scrantr

<RANT ON>
The situation is not one cyclist vs. all the drivers. It is 1 cyclist and 1 driver at a time being able to cooperate and share the road. I commute on a bicycle, but I also have a car. I pay all the same taxes any other car owner does, and by this person's logic, derive *less* benefit from them. I don't tear up the roads, I don't raise the smog level to the point that mandatory emission inspections are enacted, and I certainly pose no threat to other users of the road.

By the logic of relative vulnerability, small cars should be banned because they come off far worse in a collision with an SUV. Pedestrians would be banned from every stepping outside, and heaven forbid that any farm machinery, highway maintenance equipment, or sobriety checkpoint should ever delay this guy on his way to *his* very important engagement. We should all be travelling around in Navigators, Yukons, and Hummers. C'mon, it's not an arms race, folks.

These always degenerate to a "my rights" shouting match, which instantly means you've stopped listening to the other guy. If we are evaluating this on a "rights" basis, then the cyclists win every time. You get access to the public byways by being a citizen. If you use a car, you must prove that you can do so without unduly endangering others (cars, trucks, cyclists, pedestrians, Mini Coopers, whatever). That ideal must be balanced against the reality that a driver distracted by kids, a cell phone, spilled hot coffee, or a CD player in the dash is not behaving as a competent driver and endangers all around him. I do not expect this to change. It is difficult enough to get a judge to lift a license for (multiple) DUI arrests. All these other sins are venial by comparison.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for the "Critical Mass" riders who stop traffic, then whine about being harassed by the police. They do us no good from a public image standpoint. I have even less sympathy for the morons who feel the need to throw something at cyclists from moving cars. If a cyclist retaliates at that sort of treatment, I understand. I don't support it, but I understand.

Driving an authomobile is a privilege, not a right. It requires that you share the road with other users in a civil manner. The same is expected of cyclists. I don't understand why this always has to become a confrontation.
<RANT OFF>

If roads were constructed at least two feet of decent shoulder and swept once in awhile to keep down the broken glass, mufflers, and other stuff that falls off cars, I doubt there would be so much debate on this subject.

Can't we all just get along? --Rodney King.