The Apex Predator and the Preyed Upon
Or another one of Andy Boenau's lies?
In an ecosystem, the terms "predator" and "prey" describe a natural relationship between two organisms depending on their role in the food chain. A “predator” hunts, kills, and consumes other organisms and those organisms are said to be “prey.”
Predators are higher up in the food chain and thanks for natural selection have adaptations such as sharp vision (with eyes located more towards the front of their heads), sharp teeth, claws, and speed or stealth that help them catch and kill their prey. Equipped with forward-facing binocular vision, hands with opposing thumbs attached to arms, and the advanced ability to track and understand strategy (theory of mind?), humans, with their minds are able to develop a number of tricks and tolls to catch food from traps to projectiles such as arrows or bullets. By contrast, prey are organisms that are hunted and consumed by predators. They are typically lower on the food chain and have adaptations such as eyes located towards the sides of the head with a wide field of vision, camouflage, speed, or defensive mechanisms to avoid being caught by predators.
The distinction between predator and prey of course isn’t usually black and white.- it’s instead relative. In other words many organisms both prey on other organisms but are also preyed upon. For example, many frog species prey on insects but are also preyed upon by birds and snakes. Barring few exceptions resulting in less than a rounding error, this is not the case with the modern human, Homo sapien sapien. We’re instead apex predators, with nearly every species we can safely eat below us in the food chain. Early hominins and prehistoric humans, such as Australopithecus and Homo habilis, were prey to larger predators such as sabre-toothed tigers, giant short-faced hyena, and other large carnivores.
It was only with the development of tools, fire, and complex social structures that Homo sapien sapien gradually rose to the top of the food chain to the status of apex predator. These complex social structures of humans enabled a complex system of cooperation among its members. Reciprocity is key, as is having some form of theory of mind, which is one’s ability to understand and attribute mental states—such as beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions—to oneself and others, recognizing that others have thoughts and perspectives different from one's own.
This high-level cooperation, and concept of theory of mind, includes when one or more human is trying to occupy the same space at the same time, and in the case of when one or more humans are trying to share such a space when its designated part of the public highway system, the rules of the road for drivers of vehicles and pedestrians, as originally envisioned by William Phillips Eno in the late 1800s, reins supreme as a schema for conflict avoidance and travel efficiency. Attempts over the years (most successful) to conflate or mistake slower-moving single tracked non-motorized vehicles as “rolling pedestrians,” has not only proven to increase conflicts up to an including fatal collisions but have resulted in discriminatory law against these road users that’s contrary to the rules of the road and actually increase conflicts between drivers of (motor) vehicles, drivers of bicycles, and pedestrians. This, long story short, led to the what is now called the “protected bike lane,” and the rise of those who advocate for them. These same individuals often exhibit a defective theory of mind. Instead of viewing sharing the basis of sharing a space on cooperation and the reality of how different things move, they instead project their distorted and unconstrained vision of how they feel things should be.
“Earth's apex predator,” tweeted Andy Boenau, a voice whose been covered here before, with a screenshot of a news clip featuring what appears to be a bicyclist’s point of view via a front facing camera either mounted on the bars or the bicyclist’s head. Taking up almost one quarter of the image is a black motor vehicle. The wheels are turned towards the motor vehicle driver’s right indicating their likely direction of travel: all facts Boenau (of course) neglects to mention.
Further more, the triangles marking on the right indicate “yield,” presumably to those on whatever path the driver of this motor vehicle is about to enter. On the left is a clusterfuck of unclear markings (typical for “engineers” of segregated bikeways to experiment) and on the center green pavement plus one yellow stripe diving the middle of the path.
But it’s the text on the news clip that says it all: “Bicyclist hit while riding in bike lane.”
Boenau then supplements with another tweet emphasizing on his delusional word choice by adding, “the predator is hidden inside its protective shell, always ready to strike.”
Just off this one image, to the trained principle-driven bicyclist’s eye, this is likely a two-way “protected” bike lane or cycletrack and the motorist is leaving some sort of piece of private property to enter the public highway. Between intersections and driveways, this “protected” bike lane likely has some sort of vertical barrier such as “flexible posts” or “wheel stops.” Theoretically, the motorist is supposed to yield (and stop if necessary) to bicyclists coming from both directions and then move across the bikeway and yield to the traffic on the general-use travel lanes before entering the highway.
