Cyclists May Be Victims, but They’re Not Poor
Re “Safe Bicycle Commuting Is 2-Way Street,” Letters, June 2:
There were two letters about how bicyclists need to be educated and should wear safety gear. The Times published both letters under a headline about how bicyclists are partly to blame for their own problems.
Both comments and the headline, itself a comment, continue the convenient--to motorists--tradition of blaming the bicyclist-victim. The Times shouldn’t do that.
Don Harvey
Executive Director
Orange County Bicycle Coalition
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I just finished your article about the plight of bicycle commuters and the hazards they face getting to and from work (“Commuters Putting Mettle to the Pedal,” May 28). I have to ask how you arrive at the conclusion these people are “poor”?
Let’s try to gain some perspective:
1. They have a job.
2. The job pays them more in a day than what their counterpart in Mexico earns in a month. That is why they risk it . . . no?
3. They are by no means poor. Orange County is not a typical county in America and therefore a bad choice when comparing relative incomes.
4. They ride on streets that are at least paved and in decent shape. Many have bike lanes and are well lighted.
5. The weather they ride in, for the most part, is mild.
I spent six weeks in Shanghai, China, this year. There are 16 million people in a place about half the size of Orange County. Everyone rides a bike, if they can afford it. Company parking lots are designed for bicycles, not cars.
Bicycle theft is rampant, and when you earn about 48 cents per hour, losing your bike there can mean walking six miles to work until you can afford another one. The temperatures can drop easily into the low 30s in winter and into triple digits (with nearly 100% relative humidity) in the summer.
Some of the roads are hazards for cars, let alone the hordes of bicycles. More than once I witnessed a car and a bicycle collide. The bike always lost.
I know Socorro Murillo’s commute to and from work may not be the same as the person driving the SL 600, but Mr. Murillo, you are by no means poor.
Bret Bashara
Laguna Beach
