Bike Reno

I’m sure many of you have read the article on Reno Gazette-Journal’s Web site questioning whether cyclist’s rights have gone too far.  I’m disappointed…not in the content of the article, or even the fact that someone thought to write it, but in the RGJ for publishing it.  There will always be lousy articles; this is just one of many.  It’s anecdotal, inflammatory, and does nothing to further what should be the main goal of a newspaper, which is to investigate and inform.  There will always be douchebag journalists who have a deadline and decide to write some trash that will get people’s ire up and give their article lots of page views.  That’s how the paper makes money.  But just because these articles are written doesn’t mean the RGJ needs to publish them.  The article wasn’t even written by an RGJ writer.  It was written by a USA Today writer and pulled off their news feed by the RGJ and dropped into their “Breaking News” section which is misleading because there’s nothing breaking or even news-like in the piece.  It’s more of an opinion piece that lacks the obligatory “do this” paragraph at the end.  By publishing it, the RGJ is trying to pour gasoline on a fire that doesn’t burn very bright in Reno.  We don’t have huge problems with motorists and cyclists here.  I know everyone has their stories of close calls and such, but overall, things run pretty smoothly here despite the lack of cycling infrastructure.  I’ve ridden in many worse places.  We don’t need anyone trying to stir things up between motorists and cyclists.  The RGJ should be ashamed for trying to create an artificial divide between people just to drive page views.  We are one community here in northern Nevada, and the RGJ should stick to its role as a source of truth and information, and not participate in crass, divisive rhetoric.