I know what you’re thinking: Jonathan Maus is right when he made that observation on KPAM Thursday morning. Some bicyclists obviously DON’T know the road rules, but when one of their chief defenders admits it’s a wholesale problem, well, I’ve just got to say something!
Maus was making the point that so much of Portland’s transportation system is car related that bicyclists just, SHAZAM! you know, have no clue what they’re supposed to do when they get on their bike. He attributes the dysfunction to what he called the–wait for it–“transportation culture.”
Apparently, streets made for cars immediately render bicyclists oblivious to the rules of the road and that’s why so many bikers (his word) blow stop signs etc.
Will it be long before bicyclists have special status under law? I mean, after all, if these poor, dysfunctional people can’t be trusted to know the rules of the road, then, in the minds of Oregon’s elected victim peddlers, they should get special status, right? It won’t be too long before any altercation between a bicyclist and a motorist will be considered a ‘hate crime,’ right?
I spoke with Mayor in Waiting Sam Adams on the show last night about the City of Portland employee–his employee at PDOT–allegedly drunkenly assaulting the motorist (story here), but Sam couldn’t say anything. He wouldn’t consider any hypotheticals. For example, ‘if you read that story in the newspaper and didn’t know it was one of your employees would you renounce the behavior?’
Listen for the rerack of that interview on the replay of the show tomorrow (Saturday) between noon and 3pm.