Last semester, a student was struck by a car while riding their bicycle across the crosswalk near 12th Street and Orchard Avenue. The Criterion was on the spot immediately and reported on the accident, informing readers that state law requires cyclists to dismount bikes before entering crosswalks. The information was put out. It was ignored.
Another student was struck riding their bike in the very same crosswalk. The Criterion reported the incident and reminded readers of the law. The lack of a sign instructing cyclists to dismount prior to entering the crosswalk was included in the article.
In the hope of preventing more cyclists from being struck by cars, signs were put up. Surely the signs, combined with articles written about the law and the accidents resulting from ignoring it, were enough to keep bodies from bouncing off windshields, right? Wrong.
Another student was hit. Another article was written. Already this semester, a non-student cyclist has been struck by a vehicle in the same crosswalk. Ignorance is no longer a viable excuse. Now it’s just stupidity.
The philosopher Aristophanes nailed it when he said, “Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.”
No doubt there are some who will get their delicate feelings hurt over the word “stupid” being used to describe cyclists riding their bikes in the crosswalk. This is especially likely because people have been seriously injured in these collisions.
I am not intending to be callous about people getting hurt. However, at this point in time, there’s no other way to describe willful disregard for safety, law and common sense.
If I was trying to headbutt an enraged rhinoceros, what wording would you choose? I think “stupid” would be the nicest thing a person could say.
This may come as a horrific shock to some, but cars are actually a lot heavier than bikes and they travel a lot faster. They’re the rhino. A 160-pound cyclist trying to occupy the same space as a 4,000 pound car driving 35 miles per hour is just plain stupid.
The Associated Student Government (ASG) recently spent a lot of time discussing solutions to the problem of cars striking cyclists in the crosswalk. Colorado Mesa University administration considered solutions as well. All of it was wasted time and effort.
Unless ASG members and CMU officials stand by the intersection non-stop and force cyclists to dismount, the only solution is for people to stop being stupid.
As a motorist, I can safely say that it’s almost miraculous more students haven’t been struck by cars. I can’t count how many times I have had to slam on my brakes because a cyclist has zipped onto the road right in front of me without even so much as slowing down to see if the road was clear.
Most of us were taught to stop and look both ways before entering a street. The entire idea behind this was to avoid being hit by a car. Somehow those enrolled in higher learning have managed to forget this elementary school lesson.
The problem may stem from the “youthful armor” many college-aged individuals seem to have. Maybe they think being young means nothing bad can happen to them. That stuff only happens to other people.
Perhaps it’s about being entitled. A person may think that everybody else must always accommodate them. Everyone must move, stop or avoid them regardless of how little warning they are provided.
Maybe it’s just about the annoyance of having to lose a few seconds through dismounting and safely crossing the road. After all, there are classes to get to, right?
I hate to have to break it to people, but getting hit by a car and going to the hospital is definitely going to make an individual late to class. Severe injury or death is certainly much worse than dealing with an irritated professor.
I can’t believe that I have had to explain that cars are heavy or that a few seconds of inconvenience are better than endangering one’s life, but I suppose it shouldn’t really be surprising. After all, we do live in a time where people eat Tide pods and think the world is flat.
