Irony Alert: L.A. Weekly Story Mocks Cyclist Right to Lane Appears Next to Story of Fatal Dooring

12:21 PM PDT on March 19, 2013

Must be a slow news day.

Dennis Romero at L.A. Weekly hasn't exactly been a friend to the cycling community, this is the same writer who referred to CicLAvia as "Mayor Villaraigosa's Bike Ride Pipe Dream" in the runup to 10/10/10. Today's column is little more than a weird mocking of Metro's "Every Lane is a Bike Lane" campaign designed to inform drivers that cyclists can take full use of a mixed-use travel lane. It's a typical half-thought-out attack on a government agency trying to do the right thing: Metro is incompetent and out of touch and here's the silly thing they're doing.

To whit:

Yes. In an effort to make L.A. urban traffic slow down even more, Metro, the folks behind the bus and the subway, remind you that bicyclists have the same right to hold up traffic as any little old lady driver from Pasadena.
Sort of:
If you were a little old lady, Mexican gardener, elder, Iranian man, or any combination thereof, and you did 15 miles an hour down Wilshire Boulevard in your Oldsmobile, 1978 Toyota pickup, or Mercedes E Class when everyone else was doing 45, you could get a ticket.

If you're interested in a full take-down of Romero's piece, Ted Rogers does a thorough debunking in the comments section at L.A. Weekly.

What sticks out to us isn't what is in the story, it's what is next to it. Just to the story's right is an advertisement for a "trending story" on L.A. Weekly about a cyclist killed after colliding with an open car-door. How can cyclists avoid the dreaded door zone? By taking the lane. How do we know this? By reading L.A. Weekly. The slain cyclist was riding in the bike lane on vine when she collided with the illegally opened door.

I wish Romero would talk to whoever wrote the article about the slain cyclist. Oh wait, it turns out that story was also written by Dennis Romero.

If only the rider had the courage to take the lane. If only publications such as L.A. Weekly wouldn't mock him for doing so. Sometimes life is about more than car travel times.

Damien Newton

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