There has always been a conflict between the motoring and bicycling public. Most of you have been part of, receiving or giving, the heated rhetoric over legitimacy to use the roadways. For those outside the Midwest this dialogue might take a direct tone – ‘hey you guum-ba get the freck out of my way’ – for example. We here have it too, but I will guess that you see it occur outside the automobile. Not here. We in the land of ‘Minnesota Nice’ ascribe to another ethic, that of passive-aggressive behavior. For some reason, we well mannered Midwesterners, feel liberated from our puritan roots when we climb behind the wheel. Into, what I like to call, The Autosphere.
The Autosphere is a protective bubble that one enters and from within the occupants are protected from all. These normally polite and kind people become brutal pilots of aggression. It is kill or be killed on the roads of the Twin Cities. The left lane is for passing, even if the traffic ahead is traveling at 90 MPHs (that +145 km/h for my Canadian friends). ‘GET THE *#@*$@# OUTTA MY WAY YOU MOTHER TRUCKER. THIS IS MY MOTHER TRUCKING LANE. JERK.’ comes from the mouth of a normally reserved soccer mom with her 3-year-old strapped securely into the back seat.
Fingers fly, hands are a flutter with jesters, and temples are red with rage. This is the state of the byways and highways around my home town and this translates to rage towards the two wheelers as we have our encounters. Now, the bicycling community is not without its faults and that will be the topic of another post, but this shameless aggression is something of concern. It is something that is beginning to erode one of the main reasons I live in this part of the country.
When did it become socially acceptable to enter into The Autosphere and act like the biggest SOB on the planet? I blame the rise then fall of swing music, what ever happened to the Squirrel Nut Zippers? Opening Wal-Marts in Tennessee, I think?
Back to topic, seriously the more we become accustomed to the DVDs, CDs, and GPS navigation systems; our leather seats, four-wheel drives and vehicle heights measured in stories not feet this rage will continue to rise. The growing amount of time we spend locked in these cages going to and from work, gathering the kids, and running to the Big Box for supersized Cap’n Crunch it is easy to hurl the F-bomb from time to time. The more and more we are inside the Autosphere the easier and easier it becomes.
Before we know it we will all be white-knuckled drivers foaming at the mouth ready to kill. And we will kill; after all it is hard to stop a three-ton SUV going 90+ on snow and ice. Four-wheel drive will not save you from the ice.
So, take care, slow down, and remember to live up to the person you want your three-year-old strapped in the back to be. It will get better.