Originally Posted by LV2TNDM

Buncha ******g entitled driver apologists here! In the "Bicycle Advocacy & Safety" section, no less! No wonder we struggle to hold drivers accountable. If YOU are this willing to use sloppy and lame language that excuses egregious driver behavior, how can we ask Average Joe to do any better? We can't. We are part of the problem.

But perhaps it takes more extreme advocating and attitudes like mine that will help swing the pendulum.

As I've posted here & elsewhere, I spent two weeks in France in '22 and was simply blown away by the patience exhibited by drivers on narrow two-lane country roads who needed to pass us on our tandem. Two weeks and with only ONE exception,* the hundreds of drivers who passed us, waited patiently behind us for an open and clear section of road, they signaled left, overtook us, signaled right and moved back over. I simply could not believe how gracious and safe they were. And I've toured in Europe before and spent a summer working in Germany, so I'm not even new to the experience. Yet I was still taken aback at how much respect the drivers showed us.

I guess that's the result of "commie socialist" France for you! Where workers get paid time off and school children are fed high-quality lunches at school (among about a million other benefits of strong social democracy). Damn commies!

But somehow, in America, we've been habituated to homicidal behavior behind the wheel. Car culture does indeed promote this. We are third-class citizens on the road and the law supports this assertion.

*And that exception was almost without a doubt, some ******* tourist in a rental car. Figures!