The Fickle Nature of Morals and Values and Cyclist Habits

Today someone judged me as a rule follower claiming that following the law, simply because it was the law somehow I need to dig deeper or something corny.

The law in question was riding your bicycle on the sidewalk. There was a Facebook post containing a picture of two adults riding on the sidewalk, when they should not have been. There is a construction truck in front of them on the street, two pylons on the sidewalk ahead of them (restricting sidewalk space further) and it’s right next to a park.

Based on the rules here, this was a non permitted cycle action.

The caption indicated that the person who took the pic had to move themselves and their dog out of the way as the cyclists did not slow down for them.

They weren’t going fast, but they still forced this pedestrian off the sidewalk for their convenience.

Since the person judging me felt that this was a valid use of sidewalk riding and the sidewalk rule itself was dumb, me promoting it because it was “the rule” as a reason, was suspect.

Ooooooo I love it when Facebook gets me going in the morning.

Cyclist safety is a hot button issue in the city of Montreal

There are “Ghost Bikes” all over marking spots where people died.

These are probably broken, busted up bikes, painted white, and marked to let you know a cyclist died in this spot. This is all part of a giant push to make the city safer for cyclists with better bike paths.

One of the main criticisms of Valerie Plante is how much money she spends building bike path networks. 

Now cyclists in the city are supposed to be on the road, leaving the sidewalk for pedestrians. Here is a copy/paste from the Montreal Police website:

The Highway Safety Code (HSC) prohibits cyclists from riding on the sidewalk except in cases of necessity or where there are signs permitting or prescribing this. 

It is important to respect the different sidewalk users. For their safety and comfort, walk next to your bicycle if you need to use the sidewalk to get to a business or to your home.

Now necessity does not mean you are uncomfortable or feel it’s risky. It does not mean construction. It does not mean a scary truck is in front of you. 

Riding on the pedestrian paths makes you a scary truck for pedestrians. 

If you don’t feel safe, you are supposed to get off your bike and walk until you feel safe again. 

Disregarding the law for the sake of morales is ethically permissible sometimes

We all know the classic moral dilemma, is it right to ticket a cyclist who rode on the sidewalk to avoid scary construction trucks?

While I’m not advocating anything, I know plenty of parents who worked under the table and got government money to make ends meet. Those parents literally stole from everyone. Our tax dollars fund all kinds of white collar crime, rich and poor. I don’t judge those parents at all. 

My moral code allows for parents to steal tax money to feed their kids. It’s certainly not a victimless crime, but most people abuse the system to maximise profits come tax time, let the poor people hustle too.

I know for a fact some of you agree with me and some of you don’t. 

The person who judged me today’s reasoning was that the law could be disregarded at will because for the most part the action (riding on the sidewalk) is safe. They actually worded it “when done safely”, which implies it can be done not safely, thus regulation is probably worth imposing. 

In my opinion it’s just selfish and disrespectful to ride on the sidewalk, even when I do it (hypocrite me). Even if you can safely pass by people, you may still scare the shit out of them and inconvenience them. It’s not pleasant to have a cyclist appear out of nowhere when you got bags and stuff and music blaring. 

I’m cool with the crime of stealing money to feed people, I don’t think I’m as comfortable riding on the sidewalk like an asshole because it’s mostly safe. Because it’s not actually safe, it’s mostly safe. 

. 

We all draw our lines. 

Cycle safety is a genuine concern and should be taken seriously

While I am very much against cyclists on the sidewalk, it comes from a position of experience as a cyclist.

There are plenty of people who cycle kind of wild and have numerous encounters with cars. I managed to go 7 years of cycling with only 2 bad accidents. Both were my fault and neither involved other people. One time I went up a ramp to be cool, the other time I rode off a sidewalk and landed bad. 

I mostly respect traffic laws and follow the rules set out for cyclists, even if it annoys cars. 

Obviously cars hit cyclists and people die. In 2023, the Ghost Bike people did a vigil marking the 656 pedestrians and 115 cyclists that have been killed by cars in Montreal. I don’t want to diminish the severity of their loss of life, these are real people who died. 

Since then the city has been going hard making it safer for cyclists and pissing off drivers to no end. There were 5 deaths in 2021 and 1 death in 2022. I did not see the 2023 numbers. 

Clearly bike safety is up, despite not being allowed to cycle on the sidewalks. 

I feel given my cavalier attitude it was worth adding this section acknowledging why people care so much about bicycle safety. 

I do wish they’d give that same energy to other causes, like homelessness, but that’s my fickle moral scorecard.

We are fickle with the moral causes we support

The person who attacked me did so because they are passionate about bicycle safety.

This rule of law mandating cyclists on the road, risking their safety, is problematic. Therefore the person feels that problematic rules can be defied. I know enough drug dealers to guarantee you they feel the same way about the law as homie did about bike paths.

Believe it or not, drug dealing is pretty safe, until it isn’t. 

Kind of like cycling on the sidewalk.  

When we get into the nuances of morals and ethics, we all have scorecard lists of priority.

We rank the things we care about the most and become strangely irrational to the concerns of others. 

I know cycling is illegal because I scared the crap out of a woman. There was a cop on the corner of the street and she was like, you want to ask the cop if what you did was legal. I most definitely did not, but I Googled later. 

I was on the sidewalk because the patch of road was 4 tight lanes and no room for a cyclist in traffic, turns out I’m still supposed to be on the road. Even if it slows down every car behind me because they cannot pass. 

Maybe my perception is warped by my aversion to attracting police attention.

Either way all of our morals are super fickle. 

Just because you don’t understand someone’s moral decisions doesn't make your opinion superior to yours. You may be right and they may be wrong, but we all believe what we believe for reasons.

At least for me it’s not vapid.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone