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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Good job, I hope they print it.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=andytoomajian@hotmail.com
href="mailto:andytoomajian@hotmail.com">Andrew Toomajian</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=list@bostoncriticalmass.org
href="mailto:list@bostoncriticalmass.org">list@bostoncriticalmass.org</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, August 29, 2006 12:40
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [*BCM*] scourge of the
roads?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>wow, that letter to the editor was a little foamy at the mouth
for me. i just sent a reply to the globe, posted below. id
encourage others to do the same..<BR><BR>
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<P class=EC_MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> First off, thanks for printing
Marika Plater's wonderful letter "Bicyclists belong on the road, too".
Anyone who has traveled by bike in our fair city can attest that she speaks
the truth: Far too many </SPAN></FONT>Boston drivers think they own
the road, and are willing to put your life in danger to assert their
territorial rights. Which brings me to David McCaffrey's response to
her letter, "Bicyclists: scourge of the roads". Mr. McCaffrey has
clearly seen the streets of Boston from one perspective - behind his
steering wheel. As a cyclist, his attitude that bike are the problem,
not cars, is all too familiar. Lets see, which is more dangerous on a
Boston roadway, a human powered (and non-polluting) vehicle that takes up
about 4 square feet of space, has a maximum speed of around 25 mph, and can
stop and turn on a dime, or a metal behemoth weighing in at several thousand
pounds, traveling at up to 80 mph (or more!), requiring more than 30 feet to
come to a full stop, and all too often piloted by someone juggling a cell
phone and a latte? Think about it for a while and get back to
me.<BR> Mr. Mc Caffrey complains about seeing bikers who
fail to observe the laws of the road. I won't disagree with him, I see
bikers doing the same things from time to time. However, what I see
more often, that he seems to somehow have missed, is cars running red
lights, swerving between lanes, cutting each other and everyone else off,
and nearly mowing down pedestrians and cyclists. There are bad apples
in both barrels, but I'm willing to give bikers a little more leeway,
because their brazen carelessness rarely causes fatalities. </P>
<P class=EC_MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> As far as his suggestion that
cyclists should be required to pay excise tax and other fees to maintain the
roads they use, many cyclists do - for their cars! As for the Boston
cyclists that don't also own a car, the damage caused to our public roadways
by a 30 lb. bicycle is so minimal, that I would suggest we start think of
theses as cases of one less car on the road, and perhaps even offer a
premium to these brave individuals (say, in the form of a tax credit) in
order to keep people cycling and thus preserving our
roads.<BR><SPAN> </SPAN>Ms. Plater's letter embodied a
common plea of cyclists: we are asking drivers to respect us, and to
observe the laws that protect us, because we don't want to die. It's
really that dangerous out there, and it's really that simple. Mr.
McCaffrey may be right that some bikers break laws too, but Ms. Plater's
letter not a plea for law and order, it was a plea for safety and human
dignity. Both cyclists and drivers have some work to do if we are
going to be able to share the roads, but it is important to remember that
cyclists have a lot more at stake. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=EC_MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Andy
Toomajian<BR>Somerville</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>
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