Ort.

In the last five years, 174 people, including 18 cyclists, have been killed by cars in Philly, according to the Bicycle Coalition. The number of pedestrians killed by bikes over the same period? Three.

To bike is to be screamed at, threatened and run off the road all the time. Yet it’s the bicyclists who are trying to be reasonable. On Thanksgiving, a bike messenger was seriously injured in a hit-and-run. The driver, she says, screamed anti-bike obscenities at her while rendering her in need of reconstructive surgery. Did her fellow messengers scream bloody murder? No. They issued a statement: “We do not oppose the enforcement of existing laws regarding bicycle riding, but believe that equal and consistent enforcement … is key.”

When bike messengers are the voices of reason, it’s time for drivers to wake up. Bicyclists aren’t ideologues; they’re commuters.