"I'll share the road when you follow the rules."
The #DooDahParade organizers should be ashamed. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/TdaSl4JZfv
— Spencer Hackett (@velospence) July 4, 2016
Cyclists in Columbus as well as greater Ohio and beyond were outraged by a float in the recent Doo Dah Parade, an annual event held every Fourth of July in the city. It’s usually an irreverant affair, with floats poking fun at everything from Fidel Castro to zoos. This year included a replica of Harambe, the Cincinnati Zoo gorilla killed last month. The float reportedly featured the gorilla “dragging” along a person dressed as a toddler.
But this particular float struck a serious nerve. An SUV sported a broken bicycle with a dummy’s legs sticking out the sun roof making it look as though the rider had been hit. This came after a Brooklyn cyclist was recently killed when a motorist swerved into the bike lane and hit him on purpose. And, according to Bicycling, five cyclists were killed in Michigan last month by a single drunk driver while four others were injured. According to the most up-to-date stats available, nearly 5,000 pedestrians were killed and 743 cyclists died from motor vehicle incidents in 2014.
The float’s owner, who was apparently protesting new bike-friendly laws in Columbus, had a sign on the car that read, “I’ll share the road when you follow the rules.” While most of the floats poked fun, that wasn’t the case with this particular vehicle. “Unfortunately this guy wasn’t attempting parody,” Tweeted Spencer Hackett, a cyclist who was on the scene. “He was quite sincere with his hate.”
