When people know you ride your bikes a lot, they tend to come to you to relate their encounters with other cyclists. Usually, it is not a happy tale, and since they couldnt vent to the cyclist they met on the road, they have come to the nearest cyclist they can find so that they can rant about all bike riders in general. Such is the case with one particular friend at my office. For several years he would blame cyclists and claim his intentions that he should just run them off the road, and they do not belong. On and on, we bike riders have heard the same complaints. Some are valid, some are not, but mostly they come from people who have not, will not, or claim they just cannot ride a bike themselves.

Now comes higher fuel prices. And now, this same guy who with almost seems happy to read the stories of bike accidents, is riding his bike to work. There are much better reasons to motivate someone to get on a bike, but if high gas prices help increase ridership and bicycle awareness, then that seems like one good thing that has come from it.

And……. yet another political cartoonist takes a shot. This one from Chip Bok.