Heckle: to try to confuse or annoy with taunts,
questions, etc.
Last week I passed a milestone of sorts: my first heckling. During
a bicycle law clinic I was heckled by a guy who decided to focus his anger
toward bicyclists on me while I attempted to explain the laws of bicycles and
skateboards. His frequent interruptions and attempts to disrupt the presentation
created some confusion for everyone in attendance. About three-fourths
of the way through the clinic he noisily got to his feet, announced A thanks
for nothing and stormed out of the room. During the presentation I saw
how angry he was about bicycles and bicycle riders. As I reviewed the
traffic laws for the assembled riders, the heckler maintained his own negative
commentary about the things I was saying.
After the clinic I found myself going back over some of the things that he had said, trying to understand why
he had chosen me to be the lightning rod for bicyclists, and trying to piece
together why he was so angry in the first place. He
probably saw some announcement for the clinic in the newspaper and decided to
go and find out what the law said. I hope there may be some value in considering
his comments to the extent they are representative of other negative things I
hear about bicyclists as road users.
His main beef was that bicycle riders passed motorists on the right. When
I explained that passing on the right is against the law except when going around
a left-turning motorist (and of course this does not apply to bicyclists in bicycle
lanes) he let out an audible groan and said something about a bicyclist having
run into the side of his car, causing damage and then fleeing from the scene.
He was upset that I felt the prohibition on passing on the right was a bad law
and should be changed. His view was not unusual, many motorists believe that
drivers should not have to watch their mirrors and look around constantly in
order to anticipate bicyclists who may be trying to slip through traffic.
For many motorists, it does not matter that there is frequently more than enough
room in a typical twelve-foot-wide traffic lane to accommodate both a bicycle
and motorized vehicle. These drivers believe that bicyclists should follow
the same rules as cars and view our attempts to pass quickly through traffic
as attempts to gain an undeserved advantage in the road. It is of
no assistance to point to the rest of the world where drivers and bicyclists
share the roadway in a cooperative manner, or to point to the European model
where bicycles are allowed to move to the front at many traffic lights so as
to avoid being stuck behind a line of stopped cars and trucks.
The second area that earned an interruption and complaint occurred during my attempt to discuss
obeying traffic laws. We all know that the failure of
some riders to stop at red lights and stop signs infuriates some motorists. There
is little argument that it is always a good idea to obey traffic laws in
the presence of other roadway users. However, when I attempted to address
why it is that bicyclists ignore some traffic laws, using the rural stop sign
as an example, the angry visitor came unglued.
I tried to explain to him that when I approach a stop sign out in the country
on my bicycle the lines of sight may be such that it is plain to see there is
no traffic anywhere nearby. In these situations it is difficult to force
myself to waste momentum to stop, only to then start moving again because the
metal sign has made a silent blind command. Given the same situation at
the wheel of my car I am not so tempted to run through the stop sign – something
tied to the precious nature of human powered momentum coupled with the absurdity
of stopping to honor the superior right of way of non-existent roadway neighbors. Perhaps
the final gloss on the question is that from the perspective of many bicyclists,
most vehicle laws would be unnecessary if everybody was on two wheels.
As I explored these questions about application of the laws, the heckler loudly accused me
of advocating violation of the law. Even though I was a lawyer,
he decided that I was no different from the rest of the scofflaws on two
wheels. I tried to explain that I was only trying to explain why I
found it difficult to follow the law sometimes and that I was not advocating
that anybody do anything against the law. I didn’t think of it at the time,
but I do believe one difference between bicyclists and motorists is that if we
do make the choice to disobey a traffic law and if we did so in error, it is
very seldom that anyone else is hurt by our poor choice besides ourselves; when
a motorist makes an error of judgement, there is usually crumpled sheetmetal
and a potential for catastrophic injuries to others. This is not to say
that indiscriminate disregard of laws by bicycle riders will never lead to potential
injuries to anyone besides the rider; but, by and large, the person who is most
in danger from collision between a 25 pound bicycle and a 3500 pound car is the
bicycle rider, not the car driver, or other roadway users.
These ideas are not excuses for failing to follow the law, and certainly provide no legal defense
to a traffic citation for running a stop sign. But the
thinking contained above is representative of the reasoning that bicycle riders
sometimes use as justification for not stopping.
However, confining the discussion to a rural stop sign scenario is somewhat unfair. The heckler was steamed by
riders flagrantly ignoring stop signs and traffic signals in crowded intersections.
In these situations it=s easy to say Aalways stop.
If some bicyclists view themselves as being above the law it makes it
hard for the rest of us to claim an entitlement to having motorists follow the
Rules of the Road toward us. The heckler had a point, obnoxiously presented
but nevertheless correct, that if we want to be treated with respect on the roadway,
then we have to be willing to play by the same rule book as everyone else.