“That’s why I don’t ride a bike.”

April 26, 2009 | 23 comments

widrab_1_0409
I can’t tell all of the ignorant things some people have said to me since the bike accident, to complement all the very nice and very sweet words and well-wishes and gifts of candy and company from very good people I am lucky enough to know. In addition to people who have been very very nice to me, there is a whole platoon of people have taken it upon themselves to help me reform and understand my face-plant better with completely unsolicited advice. Indeed, even in defeat, there are insistent cycling-nay-sayers. A few:

1) One person, when my face was still leaking liquids and looked twice as nasty as this picture, said, “You gotta be careful out dere on dem bikes.”
No shit? Wow. Guess when I heal, I’ll have to stop riding stoned and with my eyes closed. I mean, seriously, nice way to fucking blame me for what happened without having ever seen me ride or even know what the hell caused the crash. And P.S. — “you” don’t ride anyway, so what do you know?

2) “I worry about you on that bike.”
Thanks, but, looking at the statistics and remembering driving a car, I worry about you in your car. (I don’t actually mind that one so much.)

3) The one I’ve heard the most and the one that makes me maddest: “That’s why I don’t ride a bike.”
Oh. Now. Where to begin?
widrab_2_0409
What do you mean by “that“? Do you mean my injured limbs? The cuts I had? Not being able to ride for weeks and missing some awesome bike-related events? Or do you mean my wrecked bike by “that”? Maybe “that” means what it feels like when what stops your body from a speed of 25-27 miles per hour is the friction of your body hitting the ground and skidding to a halt, leaving half on your lip and pieces of your face on the cement? Do you mean that? Or maybe the sound it makes, i.e., a helmet hitting and scraping the visor off and grating metal?

Nah. I know you, and I know what “that” means when you say to me, “That’s why I don’t ride a bike.”

It could mean your own fear of riding in traffic. Well, guess what? I was not hit by a car. To my knowledge, there were no moving cars around me. Nor was I riding in the street. I was on the bike trail, and I hit an unmarked pipe, just small enough to not see in time big but enough for a poopy crash. In Baltimore, no one could get away with having that shit out in the street at 8:30 in a Wednesday morning. Certainly, getting hit by a car is a risk we all take. But in this case, when you look at me and say, “That’s why I don’t ride a bike,” that is irrelevant.

It could your own being in bad shape. But if you know me, you know I’m not exactly in shape, and I have a big ass to prove it — not to mention the belly I carry for someone my age. Being in less than great shape is a strange reason not to cycle.  I am in terrible shape and look like, even in (HA!) peak riding condition.

It might mean your lack of interest. That’s cool. You don’t have to be into cycling. I’m not into driving my ass around in a car. But do you need to state your interests when I wreck? I mean, I never told someone hurt in a car accident, “Damn, that’s why I don’t have a car. Those fuckin things are deadly.”

I don’t know why I’m so pissed off at this phrase being repeated to me. It feels like a judgment on one hand – like that I’m engaging in what amounts to dangerous behavior just by riding my bike for transportation. That’s annoying enough. But it also feels like people are working out or venting some of their own issues on me (paranoia, bad fitness habits, being left out of the cycling craze, etc.). These people are making my own traumatic experience (not to throw that term around) about them.

For the record, no one I know who has gotten on a bike to go somewhere in the last few years has said anything like that. Instead, there are well-wishes — like from my nicest non-cycling friends. I am lucky to have nice people all around me. To be sure, it’s not a matter of cycling or not cycling. It’s something else.  And I know it’s not me.

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  2. cb on April 26, 2009 at 9:01 pm

    Fear of injury is a valid reason for not wanting to ride a bike. I get that. I’ve had a few spills and some minor scrapes, and it sucked. No sane person would want that, nor would they invite upon themselves what happened to you.

    What sucks about people saying that though is that 99% of the people who say that don’t not bike because they fear injury.

    I think they fear losing face. And not in the literal way in which you have. It’s just easier to cite fear of bodily harm, a rational thing to be afraid of, than to cite laziness or ignorance.

    Your face plant merely offered them an easy out.

    Which is all to say, man, I totally agree with you, and understand your anger.

    Also, I’m glad you’re for the most part pretty okay. Coulda been worse, eh?

  3. Johnny on April 26, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    Thanks, Chris:) I am worried that I’m running risk of “proving” the dangers of cycling to the nay-sayers. I’m careful to note the un-ordinary circumstances of what happened. I really don’t want to be part of the fear problem.

    Amen: totally could have been worse — I never get tired of chanting I WILL RISE AGAIN! :) And on a new bike, too.

  4. Allan on April 26, 2009 at 11:26 pm

    As an avid and enthusiastic biker, unfortunately I have to say these folks have something of a point. My wife commutes in a car every day, and sooner or later she may well have an accident, going 20-30 MPH, which she’ll almost certainly walk away from. I commute on a bike every day, and sooner or later I may well have an accident going 15-20 MPH, and it could be OK… or very not OK.

    In some ways, bike is to car as sedan is to SUV. Somebody in a big ol’ Suburban really is better off, in a fender bender, then somebody driving a Camry. It’s a tragedy-of-the-commons thing; the Suburban is making life more dangerous for everybody else. Or like somebody who sends their kid to the tony private school instead of the crappy neighborhood public school; they’re contributing to a dysfunctional system, but are they wrong to pick what they think is best for their child?

    Part of the problem in your case – and in general – is structural; there shouldn’t have been a pipe in your path, because it should be unacceptable for a pathway to be open but unsafe for bikers. But someone who chooses to bike is buying cardiovascular health at the price of greater risk of injury; we should understand why some people don’t weigh the costs the way we do.

