What's the old adage? Opinions are like...buttholes. Everyone has them, but not everyone needs to hear them.
And in a world where everyone is chronically online, shame has left the building, and everyone believes their unscientific position deserves, nay demands, its moment in the sun, I find that more and more people have forgotten that particular saying. It's unfortunate I have to hear so many buttholes these days. And have to respond since the opinion sections of newspapers around the country seem to love printing rage bait.
Today's case of a butthole making a stink is from the great state of Arizona where Area Aggrieved Man David Leibowitz has thoughts, opinions, and denunciations of the state's motorcycle lane-filtering law. Specifically, he doesn't like them. Not because they don't work, but because motorcycles are loud and scary?
Yep, that's the argument he's going for.
"I was idling at a stoplight on Shea Boulevard, maybe five cars back in line, windows down, enjoying an unseasonably cool morning. That’s when the deafening thrum of a Harley chopper whipping between stopped cars scared the heck out of me," Leibowitz states in his column. He adds, "When my heart rate backed down from triple digits, I made a mental note: 'Write a column about the dumbest law in the state of Arizona.'"
Sounds terrifying, David! Except for the fact that motorcyclists don't whip through cars to get up to a stoplight when the light is red. And if you were five cars back, and the Harley had been whipping, they wouldn't have had time to stop. So my guess is that the Harley rider was just cruising their way up the lanes to get to the stoplight and David may be using hyperbole. That's just a guess, but sure, they were whipping through the stopped cars.
Oh wait, he then goes on to state that his introduction and recollection is bullshit the graph later? Who could've guessed?
"To be clear," he adds after pretending he was scared by a big scary Harley, "the movement – known as 'lane filtering' – is only legal in Arizona on surface streets with at least two lanes of traffic headed in the same direction and a speed limit of 45 mph or less. Motorcyclists cannot exceed 15 mph. Also, the vehicles being passed must be at a full stop."
So his whole premise just crumbled away. And you'd think that'd be enough to stop him from submitting this opinion to his local paper. Nope, the man has no shame, so he continues, extolling an opinion on lane-filtering, which has been proven time and time again to better protect motorcyclists from rear-end collisions and being seen by ignorant drivers who aren't paying attention, because he just doesn't like it.
Don't believe me? After he says that the science behind lane-filtering is probably right, he states, "Me? I say forget the science. There’s about 8 million vehicles registered in Arizona. Motorcycles make up 4 percent of that total. With all due respect to those who choose to ride, I’m not sure letting you move to the front of the line by wheeling through tight spaces and scaring 96 percent of other drivers makes sense."
So again, his premise is bunk, his opinion isn't based on science or stats, he's conflating his opinion with 96% of Arizona's other drivers, and then he openly says he wouldn't even care if the science—which there's a lot of in favor of lane-filtering—says it's good for everyone on the road.
He just doesn't like it.
That's why he's calling for the law, which was passed by the state's voters, and what he says was "strong bipartisan support." Damn, the masses! Damn, the motorcyclists and them wanting be to safer on the road! He's scared, guys! And that trumps everything else! Even though he absolutely wasn't. I say that he likely wasn't afraid as this reads more like he needed a column and it had to be something that'd piss people off when they read the headline. It's rage bait, plain and simple.
I just wish I didn't have to write something in response and these cranks would be confined to what they used to be confined to: Yelling at the clouds.
