Aggression and Violence Toward Cyclists

The persistent aggression toward cyclists has grown in the past years and it has reached a dangerous point. In Virginia Beach, on June 11, 2011, thumbtacks were recklessly scattered on a bike trail for over 20 miles. This resulted in hundreds of flat tires and at least two serious injuries. It is widely believed that this was done on purpose by peeved drivers who are tired of sharing the already narrow streets of Virginia Beach. Bike groups tend to ride together in a single file line to stay out of traffic, so one flat tire can cause utter chaos for the entire group.

It is understandable that drivers are annoyed with the increasing presence of bikers on the road, but to take this course of retaliation is just outright dangerous and the people behind that thumbtack prank should be held accountable. Virginia Beach should take this incident as a wake up call to work to create bike lanes in order to ensure the safety of everyone on the road.

The "guerilla war" occurring against cyclists has spread across the nation. It is not uncommon to hear a car honk at a nearby cyclist, or see a pedestrian make an obscene gesture. There is a lot of anger on all sides and cyclists are ultimately being punished for commuting in a healthy, eco-friendly way.

In San Francisco, the thumbtacks reared their ugly heads again, causing just as much problems as they did in Virginia Beach. An effected biker, Walter Cook, decided to take matter into his own hands by putting up posters advertising a reward of $10,000 to anyone who could identify the culprit. This action caused a great deal of online commentary. One commenter said, "This is not about bicyclists, motorcyclists, car drivers, horseback riders or pedestrians. It’s about courtesy and civility ... it is all about “Me! Me! Me!” Another defended the act saying, "People do live where you ride, and I know their frustration with the explosion of cyclists in the area.”

It is interesting to see how people are interpreting the same event in different ways. Everyone seems to think that the action of deliberately placing tacks on a bike trail is revealing something different about the community. As the first commenter said, it could be a representation of greed in America, and how impatient we have become that we cannot even wait a few seconds to move around a cyclist. On the other hand, those who defend the action, like the second commenter, see cyclists as a threat to a community that must be stopped, even if it means injuring innocent people.

The different responses to the thumbtack crisis reveal a lot about people as individuals and about communities as a whole. Overall, it is abundantly clear that the safety of cyclists is not a priority in our nation, so much so that people will resort to physical violence in order to prevent cyclists from entering the streets.