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I was doing some research to learn more about what vehicular cycling really means. (Hard-core nutcases who want to sabotage all alternatives and drive off casual bikers? People giving reasonable suggestoins for how to be safe under current conditions?)
http://www.wright.edu/~jeffrey.hiles/essays/listening/ch4.html
seems reasonable. Of major advocates, John Forester (a founder, author of Effective Cycling) seems purist, opposing bike facilities, advocating full road biking... if you can sustain 18 mph, and go away if you can't. John Allen, not mentioned here, seems more flexible, criticizing Cambridge and Somerville cyclepaths for poor design but not opposed to the idea. Hiles picks on Foresters statistics, legitimately, though says good things about the book at the end. My interest has moved on, though:
( Read more... )
Even John "Mr. Vehicular" Forester advocates treating stop signs as yield signs, and slow rolling stops to avoid having to overcome stationary friction.
And as for the scofflaw nature of it all, I was inspired to ask 'How many drivers who complain of law-breaking bicyclists, themselves violate speed limits and turn signal requirements?' I'm not sure anyone who goes 5-10 mph over the speed limit, or often doesn't use turn signals, is in a position to complain about bikers with a flexible attitude toward stop signs and sidewalks.
Of course there's adaptive, and then there is truly reckless. Zooming downhill through a low-visibility stop sign just because you don't want to brake (and nearly colliding with me[1]); biking past pedestrians at full road speed; biking at night without lights (on *or* off the sidewalk, IMO; sidewalk may protect you from cars but makes you more of a menace to pedestrians unless you're slow). And writing laws to cover complex adaptive behavior, other than "we'll ban stuff that could be risky but leave enforcement up to police judgement", is hard. OTOH, that last is more flexibility than people who issue blanket condemnations of rolling stops or sidewalking (where illegal) do.
[1] I have wondered if that biker saw me and figured the speeds were right or that he had enough control to swerve around me. I just saw someone flashing by two feet in front of me while I crossed with right of way.
http://www.wright.edu/~jeffrey.hiles/essays/listening/ch4.html
seems reasonable. Of major advocates, John Forester (a founder, author of Effective Cycling) seems purist, opposing bike facilities, advocating full road biking... if you can sustain 18 mph, and go away if you can't. John Allen, not mentioned here, seems more flexible, criticizing Cambridge and Somerville cyclepaths for poor design but not opposed to the idea. Hiles picks on Foresters statistics, legitimately, though says good things about the book at the end. My interest has moved on, though:
( Read more... )
Even John "Mr. Vehicular" Forester advocates treating stop signs as yield signs, and slow rolling stops to avoid having to overcome stationary friction.
And as for the scofflaw nature of it all, I was inspired to ask 'How many drivers who complain of law-breaking bicyclists, themselves violate speed limits and turn signal requirements?' I'm not sure anyone who goes 5-10 mph over the speed limit, or often doesn't use turn signals, is in a position to complain about bikers with a flexible attitude toward stop signs and sidewalks.
Of course there's adaptive, and then there is truly reckless. Zooming downhill through a low-visibility stop sign just because you don't want to brake (and nearly colliding with me[1]); biking past pedestrians at full road speed; biking at night without lights (on *or* off the sidewalk, IMO; sidewalk may protect you from cars but makes you more of a menace to pedestrians unless you're slow). And writing laws to cover complex adaptive behavior, other than "we'll ban stuff that could be risky but leave enforcement up to police judgement", is hard. OTOH, that last is more flexibility than people who issue blanket condemnations of rolling stops or sidewalking (where illegal) do.
[1] I have wondered if that biker saw me and figured the speeds were right or that he had enough control to swerve around me. I just saw someone flashing by two feet in front of me while I crossed with right of way.