I'll tell you why I speed. I see so many drivers not following the rules, making stupid decissions, going 35 in the 45 while in the fast lane as well, not allowing right of way when they should, swerving to a lane, not looking when they switch lanes and numerous other moronic things. For those reasons I go as fast as I can so as to avoid dealing with frustrating sometimes dangerous maneuvers. It's more often that it ever should be that I am saying out loud, "WHY did you do that?", or just shaking my head in disbelief at the stupid thing I just saw on the road. How about this one, 3 lane highway, speed limit is 45, and there are 3 drivers abreast doing 40-45 and backing up traffic for quite a ways. It is accepted that everybody speeds on the main roads around here and when people do stuff like that it clogs up the roadway. So for me at least, having to deal with drivers that shouldn't have passed their exam in the first place drives me nuts and I speed so I don't have to deal with them. I'm 23, in college, a pizza driver for 1.5 years, and never had an accident.
Cars are way too big of a part of American life to get rid of or reduce. The number of drivers far outweighs the number of bicycle commuters so getting cars around efficiently is more important than making intersections safer. I've crossed roads at intersections more times than I can remember and never had an incident. My parents taught me how to do this safely.
You can talk about it and come up with a myriad of ideas on how to improve our existing road system. Bottom line is it costs too much money to change things and it seems to work well enough anyway. Most automobile related accidents are car vs. car, not car vs. pedestrian. I also bet there are more motorcycle incidents than bicycle, should we ban motorcycles or make a special road system for them? Convince the majority of the US to ride bikes instead of drive cars and maybe you can get some reform.
The drivers can barely avoid another 3,000lb car sometimes. Claim that they "didn't see the motorcyclist", and you want them to be more aware of you when they have other cars and motorcycles moving at up to 55mph 2 feet away from them. It's not going to happen, every cyclist for themselves.
Like Dennis Leary said, "If you want to ride a f'ing bike, move to China. Be my f'ing guest. Eat rice for the rest of your life for cryin out loud."
Last edited by Beau; 11-20-02 at 09:04 PM.