Got assaulted (as Oddball said about Tiger Tanks) by traffic the other day. This caused me to toss a hypothetical onto Facebook, a trick question with a tripwire rant-trap. Thus:

Assume there is a new law where if you struck and injured a bicyclist with your car, your oldest child would have the same injuries surgically introduced to their body. So, would you drive any safer?

The answer should be, no, I’m driving as carefully as I can, and I treat every cyclist with the same care as I would my own family. The instinctive answer – Yes – would have earned you a megarant.

Of course, this sort of question might have warranted debate and discussion in my long-ago Friday night pub get-together’s, when we’d argue such things for hours. But in the generation of prepared responses, everyone had to add their long-winded maybe answers. Discussions about how that law would never pass. How people understand my anger. How I can say such things, not having kids. Blah blah blah.

I was thinking either YES or NO.

However, one ex-coworker posted back this safety video, a euro-thing. It is one of the most horrific PSA’s I’ve ever watched. I bothered me so much, I almost called for my wife to come get me after work, that I was too shaken to cycle. It’s a combination of actual footage and acted sets.

If you have kids, you should make them watch this.

It’s changing how I ride. There are now some places which angels fear to tread and I fear to tire. This whole matador thing is under review.

It’s grim. You’ve been warned.

LINK