In Person Activism

My flimsy cable lock fell apart. So I needed a new lock. The common choices are a U-lock or a chain. I opted for a chain with a heavy integrated lock at one end. This chain could double as a self-defense tool. I wonder which martial art would bring the most utility to this kind of tool.

The chain is big enough that it’s partially falling out of my backpack. It could now actually be something that inspires honking on the basis that it could fall out.

So let me get this straight. Instead of just moving to the side of the road and letting the car pass., you just do a full stop in the middle of the road, thus creating an unsafe situation?

You have a strange idea of safety. Traffic that is stopped is not unsafe. Or are you thinking that it would be holding up an ambulance or something? This 15 seconds of activism would not be carried out if there were an ambulance in the same direction of travel. I cycle without headphones so I can hear emergency vehicles.

Road safety in my region is organised this way: cyclists are entitled to 1 meter clearance of cars. That also includes parked cars because people open doors. So if civil engineers decide to designate part of the road for parking (instead of a cycling lane), then they have prioritized car parking above bandwidth. Cyclists can safely distance themselves 1 meter from the parked cars to avoid that door opening. Moving cars are legally required give cyclists another meter of clearance when passing, because shit happens and cyclists need enough buffer to dodge potholes and unplanned swerves. To give up that buffer is to create an unsafe situation, especially if the driver is in a hurry. The more aggressive a car driver is, the more risk you create by letting them pass. Passing is statistically correllated with accidents.

If car drivers want to move along faster, they should lobby to have parking lanes replaced with cycling lanes. When there is a cycling lane, the 1 meter clearance by moving cars is not legally required.

Don’t fuck with cars, one day somebody is not gonna stop.

I appreciate your genuine concern for my safety. As an activist, I’m perpetually up to my neck in trouble and I accept the risks.

This actually happened to me: I arrived at my destination and discovered my load was loose, ready to fall. There have also been times that I dropped something. And times that my backpack was mistakenly unzipped and I could have lost something worth keeping.

So if I operate with your assumption (that honking drivers are always assholes), then I lose the opportunity to pick up something I dropped or correct insecure cargo. Why should I give that up?

(edit) Since a horn is an ambiguous signal, in this circumstance of a car following a cyclist it should come to be universally understood to mean a cyclist dropped their phone or wallet, as this is the legit scenario.