Originally Posted by
DTSCDS
^^^^^
This is my policy.
I am really bothered by bikes rolling through red lights. I am in complete agreeance that we need to treat ourselves like a vehicle if we want others to treat us like a vehicle. In Dallas a couple of months ago there was a hipster on a SS that blew through a red light. One of the news outlets had a couple of folks commenting on how dangerous it is to ride in Dallas. Really? Blowing through a red light and getting T-Boned is an example of how dangerous it is?
Kind of like teenagers who want to be treated like an adult when it comes to adult privileges but treated like a kid when it comes to adult responsibilities. Which is it, are we a vehicle or not?
Personally, I don't want to be treated like a vehicle. Only in the deepest recesses of the politicians brain could one decide that a 45lb bicyle with an overweight American with undiagnosed coronary disease is the functional equivalent of an American in a droop snout Kenilworth. Tell me, in your city, as you are tooling down the boulevard on your Specialized Cirrus, if the trip calls for a left turn at the intersection up ahead, can you signal left and merge over to the left turn lane, trip the left turn signal and proceed? Will traffic behind you lose their minds and speed up to cut you off in your attempts to merge left? Still think you are a vehicle? At best you are some sort of super ped. Kind of like a paraplegic in a power wheelchair. Are they vehicles?
The vast majority of cyclists mainly drive for transportation and cycle for recreation. As drivers it irks you to see bicyclists getting away with something. As a cyclist you feel guilty when you even think about rolling through that intersection. I am not in the slightest risk of getting T-boned when I blow through a red light because I wouldn't be blowing the red if there was cross traffic to T-bone me. Its the disapproval of the stopped traffic going in the same direction that the goody-two-shoes are afraid of. I wonder why. As soon as they get the green and catch up and pass the cyclist that has them so hot and bothered s/he is forgotten. Utterly. On to the next thing.
Despite the immense horsepower advantage of a car over a bicycle, the realities of infrastructure limits most cars to an average of 17mph. I can average 15mph some days commuting like a bicycle. Other days its closer to 12mph. The difference is usually wind. Most cars are not affected one way or the other by wind. Driven like a car my average speed on a bicyle would be closer to 5mph to 8mph and I would be better off jogging my 7.5mi. commute. People who can get in cars with speed potentials of 100mph and accept a 17mph average as acceptable won't have too much sympathy if a cyclist gives up 2/3 of their potential top speed to behaving well on the road. But I'm not going to be shamed into it. Sorry.
H