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Tuesday, August 3, 2010
News Cyclists set to crash Creative Loafing party tonight
Posted By Cheris Hodges on Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 1:10 PM
For some local cyclists, this week's Two Wheel Tuesday ride has more meaning. Tonight, the bike riders will head to the North Carolina Music Factory — the home of Creative Loafing and the site of a party celebrating the newspaper's annual Best of Charlotte issue — to voice their dissatisfaction for an opinion piece written by CL columnist Tara Servatius.
The column, titled "The Cycling Epidemic," ran in CL's July 13 issue — and Steve Maleski, owner of the NoDa cycle shop Espada, said when he read it, it struck a nerve. Here's an excerpt from the controversial article:
You've got to drive way behind them in case they take a spill, pacing them at whatever speed is convenient for them. That's fine if they are driving in a residential area, where slow speed is a necessity. But on the open road? On East Morehead where there's no shoulder? Are they nuts?Don't ask them that, though. They get righteous. They come unglued. Lectures are for other people who do things that make them 10 times more likely to die ... like smokers or fat people.
Last week, a cyclist and mother of two was mowed down on Faith Road, just north of Davidson, by the driver of an SUV who ran into her and sent her flying 30 feet. (She was seriously injured, but will thankfully be OK.)
Members of her family lashed out at drivers for their risky behavior in news reports. Drivers could do a better job, but I'm not sure what her family expected. Faith Road is a narrow two-laner with double yellow lines down the middle and no shoulder to speak of. Passing a cyclist on roads like that with a wide enough space in between to avoid a lawsuit should they wobble or fall requires a driver to swerve onto or over that yellow line or trail behind the biker for miles, plodding along.
Cycle on roads like that long enough and eventually you're going to have a close call or worse. So why not accept some of the blame when you've taken a risk like that?
Cyclists won't and here's why: It's politically incorrect to point out the risks of cycling because cyclists have become yet another protected class.
(In last week's issue of CL, the paper ran a rebuttal piece written by local cycling experts Ann Groninger, Martin Zimmerman and Melissa Bell.)
"I've worked for newspapers before and that article didn't meet any sort of journalistic expectations, it was barely an op-ed. It was just something that was done in such a way to incite a reaction. It got a reaction. She created a conflict, but I think she created a conflict with people who are more intelligent than she expected. We're not just revolutionary punkers or whatever," Maleski said.
Maleski's also one of the administrators of the Facebook page, Tara Servatius hates cyclists. It's through social networking that Maleski and others have organized tonight's ride. According to the Facebook page, at least 30 people have confirmed that they will make the trek to Creative Loafing's yearly party.
"It's not a negative protest," Maleski said, adding that he and other cyclists hope to raise awareness about cyclists on the road.
Burton Lancaster, a cyclist who was in Espada Tuesday afternoon, said Servatius's column and comments made on her WBT radio show feeds into the aggression that some drivers have toward bikers. Jim Smith, another cyclist who was in the shop, said anyone who rides a bicycle knows someone who has been hit.
In a written statement, Servatius said she's not encouraging anyone to harm a cyclist.
"That would be irresponsible. I've never encouraged reckless driving near cyclists and I would condemn anyone who did. That would be an awful thing to do. We may disagree on the relative dangers of cycling, but I wanted to set the record straight. I would never condone drivers endangering others on the road, much less encourage it. I've recently used my show as a forum to take on drunk driving and cell phone use and texting by drivers."
When the cyclists arrive at the North Carolina Music Factory tonight, CL doesn't plan to turn them away. In fact, Editor-in-Chief Carlton Hargro will meet them with refreshments, listen to their concerns and then give away a bike.
"Tara's column got an incredible response — most of it negative. And while we don't endorse her opinion piece, we do respect the right that she has to [offer] her opinion," Hargro said. "I look forward to meeting the cyclists tonight and hearing their point of view on a very important transportation issue in Charlotte."
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