Sissies in Tight Pants

We were just talking about the subject the other day at the store. What is it, exactly, about a bicycle that makes people in cars and trucks lose their minds? They yell or spit or obscenely gesture, these aggressive drivers. In some cases, they swerve in mock rundown. Nice. To be sure, many drivers are considerate, giving enough room to cyclists or at least slowing down a tad when passing by. And there are cyclists who ignore laws and invite confrontation. But establishing a culture of fear only takes a few knuckleheads who enjoy making sport out of possible death sentences for those of us who enjoy riding on American roadways. Close the car door along with your mind, perhaps. Tom Vanderbilt, author of “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do”, said as much in an interview with Amazon.com.

The world “is filled with people who think that roads belong only to them — it’s "MySpace" — that being inside the car absolves them from any obligation to anyone else,” Vanderbilt was quoted as saying.

People who study such things point out that modern America is in hyperdrive, New York Times reporter Jan Hoffman wrote in a story published Sunday. We try to cram 30 hours of work, fun and life into 24 hour days with disastrous results. Drivers try to make up time on the road, a mostly unsuccessful prospect if you really stop to think about the method. Beyond that, obvious meatheads see cyclists - especially men in tight-fitting clothes - as sissies. Never mind the fact that they love watching 300 pound behemoths in snappy and snug white pants wrestle with one another and pat each other’s behinds every Sunday in autumn. Along those lines, a researcher from England discovered that drivers will actually give properly outfitted cyclists less leeway on the roads.

“We know from research that many drivers see cyclists as a separate subculture, to which they don’t belong,” said the University of Bath’s Ian Walker. “As a result they hold stereotyped ideas about cyclists, often judging all riders by the yardstick of the Lycra-clad street-warrior.”



Get more news, triathlon info and products for all of your triathlon needs at: