ABC 7 news on Alleycats

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=5986557

this story has been on going since sunday, since the death of a tour de chicago stage 3 alleycat participant. so now the media and the public have twisted the story around about alleycats. for once in my life, i realized how media can really effect someone's emotions (in a bad way). i've only have a glimpse of it, and am i furious...

for one thing, each rider that competes in an alleycat knows what they are getting into. they know they are responsible for their own lives and the results of any outcome (it's always announced before the race). the people that actually compete in alleycats are usually folks that do not obey traffic laws on a daily cycling commute. and there are plenty of people that do not participate in alleycats that still do not obey traffic laws. pedestrians do not obey traffic laws! and what's the point of commuting by bicycle if it's going to take 5 times longer with stopping at lights! you'll have to wake up two hours before the usual time, and it take much much more energy to start pedaling from stop! a cyclist that has been cycling for quite awhile knows to slow down when there is a red light ahead, especially when traffic is unpredictable.

a messenger's job is to pick up and drop off packages as fast as you can. alleycats resembles a messenger's job, the difference is it a competition against others to see who can select the best and fastest routes to each checkpoint. and there are also simple pleasures of seeing who can get from point a to point b as fast as they can. don't get me wrong, bike couriers can be competitive on the job also. this all dates back way way way back in the days when bicycle couriers just started off... probably 1940s maybe earlier? and of course, it's something that bike messengers started, and it evolved. non-messengers wanted to do it. and soon there was a fight between bike messengers and non-messengers... it goes on...

so fuck the media, fuck people who don't understand. there are people always wanting to butt into a lifestyle that they are unknown to, and if they don't understand it, they want to destroy it! especially when a tragedy occurs. you don't see the media cracking down on commuting cyclists that do not obeying the law and dies when a car hits them. or messengers not obeying laws and dying when a semi-truck hits them. it's basically all the same. there are some people in alleycats do it for fun and some that do it to compete. there are some people who like to cut infront of other cyclists when commuting to work and some that stays back, and there are messengers who take their jobs seriously and some that don't.. ALL THE SAME BUT NOT THE SAME PUBLICITY!