We are individuates. We are not a collective. We are not a whole. Ninjas, salmons, gutter bunnies and curb huggers do not effect me. Even if they come in direct contact with me they don't effect me. Unless, of course, they hit me or cause me to hit them. We have a set of traffic laws we as cyclists are to follow. Everything beyond that is none of my, nor your, business. I am not obligated to anyone to act in a certain way other than following the traffic laws.
Education is something to be sought out...not imposed.
True up to a point. If we weren't trying for some sort of sense of community then why do we have web sites such as this for cyclists to come together to discuss things related to bicycling?
Also given that as I've said (as well as others at the other web site have noted) motorists
DO tend to "group" cyclists together based on the actions of the few. It's only human nature. As in a motorist pulls up to a stop light and sees a cyclist just blow through it. The next time this motorist sees a cyclist approaching a red light said cyclist also runs the red light. So the third time this motorist sees a cyclist approaching a red light they'll be expecting it to run said red light. If they don't they won't remember that person, they'll still remember the one's that ran the red light.
So when it comes time to vote to approve the spending of money for bicycle related infrastructure do you really think that that person is going to be willing to vote to have some of their hard earned money spent to help cyclists? In all honesty I do not think that they would be willing to do so.
If anything I can see them voting to further restrict cyclists access to roads relegating them to the status of "toys" and restricting them to parks, and trails. And it's the ninja's, salmons, and red light/stop sign runners that cause people to revisit the idea of mandatory bicycle licensing/registration.
So, yes, whether or not we think that they do, ninja's, salmons, red light/stop sign runners DO effect all cyclists. Likewise gutter bunnies/curb huggers just reinforce the idea that cyclists don't "belong" on the road. Is that really a message that we want to send to the motoring public?
Think of the lady who was behind me honking her horn at me, trying to intimidate me into moving out of her way, so that she could make a right hand turn on red. If it wasn't for cyclists "getting out of her way" by riding in the gutter pan/hugging the curb she wouldn't have gotten the idea that it was okay to intimidate cyclists into getting off of "her" road and out of her way.
Do we really want/need more motorists on the road who see cyclists as being nothing more than mobile obstacles that are just causing them delays? Not stopping to think or care that all of the single occupant vehicles on the road cause them more delays than any cyclist whether in a group or solo will ever cause them.
Yes, it's easy to say that cyclists are all individuals and the actions of one cyclist doesn't have any affect on any other cyclist. But sadly that isn't true, if it was, than why is that every now and than do people advocate the licensing and registration of bicycles? Why do we have sites like this one? Why do we have groups like The League of American Bicyclists, as well as state and local groups?
It's because there
IS a cycling community, and because people (whether they're motorists, pedestrians, or what have you) see cyclists as a group. And if the minority misbehave they'll judge the rest of the cyclists by the actions of that minority.
Is it right that they do so? No, we all know that it isn't, but it is human nature. Just like it is "we" cyclists tend to lump cagers, er motorists together.
Think about it, you're driving down the road minding your own business, when all of a sudden a motorists buzzes you. You're continuing down the road and see another motorist approaching you from behind. Aren't you going to brace and "expect" them to buzz you as well? You might say no, that you judge each motorist on his/her own actions, but the truth is that we human beings do judge entire groups on the actions of of others in that group. Get buzzed by a motorist and you do expect the next motorist to buzz you. Is it right? No, but it is human nature. And sadly the next motorist who commits a minor infraction against us we are likely to overreact to that slight.
That is how we end up with the "them vs. us" mentality that we see on our streets.
So again, yes the actions of the ninjas, salmons, red light/stop sign runners, gutter bunnies and curb huggers does affect all of us.