Most Austinites are used to the sight of bicyclists by now. What was once a fairly rare specimen in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio has migrated to central Texas and flourished. It seems there are more cyclists every year in our fair city.

As the allure of bicycling grows stronger for more people, a certain number of cyclists are determined to promote and maintain a “culture of cool” around their mode of transportation. You often see them brazenly cutting through traffic or running red lights. You often smell them at parties. And you often hear their drunken elegies to their dearly departed fixed-gear bike, not unlike some 50-something dad’s preening quasi-erotic poetry about his classic Mustang. Bicycling has been elevated from a way to get around to a subculture—a lifestyle even.

The invention and popularization of the bicycle at the end of the 19th century promised mobility. Not only was it faster than walking, but social movements like women’s suffrage were greatly aided by the bicycle. Bicycles were the ultimate in egalitarianism: if one put in enough work, anyone could ride a bicycle to wherever he or she wanted.

Over a century later, bicycles are “cool.” Many young people flock to bike co-ops and repair programs to learn maintenance and eventually get a bike of their own. Many participants in these programs, unfortunately, are unhelpful and rude. Bicyclists themselves mirror this exclusivity and pompousness. Something can’t be cool if everyone thinks it is, right?

After all, bicycles are as much a status symbol to us as expensive cars were to previous generations. For us college-age young adults, bicycling means we “don’t really need a car to get places,” or we “want to exercise more,” or we “like French stuff.” Essentially it’s the same thing as the generational flair of being environmentally friendly.

Bicycling is not inherently a bad thing. Alternatives to the automobile should certainly be encouraged, but I don’t see people taking to the light rail in north Austin with the same cultish fury of lifestyle bicyclists.

So, bicyclists of Austin, I beg of you: please stop being so full of yourselves. Bicycles are a means of transportation, not a lifestyle. And if the bicycling lifestyle really is a superior way to do things, why not be more helpful to those trying to improve themselves?