Bike Snob NYC – in a commentary on a recent bike v. pedestrian incident in Brooklyn – sums up the very worst aspects of car-culture. Replace “America” with “Canada” and you find this rings true up here as well …

We’re funny in America. When a person gets hit by a car, which happens roughly all the time, we generally place it in the same category as bear attacks and people who fall of their roofs because they were wearing roller skates while trying to install a satellite dish: basically, we blame the victim. If the victim was a pedestrian, he or she should have been more careful. If the victim was a cyclist, he or she should have been more careful and should also have been wearing a helmet. Motor vehicle traffic and the concomitant carnage is an inevitablity. A force of nature. An act of god that is completely out of our control.

I should note that BSNYC in no way excuses the cyclist in the b.v.p. he started the post with, but I think there’s something interesting that he missed (unusual for someone so prolific at taking the piss out of the banal). The injury to the pedestrian was a broken hand and some scrapes. I’m wondering if they would have fared better if they had been struck by a car. I’m guessing not. Maybe we should be asking what the road fatalities would be like if you made everyone ride a bike? 🙂

Bike Snob NYC: The Indignity of Commuting by Bicycle: Barrelling Along