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Share the road...
Keep saying it.
Maybe someday I'll start believing it; because by and large the people not sharing are on two wheels.
Let's just discuss bicycles as vehicles-same-as-cars.
First: Minimum speed limits do exist and are generally 10 under the speed limit. Are you holding that speed on your bike? Obstructing traffic is something you can get a ticket for in a car.
Second: The same as another vehicle concept breaks down when you consider, no license, no registration, no insurance. Things that every motorist is required to have before pulling out onto a public roadway. This lack of regulation and thus lack of enforcement is why the critical mass pricks have people so damned pissed off. I did bother to look up the rules for bicycles, they have single file rules, keep to the right, get off the road and let traffic pass rules... It appears that enforcement is the problem here.
Third: That road is paid for mostly by taxes on fuel. Fuel that your bicycle is not buying; therefore there's some justification that bikes are free-riders on the system and...
Fourth: Those roads and the roadway system were designed and built for motorized traffic traveling at or near the speed limits.
Fifth: If there's a bike path or bike lane use it and stay there for as long as it lasts.
Sixth: I ride many miles a week so I am not saying this as someone who's just an irate car driver.
Because I am a bicyclist, I tend to pay more attention to cyclists and give them the same courtesy that I would like drivers to give me.
Realistically, what I am on a bike is a rather fast pedestrian and the physics are not on my side, same as riding a motorcycle, so it behooves me to pay more attention to the environment to protect my chubby pink skin.
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Dunno about down there but here the cyclists also magically can transform from pedestrians to motor vehicles on a whim. I remember being stuck behind one guy on a narrow Boston street, he was going MAYBE 10 MPH in what was probably a 25 zone. I finally got room to pass him.
ReplyDeleteThen when I was stopped at the next red light the bastard went up on the sidewalk and across the cross walk, and I was stuck behind him AGAIN!'
Had one going down the sidewalk this morning in town. He was a nice enough guy and went wide for the wife and I, but I didn't like those few moments when I was wondering if we needed to take evasive action or let him climb us.
Notice that the common thread in nearly all of these discussions is the bike not following the rules?
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