Originally Posted by
New Yorker
I think the problem is not so much a matter of education, but rather political orientation. Many parts of Nassau County – and rural Suffolk County – are far right, red state Republican - and proud of it. It's been my experience that many of that ilk hate cyclists, who they view as urban, tree-hugging liberals, trying to take over their roads, where the car is king. So this goes way beyond knowing the rules of the road. That's rational; modern day politics is emotional.
Just my casual observation; I could be wrong.
That is certainly a factor in that the highway department of Nassau County has had a mindset of refusing to consider any kind of on street bike lanes or shared lane markings. Even though the Fed's were paying for it. That was something I had hoped to see on the agenda of Tom Suozzi, but never went anywhere. In Peter Schmidts legislature, that kind of thinking will go nowhere.
But you really need to get all or most of the cyclists on the same page, riding on the correct side of the road (HUGE issue). Not going onto sidewalks then off again. Wearing visible clothing and using lights at night, stopping at red lights and at least slowing at stop signs. Note that I'm a believer in changing the traffic laws to allow treating stop signs as slow and yield, as done in Idaho, as example. Not sure how well it would work in a more congested area though.
The bigger education issue is of course, motorists. Getting folks to understand that cyclists belong on the streets and to respect our presence is going to be a huge problem. Part of the message needs to come from the police, who need to stop giving motorists involved in a car/bike accident a free pass with no tickets written for obvious infractions.
Long hard battle.
SB