Meh, I wouldn't even bother replying to them. I stay off the car-free forum on bikeforums.net. I used to hang out on the advocacy and safety group, but they seem to be mainly there to preach. These people would be terribly disappointed if someone didn't challenge them. They're not going to be swayed from their opinion, and neither are you. You're just wasting your time and annoying the pig.
We're not going to save the planet in one miracle move, and the entire population isn't going to give up their cars. It's either going to happen by each person deciding what they can do, or it's not going to happen and we're all going to run off a cliff someday. You and I do what we've decided are reasonable measures for us to take, and we answer questions when people ask them. This plants seeds in people's heads and they can then make their own choices. I personally think that's much more effective than evangelism, which only ever works (no matter what you're selling) if someone's already searching for an answer before you come to them.
Devil's advocate: It's not too hard to see where some of the indignation comes from though; in some areas of the country, people treat cyclists quite badly. I've read stories of people actually trying to kill cyclists for no apparent reason other than the crazy cyclist seemed to think that they had a right to be on the road and delay a car by 2 or 3 seconds, so they needed killin'. Add the general road rage element in, and it's pretty easy for cyclists to start believing that just being in a car automatically makes anyone into an asshole. Heck, I've seen cyclists posting that THEY tend to become big jerks when they get in a car.
If you have questions about bike commuting, I'd recommend going to bikeforums.net and going to the commuting forum. The people there are quite helpful. Search the archives. Almost any conceivable question has been answered. They don't mind too much if you restate the question either. Most of us are just looking for something to do besides work. :)
I've seen people post questions about their route, and have both knowledgeable locals critique their route, and others use google maps to make suggestions.
There are often posts of "I had this bad experience in traffic, how do you think I should have handled it better?" that turn into useful discussions.
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We're not going to save the planet in one miracle move, and the entire population isn't going to give up their cars. It's either going to happen by each person deciding what they can do, or it's not going to happen and we're all going to run off a cliff someday. You and I do what we've decided are reasonable measures for us to take, and we answer questions when people ask them. This plants seeds in people's heads and they can then make their own choices. I personally think that's much more effective than evangelism, which only ever works (no matter what you're selling) if someone's already searching for an answer before you come to them.
Devil's advocate: It's not too hard to see where some of the indignation comes from though; in some areas of the country, people treat cyclists quite badly. I've read stories of people actually trying to kill cyclists for no apparent reason other than the crazy cyclist seemed to think that they had a right to be on the road and delay a car by 2 or 3 seconds, so they needed killin'. Add the general road rage element in, and it's pretty easy for cyclists to start believing that just being in a car automatically makes anyone into an asshole. Heck, I've seen cyclists posting that THEY tend to become big jerks when they get in a car.
If you have questions about bike commuting, I'd recommend going to bikeforums.net and going to the commuting forum. The people there are quite helpful. Search the archives. Almost any conceivable question has been answered. They don't mind too much if you restate the question either. Most of us are just looking for something to do besides work. :)
I've seen people post questions about their route, and have both knowledgeable locals critique their route, and others use google maps to make suggestions.
There are often posts of "I had this bad experience in traffic, how do you think I should have handled it better?" that turn into useful discussions.