Comments on OBESITY PANACEA: A Plea to Cyclists: Please Obey Traffic Laws

Huh. I was not aware of that cyclists often are re...

2009-09-11T16:53:28.689-04:00

Huh. I was not aware of that cyclists often are reckless in traffic. I do not know how to drive, and will have to start regularly biking starting in a month, yet it seems obvious to me that I would have to learn general traffic rules as well as bike specific rules before getting on the road. Are the people who fail to comprehend that suicidal, or just that stupid?

You've both written on this topic and I've...

2009-09-07T08:46:48.210-04:00

You've both written on this topic and I've shared my view: both motorists and bicyclists need to learn to obey traffic laws.

Critical Mass is popular here, usually once college starts up and traffic is a huge mess anyway. Today's newspaper has in it's weekly athletic column an article on 'pedal parties', 1 hour biking events of 200 bicyclists or more that encourage bicyclists and motorists to just get along. Oh and they start and/or stop at a bar. http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/index.html

Joy.

They state that they encourage following the rules of the road, but I'm not sure how 200 bicyclists are all going to stay to the right and let traffic flow through downtown, let alone while bar hopping.

Bicycling like this encourages interaction with others so it's designed to be a slower moving affair and it's going to be very hard to police the actions of so many people at the myriad of intersections and oneway roads we have in our small downtown area.

As it is, I gave up my 150cc scooter because I got tired of being taken as a personal challenge whenever I was in traffic. I'll now stick to the suburbs and highway. And avoid my own city on Thursday evenings.

It seems to me that might does not make right. The...

2009-09-06T00:04:15.223-04:00

It seems to me that might does not make right. The bigger, for safety and harmony, must give way to the smaller, the truck to the car, the car to the bike, the bike to the pedestrian.

A witness in the Bryant case said Bryant actually bumped Sheppard deliberately, because he was going too slowly ahead of him. Then Sheppard came around to the driver-side door, angry, then was killed clutching the side mirror which he probably wanted to tear off.

Why?

Why the road rage on both sides?

We all need to calm down, to respect other road users, and make life easy for others as well as ourselves by accepting a little delay. That's one of the obligations that go with the benefits of civilisation.

tOM

I don't feel that cyclists deserve any more th...

2009-09-04T12:31:54.401-04:00

I don't feel that cyclists deserve any more than their fair share of the blame for the current situation (and as I alluded to in my post, I certainly don't blame the cyclists in that incident). But I don't see how the situation is going to improve unless cyclists make the first move. Are we likely to see tougher jail sentences for motorists who kill cyclists, when there is the popular perception that many of those crashes are caused by the negligence of the cyclists themselves? We need to remove that excuse from drivers, so that if there is an accident where a cyclist is injured, people do not immediately assume that it was due to the cyclist's own dangerous behavior (which I fear is what happens at the moment).

My suggestion has nothing to do with being timid - it has to do with following the rules of the road in a gesture of good faith, so that drivers can trust us to use the roads respectfully and that they should do the same.

Each time that a cyclist runs through a red light (which in Ottawa happens with far more frequency than for motor vehicles), it allows drivers to remain complacent, and to rationalize their dangerous driving by telling themselves that all cyclists are reckless anyway. If we are asking for motor vehicles to respect the rules of the road, the very least we can do is to lead by example.

It certainly seems as if you're blaming cyclis...

2009-09-04T12:12:37.194-04:00

It certainly seems as if you're blaming cyclists. The solution to cars mowing down cyclists in the bike lane, or while turning right on red, or many other things, is for cyclists to be more timid? How about jail time for motorists who kill cyclists out of negligence "I didn't see them", or "the sun was in my eyes", or "I was on the phone" or other lame excuse? In the city where I live, cars run red lights regularly as well. Who do you think is going to cause more damage-the bicyclist that pauses first to make sure nobody is coming, then goes early to get a bit in front of the cars, not so much in the way? Or the idiot illegally on the phone who didn't notice or doesn't care that the light has changed?