At the heart of Melissa Carter’s commentary, “Cars aren’t the problem with ‘Share the Road'” is a tired, culture war approach that pits drivers against cyclists as if we were different species. The outpouring of comments on her piece shows most of us - whether driving or biking - are beyond all that.
In the past, drivers in Atlanta viewed sharing the road much like Melissa does - I’m driving a faster, heavier vehicle, so get out of my way.
What Melissa and other old-school drivers fail to consider is that when I’m riding my bike somewhere, I'm not trying to get in drivers' way, any more than small cars are trying to delay tractor trailers on the highway. I'm just trying to get where I'm going - mostly work or my kids’ school - safely and in a reasonable amount of time. When I was a newbie and tried courteously share the lane with cas, drivers routinely “buzzed” me, coming within inches at high speeds - a recipe we all recognize as poisonous. I learned to take the lane to protect my own skin.