debris blown or thrown into bike lanes, mounds of snow, motor vehicles parked or idled and animals ranging from a chipmunk (I never would run over anything so cute!)  to a pack of  macaques and, of course, the random cat, dog or deer.  

(I have never had to stop for an elephant, but I did see one from about five meters away on a ride in Cambodia.)

Of all the living beings and inanimate objects that have found their way into my line of riding, I must say that I have never encountered any like this:

Now, tell me: What do you do when a tank is blocking your trading ride?  Do you turn around or ride around it?  If you choose the latter, do you curse at the driver or remind him/her/them to give you three feet (actually, a meter, since the cyclist is in Kyiv) of space?  Does a three-foot/one meter rule exist there? If it does, would a Russian tank operator adhere to it?