I consider myself more of an agnostic than an atheist, and so I cannot personally endorse this quote. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s the best said of its kind:
I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
–Stephen Roberts
What do you think?
Every day I ride my bike to work (downtown Boston) from home (Somerville), and I’ve noticed a disturbing pattern: glass bottles smashed and left in bicycle lanes. It’s a bizarre phenomenon, but a consistent one. It’s now the third consecutive day that I’ve found new instances on my daily commute, and there was no shortage of them last week either. I wish that I could attribute it to careless and reckless behavior, but the pattern is too consistent to conclude thoughtlessness. It’s always completely shattered and it’s always in the dead center of the bike lane.
Glassbreakers, please stop. Please. Perhaps to you, it’s a prank. Perhaps a biker cut you off on your way home and this is your payback. Perhaps giving a biker a flat tire is your way of doling karmic justice.
Please stop.
The reality is that there is more at risk to us, and to you, than a flat tire. When I’m going 25 miles per hour over the Longfellow Bridge in a bike lane not much wider than myself, a sudden flat tire can be the difference between being struck by a car and not. It can also be the difference between a multi-car pile-up and not. When I see shattered glass just a few feet in front of me, I have two choices: one, take the flat and a likely skid into traffic, or two, veer directly into traffic and pray that the driver is able to swerve out of the way. The driver will be forced to swerve into another car, or keep going and hit me head on.
I understand why drivers and pedestrians and bikers conflict with each other. Bikers can be careless, pedestrians can be presumptuous and drivers can be aggressive (and Boston roads are hardly considerate to any of us). But at worst, the differences need to end with a honk, a yell, or if you must, an inappropriate hand gesture. You can show your anger without putting our livelihood on the line. We don’t deserve to die simply because you had a bad experience.
Please, please stop.
