Advocacy & Safety - Is there a correlation between commuting and VC?

I've got a statistics assignment to do and I thought I'd take a poll to see if there is a statistically significant difference in Vehicular Cyclist self-identification between those who commute all of the time (year-round, any weather, any road conditions, barring exceptional circumstances) and those who commute some or most of the time (seasonally, fair weather, when they don't need a car for work, etc.).

I posted the poll in the commuting forum, please take it here (http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=378732) if you haven't already.

So what exactly is VC? No seriously, I don't think there is any real concrete definition for VC, certainly none specific enough for the nit-pickers and naysayers on this forum, so trying to relate VC to commuters would be a futile exercise. And, OP I'm not saying its not a good question, it is, its just that any discussion of even the definition of VC will immediately degenerate into a "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" argument.

Having said that, I think commuters, throught experience, or the school of hard knocks have learned a few things. For example, if the lane is narrow, usually it is safer to take the lane to avoid getiing buzzed, and take the lane when going through an intersection to avoid right hooks. So if the two previous concepts are VC concepts, then yes, I would say that commuters are VC.

So what exactly is VC?
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So if the two previous concepts are VC concepts, then yes, I would say that commuters are VC.
Your first sentence is the bottom line. There is no commonly accepted definition. Period.

Your last sentence is no help, unless the definition of a Vehicular Cyclist is "anybody who practices ANY technique or practice claimed by anybody to be a VC concept".

I've seen night lighting, "good attitudes", dynamic swerving, mirrors, lights, bright clothing, following every law, taking formal classes, studying books on bicycling technique, avoidance of mistakes and everything else under the sun put forth on the BF as "VC concepts" by the VC proselytizers.

Regardless of the fact that there may be no commonly-accepted definition, I would still like to see whether there is a difference in self-identification as VC.

You have a sampling problem.

I'm guessing you are not going to get a statistical difference between the All the time and the Some/Most of the time groups. Both groups are on the roads with cars at similar times and face similar issues, so I would expect them to hold similar beliefs on how they ride. I think you need a control group....I don't or rarely commute by bicycle. I could be wrong, but that's my impression. Also, a sample size of 113 isn't that big, so your error bounds are going to be substantial. Anyway, good luck with your assignment.

Some of these polls are just to get a better handle on who we are talking to here or at lease that's how I view the results.

Some of these polls are just to get a better handle on who we are talking to here or at lease that's how I view the results.

BF poll results and general commentary in the commuter and A&S lists clearly indicate to me that the respondents are in no way representative of the general cycling population and it would be foolhardy to carelessly extrapolate the poll results to any population beyond the BF poster population.