An opinion column in a major San Francisco newspaper tied American drivers’ frustration with cyclists to "racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia."
The piece, published by University of California, San Francisco professor Ruth Malone this week in the San Francisco Chronicle warned readers that the annoyance they may feel at sharing roads with bicyclists during their commutes comes from the same place that racial hatred and other major societal stigmas come from.
It also argued that cyclists’ push for equal status on the road as drivers is similar to gays coming out of the closet, and women’s suffrage.
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The column began with a discussion on the aggression that cyclists face from the driving public on a daily basis. She mentioned the tragedy when world champion cyclist Ethan Boyce was killed while biking two months ago, and expressed her "horror" over seeing negative comments towards cyclists propagate online in the wake of the incident.
Malone wrote, "To my growing horror, within hours the social media story in my neighborhood group began shifting from ‘driver of a swerving car badly injured a bicyclist’ to general criticism of bicyclists even though the eyewitness original poster and several others clearly said that Boyce had been riding in a properly designated bike lane hen the speeding driver swerved across the road and hit him head-on."
She added, "In all these comments, the implicit or explicit suggestion is that the bicyclist was basically at fault for riding on the street in the first place."
Malone subsequently compared this sort of phenomenon to how racist or homophobic online attacks happen. She wrote, "Just as those who tolerate or encourage racist, sexist and homophobic or transphobic comments on social media contribute to emboldening the people who attack and menace particular groups, people who parrot stereotypical comments about cyclists on social media subtly encourage those who would harm them."
The author took a moment to mention one summer of her life during which she rode "an electric bike as my primary form of transportation." She claimed the experience made her "realize how pervasive the hatred of bicyclists is among car drivers."
She again classified it as bigotry akin to racism, sexism, etc., writing, "Ultimately, hate of bicyclists comes from the same place as racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia: a desire to cling to the status quo power arrangements that favor some over others."
She even went so far as to describe what cyclists face as suffrage similar to the fight for gay rights and women’s emancipation.
Malone declared, "But just as gay people are no longer willing to stay in the closet, nor women in the kitchen, bicyclists are no longer willing to settle for crumbs in terms of use of our public roadways."
She concluded the column, writing, "Bicyclist hate hurts everyone. It’s time we called it out as wrong."
