Urbana-Champaign Bicycle Commute

Another one doesn't bite the dust ... on an impulse I revisited the "bikeblogs" link. Seems it hasn't been updated since about the time I put mine in (and suggested a commuter subgroup). Like so many things online, it doesn't actually die, it just sits out there.

Letter got printed (but it's not online) in Sunday's News-Gazoo. People around here noticed (tho' they had to do a double take on my name 'cause it was Susan, not Sue). More people have written letters. Happily there's been only one from "the other side," and that was a general vent about cyclists who drive badly ... of course, that has nothing to do with the fatality in question. However, none of the stuff that trolls send to websites was there.

Speaking of trolls, the crazybikerchick had over a hundred comments in reply to her letter which I borrowed from for mine. Overwhelming majority of "amen!" responses, a few obvious trolls ("bikers suck, I'll mow you down"), and a few posts with the "roads were made for cars" reply. This site got enough airplay that I believe, if there *were* a consolidated "anti-bike" group, somebody would have posted it there to drive anti-cycle webtraffic there. NOt sure what that means, since an awful lot of thinking deleterious to cycling is just so ingrained it doesnt' *need* to be organized. Maybe it means if cyclists get a tiny bit organized we can chip away at that deleterious ("what are they doing out there anyway?") thinking.