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Messengers are crminals who can't get
licenses
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It's seems so common for people who profess this kind of
"knowledge" to
invent an imaginary expert or person of authority to support their
bias.
The fact is in some cities bike messengers are required to undergo a
criminal background check while walkers and drivers are not.
See : Boston courier regulations
encourage drunk drivers
And wouldn't you like to meet this"cop" who thinks criminals can't get
driver's licenses.
streetsblog.
is reporting this overheard conversation:
Stuck in traffic congestion all day long, one might think that New York
City's bus drivers might be at the center of the movement to reduce
automobile dependence and encourage more efficent forms of urban
transportation. But if the conversation I heard last week is
representative, it's the cyclists that are wrecking all that havoc out
there on New York City's streets.
Time: A few minutes
past 5 p.m. during the height of the Friday rush hour.
Location: On the
downtown M6 bus, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Broadway in SoHo.
People involved: A
white man about 60-years-old, sitting in the first seat, and a white
male bus driver, a little bit younger, who said that he lived or had
lived in Suffolk County, L.I.
The Scene: The bus
inches forward, stuck in traffic. A young white guy on a white track
bike riding against traffic pulls up to the curb in front of the bus.
The cyclist awkwardly hops the curb and goes up on the sidewalk. The
bus stops short and the passenger and the driver share a guffaw.
Passenger: "You
know, some of these guys will fly past you at 90 miles an hour going
the wrong way on a one-way street."
Driver: "I heard a
lot of them are criminals who can't get driver's licenses, so they
become bike messengers. A cop told me that."
Passenger: "Oh,
yeah?"
Driver: Launches
into a theory about how criminal cyclists will use their heavy
Kryptonite chains to smash car windshields out of pure anger. He points
to his head as he notes that cyclists are angry and off balance. Of his
friend in law enforcement, he says, "He says he locks up two of them a
month for that" (smashing the windshields).
Passenger: "A lot
of them want to be locked up. Heh heh. They call it three hot meals and
a bed."
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