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The Blame Put on Cyclists

In our recent class readings, we have read about the death of many cyclists killed by vehicles and being blamed while nothing is done to the driver who hits them. This is caused by a bias of how cyclists are always at fault due to existing since they are out of place on roads due to not being cars. Our country was built on making cars get from one spot to another faster and faster no matter what, not thinking about anyone other than cars. The way our roads are set up should also be questioned since roads were built to move cars and only cars. Almost all of them have dangerous designs that do not include ways to keep vehicles from going faster and faster, making it dangerous for anyone around cars. 

 

Many cyclists who are hit are always labeled by the media, not as people but rather as objects a driver collided with. An example of this was in St.Louis, where on April 14, 2022, a box truck hit and killed a cyclist, yet the news and writers only questioned what the cyclist had done and not what the driver did. They would ask if the cyclist stopped at the stop sign but not if the truck driver was sober, going the speed limit, or driving near or on the bike lane. The article made about the accident made the driver seem innocent, as if none of the accidents had been their fault and if the cyclist had been the one that instead collided with them. Stories like these are not the first, as many articles are written where the cyclist is blamed. 

 

If right now things are this bad for cyclists, will they also get worse for pedestrians? Will pedestrians be the future cyclists who get hit and blamed by the media? 

 

https://www.cyclinglawyer.com/bike-law-news-cycling-updates/2019/8/7/the-blame-game-putting-cyclists-at-fault-by-language-and-design

In a city with rampant pedestrian and cycling crashes, cyclists are still blamed for their own deaths