Originally Posted by
Seattle Forrest
Bike "advocates" demanding that police harass and ticket cyclists ... with "friends" like these, who needs enemies?
The most significant risks I face on my bike are from lawless behavior by motorists. Those risks could be substantially reduced or eliminated by vigorous enforcement of the traffic laws. It would be hypocritical of me to ask law enforcement to selectively enforce the traffic laws. Therefore, I have no problem with cyclists receiving citations for moving violations. If we want lawful behavior on the roads, we can't say everyone except us needs to obey the laws.
FWIW, I have lived in a city that had a zero-tolerance policy for all traffic laws for all road users. While the cyclists complained, it did indeed make for a very bike-friendly city. In fact, in the late '70s and early '80s we had between 70% and 90% of all intra-city trips being made by bike. The traffic enforcement stopped and the bikes left. Of course other things happened as well, but I have not seen another city in the U.S. that has achieved anything near what we took for granted.