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<DIV>According to Cambridge City Hall, mopeds and scooters are banned from all
bike paths. </DIV>
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<DIV>In a message dated 9/24/2007 3:36:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time, red@mit.edu
writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I wasn't
going to respond to this, but over the past couple of days,<BR>it's made me
think a lot, and I wanted to share.<BR><BR>On Sat, Sep 22, 2007 at 06:04:22PM
-0400, Jeff Young wrote:<BR>> Dear Mr. Scooter-driver,<BR><BR>While the
Vespa may get me chicks, I doubt it can give me a penis.<BR><BR>> I hope
you recover soon so that you can return to riding your bike. <BR><BR>Thank
you! Hopefully it will only be another month or two, I keep seeing<BR>people
on bikes and getting jealous. Sometimes I go down into the basement<BR>and
stare longingly at my bikes. Believe me, I would rather be riding<BR>a bike
than riding a scooter.<BR><BR>> Until<BR>> then, please stop polluting
this thread with your nonsense--and, stay out of<BR>> the bike
lane!!<BR><BR>So there's two statements here:<BR><BR>1. I am apparently
"polluting" a thread on scooter laws with "nonsense."<BR>2. Scooters should
stay out of the bike lane. <BR><BR>I've done three things in this thread (up
until now, which totally counts<BR>as meta-discussion): Cite law, provide
personal anecdotes, and provide<BR>opinions based on my own experiences. Other
participants in the thread<BR>have done the same three things, except that
they've been against scooters<BR>riding in the bike lane. How am I more
"polluting" or "nonsense?" If you<BR>don't agree with my opinions or
find my anecdotes interesting (and who<BR>can compare with those two bike
theft stories? Those were _priceless_),<BR>well, that's fine. But they're not
any less valid because of that.<BR><BR>Bikers often get into debates like
"Should you run red lights or not?"<BR>where some people think that it's
important to follow the law and some<BR>people think it's important to
maximize safety or convenience even if<BR>that means breaking the law. In
these debates, people use law citations,<BR>personal anecdotes, and opinions
based on experience to back up their<BR>views. You know, _rhetoric._
Things can get a little tense, but in the <BR>past here and in other forums
people seem to be able to avoid outright<BR>name-calling in their discussions.
We're all bikers, after all, and we're<BR>all in it together. Or
something.<BR><BR>When it reaches the point where we're not all bikers,
though, things seem<BR>to get way more hostile. I wasn't even _attacking_
cyclists --- I saw<BR>myself as a fellow cyclist using a different method of
transportation<BR>because I was in a bad way. I don't think anyone who posted
saw me<BR>that way; I think that for some reason I came across as The Enemy.
I<BR>can't know what's going on in anyone else's head, but it doesn't
even<BR>seem like some of y'all are even reading what I'm saying. (For
example,<BR>you got my gender wrong; "Rachel Elizabeth" isn't terribly
ambiguous.<BR>When people arguing with me mess up something like that, it's
hard to<BR>feel taken seriously.)<BR><BR>Feeling all this made me realize
something --- is this how people who<BR>don't ride bikes at all feel when I'm
talking to them? I mean, we all<BR>have horror stories about dangerous
drivers, poor pedestrians, crazy<BR>cyclists, and, yes, stupid scooters. I
know I tell them to people and <BR>sometimes they are like "Man, you are so
anti-car!" and I thought that<BR>it was just them, but maybe it _is_ me! I'm
going to have to pay attention.<BR><BR>All of those times that I've yelled at
people to share the road? Which<BR>I'm sure a lot of people on this list
have done too? :) That shouldn't,<BR>I realized, just mean with other bikers.
Some people can't or shouldn't<BR>bike for whatever reason, and they need safe
and efficient ways to get<BR>around the city as well. If providing them with
resources to get around<BR>means making life a little more inconvenient for
bikers, well, too bad<BR>for bikers! Providing bikers with resources doesn't
make car commuters<BR>very happy and you don't see us standing up for _them_.
Bike-only culture<BR>isn't any better than car-only culture. ...OK, well, it
is better for the<BR>environment and better for people's health and supports
local businesses<BR>and discourages crowded roads and keeps the air cleaner...
but in some<BR>ways it's just as narrow-minded. And I never realized
that before your<BR>patronizing flame. So thank you! :)<BR><BR>As far as your
second point --- that scooters should stay out of the<BR>bike lane --- I'm
inclined to agree with androidqueen's interpretation<BR>of Cambridge law that
scooters are only banned from bike-only paths, not<BR>lanes on shared roads,
but I'm not 100% sure either, so I'll find out.<BR>But your exhortation,
unless backed up by something rhetorical like<BR>cited law, personal
anecdotes, or opinions based on experience, falls on<BR>deaf ears. If this is
how you try to convince fellow bikers of things,<BR>expect to have even less
success with people who _don't_ share your
cause.<BR><BR><3,<BR><BR>-r.<BR>_______________________________________________</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
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