Photo: IMAGO/Pond5 Images
You have to assume that everyone else is idiots.” My father gave me this saying when he taught me to ride a bike and later to drive a car. What he meant was: There is always one person who runs the red light and always one person who stops when the traffic light is green. In order not to crash into this or that one or to avoid being run over by them, you have to assume that everyone is an idiot. This way the bike stays intact, the car and, above all, the bones. At the time I thought it was a bit strict and a bit unfair and I knew that you could come to terms with looks and gestures, for example when no one really knows who actually has the right of way.
In recent years, however, I have thought about this saying of my father more and more often. Last week, for example, I was cycling to work and two SUVs collided on a narrow side street that I like to use. It was impossible for the two leopard-shell-wide car monsters to pass each other in the street, but neither wanted to give in. They stood facing each other, glaring at each other and honking incessantly. The only thing they took more seriously than this blow of fate was that we cyclists were able to pass them on the right and left without making any progress – and for certain successful people, people cycling are even scarier than pedestrians, because bikes are also quite fast But cities are often faster because they are more maneuverable.
nd.DieWoche – our weekly newsletter
With our weekly newsletter nd.DieWoche look at the most important topics of the week and read them Highlights our Saturday edition on Friday. Get your free subscription here.
However, I was very surprised that I heard both of them honking five intersections away. Apparently none of them were – they were two men, of course! – able to give in, and so they continued to be irreconcilably opposed to each other in the war of position that they consider to be road traffic. Maybe they’ll still honk today. A few days ago, a driver came across the bike path a few meters in front of me and directly in front of a cyclist. She was coming out of an exit and obviously didn’t care that there were other road users. This sort of thing happens all the time. And people on bikes and on foot are now completely crazy, traffic rules are not observed, and it is obviously impossible to make other arrangements in traffic.
So are they all idiots and uneducated people? One might assume that, and when you see how little the not so uneducated rulers value educational opportunities for others, it may even be obvious. But I’m afraid that most people know the traffic rules. However, they don’t care because they believe they are individuals in a world in which they alone are the center of attention. Because “there is no such thing as society” as Maggie Thatcher once dictated to them, there is no longer any society for them, only themselves and their built-in right of way. The fact that they are willing to endanger not only others but also themselves for their selfish ideology only proves how blinded the majority of people are today. You probably really think you are invulnerable.