(no subject)
Jul. 20th, 2002 10:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaobellSpot the Sarah!
They did, however, edit my damn letter so badly that it just barely sends the message I intended.
The original:
In response to a letter by Mary Watson printed on July 13:
Yes. We must require bicyclists, starting at the age of ...whenever
they're old enough to shed the training wheels, to pass a license test,
purchase tags and pay for registration, pay for yearly inspections, and
carry insurance.
Because, of course, everybody knows that the motorists who are required
to do all these things never run red lights, speed, roll through stop
signs, whip illegal U-turns, talk on their cell phones while driving, or
in any way, shape or form break the law. Never. Nope.
According to Miss Watson, the combination of costs required to operate a
motor vehicle magically renders the operator physically incapable of
breaking traffic laws. Amazing! Why didn't we think of this before?
By the way, Miss Watson, I use a bicycle as my main mode of
transportation, and I resent your insinuation that all cyclists are
reckless lawbreakers and need to be taken off the road.
I wear a helmet. I stop at stop signs. I wait my turn at red lights. I
signal my turns, wear white and stuff that lights up at night, hug the
right curb just like traffic laws tell me I must (and, if forced onto
the sidewalk by obstacles in the road or high water and see a pedestrian
coming at me, I get off and walk until he has passed), and yell at any
cyclist I catch doing few or none of the above.
So do most cyclists. We have our idiots, of course, I know. Just like
you car-driving lot.
The difference is, idiots in cars are a lot more likely to kill someone
other than themselves when they're being idiots.
They did, however, edit my damn letter so badly that it just barely sends the message I intended.
The original:
In response to a letter by Mary Watson printed on July 13:
Yes. We must require bicyclists, starting at the age of ...whenever
they're old enough to shed the training wheels, to pass a license test,
purchase tags and pay for registration, pay for yearly inspections, and
carry insurance.
Because, of course, everybody knows that the motorists who are required
to do all these things never run red lights, speed, roll through stop
signs, whip illegal U-turns, talk on their cell phones while driving, or
in any way, shape or form break the law. Never. Nope.
According to Miss Watson, the combination of costs required to operate a
motor vehicle magically renders the operator physically incapable of
breaking traffic laws. Amazing! Why didn't we think of this before?
By the way, Miss Watson, I use a bicycle as my main mode of
transportation, and I resent your insinuation that all cyclists are
reckless lawbreakers and need to be taken off the road.
I wear a helmet. I stop at stop signs. I wait my turn at red lights. I
signal my turns, wear white and stuff that lights up at night, hug the
right curb just like traffic laws tell me I must (and, if forced onto
the sidewalk by obstacles in the road or high water and see a pedestrian
coming at me, I get off and walk until he has passed), and yell at any
cyclist I catch doing few or none of the above.
So do most cyclists. We have our idiots, of course, I know. Just like
you car-driving lot.
The difference is, idiots in cars are a lot more likely to kill someone
other than themselves when they're being idiots.
