Cycling in Waterloo Region

[ijmorlan]

Awfully big jump from cyclists to people in wheelchairs, don't you think?

The point is that the comic factually misrepresents the situation in a way that props up the dominant group in culture, which in this case is vehicle operators. It lies about what typical bicycle accommodation looks like (less-than-half-width lanes, not taking away a full car lane), and tries to paint pro-cycling initiatives as anti-environment, whereas leaving the roads as an all-motorized zone is supposedly the more environmental approach.

A similar comic for wheelchairs would find a way to blame high prices on the requirement for barrier-free building entrances. It’s all about the small cost for the dominant group, ignoring the massive cost of the status quo on the other group.

In principle I could have used any disadvantaged or formerly-disadvantaged group, but the notion of accommodation seems most comparable for wheelchair users. To switch to race for a moment, most accommodations for, say, Black people consist of *removing* accommodations for bigoted assholes — we don’t build stuff specifically for Black people; instead we discontinue segregation of lunch counters and water fountains.

Anyway, the comic is dishonest and does not contribute to a good-faith debate on appropriate road design. It just makes anti-cyclist bigots feel good about themselves and reminds cyclists that they are still not considered first-class road users.