Reality-based people understand or can be easily be convinced this is easier said than done. Those with defective theory of mind, who categorize motorists into “oppressors” and everyone else into “oppressed,” or similar terms such as “predator” and “prey,” are unable to see through their character-distorted delusions instead failing at understanding reality.
This “apex predator” and victim bicyclist “prey” take is a both a deranged and dishonest take and is typical of Boenau who is one of the many Cluster B(ike) Activists responsible for pissing off the average non-character disordered person but also for parasitizing the bicycling movement with progressive/woke dogma.
The video Boenau (likely) screenshotted is easy to find, of course, by simply typing the text of the headline in the screenshot into a search engine. The station name is clearly displayed on the screenshot as being from the local NBC affiliate.
The two-minute video is also published on Youtube, entitled (ironically1) Bicyclist hit while riding in 'Road diet' bike lane in Ferndale.
But for those who bother to watch the video will notice the same imagery that Boenau used in his screenshot and that the bicyclist does not actually get hit by that black motor vehicle. In fact what really happened was that the driver of the black motor vehicle, which appears to be an SUV, pulled out, stopped, and the bicyclist himself rode out in front.
Both the video and various photographs on the news article from the local CBS Affiliate (“Metro Detroit bicyclist hit by car in Ferndale pushes for redesign of bike lanes” ) indicate it is indeed a two-way “protected” bicycle lane, or cycletrack. The “protection” is the presence of “flexible” posts in some places mid-block but not others. It’s also unknown whether the “design” has bicycle-specific (actual) protected signals at intersections or how many of these driveways are present mid-block where the “design” has been implemented. (Another CBS article covers the installation of this “design” and provides the location. )
The bicyclist, John Thebo, fortunately was not hurt, and provided an interview to the local CBS affiliate stating.
"I was right in front of the Taco Bell, and then a vehicle in the drive-thru was already parked here, and she only looked to oncoming traffic, didn't see me, and ended up hitting me directly, pushing me into traffic. Still pretty shook up. I still feel like something is going to hit me on my left side."
Thebo is described in the news piece, “an avid cyclist who uses the bike lanes daily but says he's never felt entirely safe2.”
Later in the piece, he admits to encountering other close calls while using this bike lane the piece also reveals he advocated for saying:
“This is actually my fourth time, where this time I actually got hit. The three other times, I was close to getting hit but didn't.”
And:
"It's really concerning because there's not enough indication that it is a bike lane, and if somebody is an elderly or a child, it could have been worse.”
Either nobody has told Thebo the uncomfortable truth about segregating bicyclists along areas with multiple turning and crossing hazards or he’s somewhere on the reality denial spectrum. Needless to say, it’s a good thing Thebo isn’t hurt, and hopefully nobody else experiences close calls or gets hurt. But that last part is highly unlikely to come to fruition.
A honest person has gotta ask, what is going on here?
First of all, there is no predator or prey - not in the video - not in the incident not shown in the video where Thebo was actually hit. That’s the typical bullshit spewed by Boenau who if he were the literal Pinocchio would have a nose stretching lightyears across. The motorist wasn’t charged with a crime indicating he or she intentionally set out to hit the bicyclist and Thebo indicated nowhere that was the intent of the motorist. Thebo more than anything seems clueless as to why he keeps having issues, a common thing with uneducated or idealistic bicyclists. Even if such an (criminal) incident occurred, the parties would not be labeled as “apex predator” and “prey.”
Instead this collision and Thebo’s other close calls were a result of a defective design that bypasses elementary rules of the road and human expectation in favor for “feeling safe.”
The “design” is this “protected” two-way cycletack, or better yet more appropriately named “cycleTRAP,” encourages turning and crossing collisions between motor vehicle drivers and bicyclists. This is the exact reason most bicycling safety programs throw caution at cycling on sidewalks - the bicyclists on such an area are out of sight and out of mind of users in the general-use traffic lanes (and their movements on vehicles are fundamentally incompatible with pedestrian movement.)
Unfortunately the inability to see and understand the objective reality of these hazards and instead handwave emotional safety is a tall-tale sign of the defective theory of mind present in the Cluster B(ike) Activist.
This is far from the first time a “road diet” has resulted in “designs” that endanger bicyclists.
“Feeling safe” or some related term is a typical propaganda term used by Platitude-driven and Cluster B(ike) Activist. But it more often than not neglects objective safety and principles.
‘s work and both cover this issue on a broad scale.