At one point or another, nearly all of us have been either the car stuck behind the cyclist on a winding country road or the cyclist furiously pumping uphill and leading a convoy of moderately annoyed drivers. It’s an uncomfortable situation, for both the driver and the cyclist, but sometimes these encounters escalate beyond moderate annoyance to physical assault. After we posted this video of an Asheville-area driver punching a cyclist in the face, we were floored by the deluge of comments our readers had, both in support of the cyclist and in defense of the motorist.
“What the video didn’t show, was the old man waiting for 10 minutes to get around the DB on the bicycle, wondering why he didnt pull that piece of shit off the road and let the 45 cars that were behind him, on a windy, blind curved, no passing lane, HIGHWAY road, go by. All while acting like he belongs there, and whining behind the “it’s my road too” BS when he gets the taste slapped out of his dumbass mouth.”
“What a POS. Hope they track him down and charge him with assault.”
“Why should cyclists be allowed on the road. They hold up traffic and their not registered, plated or insured.”
“I almost never ride my bike on busy roadways because of all the cars. But I have that right, I pay taxes also.”
The debate got us wondering—what is going on here? Is the world just so tied up in anger and hate that it’s playing out on our roads and neighborhoods? Are cyclists really paying taxes for road infrastructure? Are motorists adhering to bicycle safety laws, or being properly and consistently reprimanded when they don’t? As more and more people look to the bicycle as a means of commuting and recreation, it seems likely that motorist-cyclist altercations are destined to increase in frequency and intensity. So how can we #sharetheroad safely and fairly moving into the future?
