Cuozzo Bait

One more thought on DOT’s “Don’t be a Jerk” campaign: the tabloids will make hay with it.  Nothing could possibly win over the Post, of course, but the Steve Cuozzo column practically writes itself:

With calls for her to take the Cathy Black road to resignation, Bicycling Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan is finally telling her two-wheeled worshippers to shape up or ship out.  After decades of terrorizing real New Yorkers, cyclists are being told — with taxpayer dollars, no less — to stop being jerks.  Not that they’ll listen; they’re too busy listening to music on their iPods as they run red lights the wrong way on Broadway.  Sadik-Khan, who’s been a jerk to every community board this side of New Jersey, is perpetrating her biggest “Khan” job yet.

Want proof of this?  Read this editorial in yesterday’s Post.  It’s not a far leap from “boors” to “jerks.”

I shudder to think of the pictures that will appear in the Post the minute riders are photographed around town in front of  “Don’t be a Jerk” bus shelter ads and billboards.  And if one is photographed cutting off a pedestrian?  Get ready for the word “jerk” to appear in every caption of every bike picture that makes it into the tabloids.

DBAJ is seriously misguided.  Does anyone really think that the Post‘s biggest gripe with cycling is that too many cyclists act like jerks?  Would Marty Markowitz ditch his driver and SUV and start riding his senior trike to Borough Hall if only more riders stopped at red lights?  Will Iris, Norman, and Louise learn to stop suing and love the Prospect Park West bike lane on the day that every cyclist begins yielding for pedestrians?

Yes, some cyclists need to get their acts together.  But not because it will make people really, really like them.  Some people just hate bikes and bike lanes.  Period.