  5. Johnny on April 27, 2009 at 12:49 am

    Definitely — at the speed I was going at, I would have been more than fine in a car. Hell, there wouldn’t have been an accident in this case with four wheels, probably. Person per mile, we still have the statistics on our side for fatalities. Still, it’s sure harder to avoid getting hurt in a minor crash on a bike. But what really irked me was that I don’t think fear of their own injuries was behind what people said. “CB” said it best:

    “I think they fear losing face. And not in the literal way in which you have. It’s just easier to cite fear of bodily harm, a rational thing to be afraid of, than to cite laziness or ignorance.”

    I can’t help but feel like some people are…justifying something to themselves by my accident/injuries.

  6. sean on April 27, 2009 at 11:20 am

    I agree with your observations. I’ve encountered these types of responses from people before (I had a similar bike accident to yours except that I hit a tripwire that had been stretched across a trail by some seriously evil people, and I’ve also been doored before). I think that some people feel a little defensive about their own fears or lack of motivation when it comes to bike commuting. Your motivation and/or lack of fear then makes them feel guilty about themselves and perhaps hurts their pride. When something like your accident happens, then they seize on it as a way to help them rationalize their fears and/or lack of motivation. I have also experienced similar reactions when I explain to people why I’m a vegan at their request. It would be nice if everyone didn’t perceive another person’s lifestyle choices as an implied threat to or attack on their own choices, but I guess there will always be some people who do.

  7. Johnny on April 27, 2009 at 11:26 am

    “It would be nice if everyone didn’t perceive another person’s lifestyle choices as an implied threat to or attack on their own choices…”

    Amen! I know what you mean about Veggie questions, too:)

  8. daniel on April 27, 2009 at 11:29 am

    Johnny- dont let a few naysayers get you down. People are motivated by matrix of complex reasons that gets them to day that they say.
    Dont waste your time trying to figure out what rational or irrational reasons are behind the hurtful/stupid comments they make. Just aint worth the time or aggravation

    E.G: Due to my brain cancer situation, I can no longer drive. And thus I dont own a car. As a result, I get people asking me if I am a multiple DUI offender, or if I am homeless, or if I am kinda crazy. I dont know if any malice is intended in those comments, but, I have just stopped wasting my time worryin g about why such negative comments are issuing forth. If they cant deal with the fact that I cant drive and dont have a car, well, let them wallow in their own ignorance. I am not going to participate in their madness.

  9. leslie on April 27, 2009 at 12:10 pm

    Biking is too dangerous. You should take up smoking instead…
    :)

  10. Johnny on April 27, 2009 at 12:29 pm

    OMG, I just almost spit iced-coffee on my computer! :)

  11. daniel on April 27, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    I am a former pipe smoker. Never smoked cigs. Pipe smoking is a rather pleasant activity.
    You can ride your bike and smoke a pipe as you pedal along. Get yourself one of those old-fashioned British made bikes, get a Sherlock Holmes hat, and you are all set!! :)

  12. leslie on April 27, 2009 at 6:40 pm

    Snorting ice cubes out the schnozzle can’t be good for you either…

  13. Tim on April 28, 2009 at 11:53 pm

    I am sorry for your wreck. One question though.why this quote? “Guess when I heal, I’ll have to stop riding stoned and with my eyes closed.” I have smoked pot for many years and I ride bikes quite a bit on ther road and trail. I don’t think that riding stoned is comparable to riding with my eyes closed. I think maybe you should smoke some herb and then hit the trail and maybe you will ride better. Hope you are back on the bike soon.

  14. Johnny on April 29, 2009 at 7:55 am

    I think I meant something stronger than a little weed. :) I’ve known people who were much more careful drivers with a some herb — not that I’d condone just ANYONE to do it. I know some people who would probably take out a dozen people if they drove even a little high. LOL

    The funny thing was that there was a guy smoking a neatly-constructed blunt next to his bike on the switch-back, and I was probably still smiling about it right before I hit the pipe. :)

    I doubt weed would help me ride better. While certainly my speed didn’t help the situation, the problem was an unmarked obstruction, not my riding. I’d hate to say it could happen to anyone (including me again), but it probably will, at least until populations demand, if not better infrastructure, then at least to not have pipes on our few trails.

  15. Josh on April 29, 2009 at 8:03 am

    I, for one, am just disappointing that it seams you will no longer be riding stoned with you eyes closed. For the uninitiated, it is a wonderful mix of relaxing (cause you are stoned, with your eyes closed) and exhilarating (cause you have no idea how you will be violently removed from your bicycle next).

    In serious-ness, I hope you have a speedy recovery.

    -Josh

  16. Josh on April 29, 2009 at 8:05 am

    hahaha … how am I going to be the second person to leave a pot joke on the comments … dangit. Life isn’t fair.

  17. Bowman on April 29, 2009 at 9:01 pm

    Hey Hon,
    I believe ignorance sets in when one doesn’t try to understand the values of another. Me personally, I am guilty. Never take the grain of assault as for a peer doesn’t get YOU! You have to be you and stay true to yourself. And just like myself, I understand you.

    Get riding boy and don’t give me that BS I only have one good hand =)

  18. Johnny on April 29, 2009 at 11:06 pm

    Mr. Bowman, we gotta get you a bike — I’ll ride one-handed with you in NE:)

  19. Dottie on April 30, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    Comments like that would send me over the edge. People don’t stop driving cars when they get in fender benders. Heck, people don’t stop driving cars even after friends or family are killed in car accidents. So they should spare us the anti-bike bias crap.

  20. Damien on May 5, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    Lets not confuse things — Ignorance is the antithesis of trying to understand the values of another.

  21. Steven on May 6, 2009 at 9:55 am

    Dammit, Johnny… write something! :)