This has been a long-standing pet-peeve of mine.

If a motorist passes a cyclist in an intentionally threatening manner (i.e. passes very close, erratically, stops suddenly in front of them, etc.), nobody is going to notice or care. In other words, they are threatening a human life because they have been slightly inconvenienced on their commute.

How is this any different than one person on foot going up to another person on the sidewalk who is in their path, pointing a gun in their face, and saying, “Move out of the way, or I will f***ing kill you.” In both cases, one person has used a tool with the power to kill (commonly referred to as a weapon) to threaten the life of another person due to them “being in the way.”

I’ve said it before: Assault with a deadly weapon is perfectly legal as long as the weapon has four wheels. My next experiment will be to take a hand gun, superglue four little Lego wheels to it, and see if it is socially and legally acceptable to threaten human life with my four-wheeled gun.

amen to all above posts. peds in nyc love to stand in the street inches from cars, they edge towards cyclists in a manner that is threatening if you are riding a bike (will they go/stop/or not?)
the peds must cross the street the 1/2 second after you have passed. however if you ride towards them in the same way it’s terrorism. i will give you that a cyclist is a moving object but why push back on cyclists so hard? it’s okay to be passive aggressive w/ cyclists while taking their right of way but peds won’t give an inch when a cyclist is on the sidewalk.

I’ll remove Savannah as a place I’d like to visit.

Cycling organizations and cycle tour companies nationwide should send a similar message to the Savannah Chamber of Commerce. Maybe the Savannah Morning News will take note.

drewo, don’t take Savannah off your list of places to visit because of this; in fact this is all the more reason to go there and be a happy, bike-riding visitor.

Its historic district is a great place to get around on bike anyway: flat, with quite calm car traffic.

(And biking aside, it’s a beautiful city that’s worth seeing.)

All of you may be interested in the actual context of the Savannah newspaper comment — made by a reader, not the newspaper. It was regarding the lack of decent bike lanes in the city. It’s often dangerous on many streets for cyclists, yet it’s a beautiful place to ride. There’s a lot going on to get more space for cyclists in the city, so don’t be so harsh unless you know what you’re talking about.

Ernie is correct. The Vox Populi comment was made by a reader. However, it had to be reviewed and approved by someone at the paper before it was published. Also, Ernie, I’m not sure how you divined the “actual context” of the comment, as it was published on the paper’s Web site without additional context. My reading of it makes it clear to me it was a threat warning cyclists to stay out of the way or, as the commenter put it, “adios.” How do you get from that to interpreting it as being about “the lack of decent bike lanes in the city?” Do you have inside information about who made the comment and who approved it for publication?

Finally, Ernie, you are correct that there is a lot going on to make Savannah a friendlier and safer place for cyclists. These efforts are a product of a cooperative relationship between sympathetic local government officials and the Savannah Bicycle Campaign (http://bicyclecampaign.org). I’m proud of what SBC and its partners have accomplished.

I always say about violence perpetrated against cyclists for be cyclists; if it looks like a hate crime, smells like a hate crime, sounds like a hate crime, it is a hate crime!

And actually I boycott bicycle-unfriendly places all the time when I go on vacation. Since I often go on bicycle vacations I naturally tend to avoid places that are no fun to bicycle. European countries and cities are always high on places I’d like to spend my vacation time.

Closer to home riding from Philly to Gettysburg and back mostly through very bicycle friendly Lancaster County PA was one of the best bicycling vacations I’ve done in a while, that was until we nearly got hit 4 times in 20 minutes by homicidal drivers (towards us and themselves) as we entered the town of West Chester, PA.

@Andy B

A friend and I rode from Richmond to Philly last summer. Our transition out of Lancaster Co. toward Philly was equally rude.

I’ve been referring to abuse as hate crimes, as well. Some of the experiences I’ve had in Lake County, FL cannot be defined any other way. We are not truly free to choose our mode of transportation when our fellow citizens are allowed to reduce our quality of life through harassment, or threaten our lives with violence.