Every fact in this story is presented in a way to support the author's premise, and there are no trustworthy narrators here. If you remove the emotion, an equally plausible scenario is that he rode past a school bus that had stopped to let out students and he ignored the signals. The story only says he wasn't drunk or speeding. It doesn't say he wasn't cited for violating other traffic laws, and clearly he was cited for something because he's in jail. The article's title tells you he's innocent, and you believe it. Fine. But guilty or not, the reason I'm glad he's off the road is because he killed a pedestrian with his motorcycle.
I concur with the person you are replying to. People like you have made cycling miserable for everyone.
I used to 100% cycle as my form of transportation. 20 years ago. Doing 20+ miles a day, and didn't own a car. You know, before bike lanes generally existed and you had to use common sense.
The rise of the aggressive "hipster cyclists" like yourself turned the tables from biking being dangerous simply due to folks being unaware of you - to being actively dangerous akin to a warzone because drivers rightfully assume you are a a passive aggressive asshole who is likely attempting to inconvenience them on purpose.
I also have not seen nearly the number of "aggressive" drivers compared to aggressive asshole cyclists these days. Perhaps the problem is you if you continue to run across them.
I cannot tell you how much I despise what you, and people you identify with (critical mass types) have done to my chosen mode of transportation. You took it as a way to get from A to B and turned it into a divisive social cause. Because of this, I don't see bikes being considered on par with motorized transport in my lifetime. At least in the US. In my town, the political pushback on cyclists is only growing as this phenomenon increases.
Do yourself a favor and try seeing how the Netherlands/Belgium integrate road, rail, and bike traffic. You'll note the complete lack of people like you.
You're projecting your ire on the wrong person. I ride 20+ miles daily in large city with outdated, poorly maintained infrastructure for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians alike. I'm just trying to get to work, not break any speed records, and I'm extremely mindful of pedestrians (for their safety) and cars (for my own). I'm not the guy laying on the bell without reducing his speed or treating a shared trail like a personal racetrack. I've cycled my entire long life and hardly qualify as a hipster (not that it's pertinent). Whenever I've been in Europe, I have to remind myself when I'm back in the States that drivers won't stop for you when you step into the road, even when there's a sign in the middle of the crosswalk telling them to do so. I have no idea what I said to inspire your alienating rant, when it seems we both want the same thing.
I'm not gonna say that I'm glad he's off the road, but I do want to agree with the point that the article is clearly biased towards making us think that he is innocent, when we don't know all of the facts either. Okay, he wasn't drunk or speeding - according to him, at least - but it sounds like he might have been going too fast for the conditions. Just because the speed limit is 35 or whatever doesn't mean that it's safe to do 35 all the time.
But all that just goes to show that he deserves his day in court, in a justice sense. Which he will apparently never get, unless he's willing to spend a few years in jail first.
