Expects to be treated like a car...

Here's a meme worth dissection:

It's frustrating because the very premise of this meme is out of touch. I don't expect or want to be treated like a car. I don't have a powerful engine. I can't go 100 miles per hour. I don't weigh two tons. I can't carry five passengers. I don't take up much space. And I don't need a fraction of the resources a car does. 

No, I don't expect to be treated like a car; I expect to be treated like a human being. 

Though it's true, when I'm on my bike, I don't always stop at stop signs. Also, I go the wrong way on one-way streets. I run red lights. And when the road isn't safe and there are no pedestrians around, I roll up onto the sidewalk. I'm not a car. I weigh less than 200 pounds with my bike, and I travel no faster than golf-cart can. When I choose to ignore road signs, the repercussions are, honestly, insignificant. In the very unlikely case that I hit somebody, the result probably won't be fatal. 

In other words, cyclists aren't cars; they're people. Treat them according to the rules we all agree with regarding the treatment of people. 

That means, simply, don't run into them. Don't run them off the road. Give them space. Don't yell at them. Be cool about mistakes. Easy, right? 

I think that what the motorists who post these things are complaining about is the perceived unfairness of having to follow road laws while people on bikes get away with whatever they want. In a world where all things are equal, the motorists would be correct. But, really, things aren't equal. Motor vehicles are much more deadly than any other form of transportation. Motorists kill themselves, each other, and innocent pedestrians at a rate of 30,000 per year, in the US alone. That's the equivalent of a college town the size of Iowa City being nuked every Christmas. Bikes, on the other hand, kill only 900 people per year, and 700 of those deaths are the fault of cars. 

Cars are dangerous. That's why we have road signs. Road signs and laws are made to mitigate the dangers automobiles pose on the roads. 

Therefore, why should a bike, which is far less dangerous than a car, have to follow rules designed specifically for the motoring world, when, statistically, cycling on public roads is less dangerous than swimming? 

While I'm on my soapbox, I'd like to say that the argument that the roads are made for cars is bunk too. Cyclists made the roads what they are today, believe it or not, because they created the first universal public paving movements. In previous posts I've explained how cars came to dominate road usage, and I've made a video too, so I won't get to bent up about this here. The point I want to make clear is that the hubris motorists show on the road is unfounded, as well as irresponsible. 

People on the road should be treated like people anywhere else: with respect and dignity. 

I'll leave this post with a meme that, I think, far better contextualizes the problem between cars and bikes, or at least, gives cars a legitimate thing to complain about: