Originally Posted by
FBinNY
I don't have a hard number of any kind, and good/bad, attentive/distracted driving aren't black/white things. They're part of a continuum so it becomes a question of definition and where to draw the line.
Even the cell phone/texting issue is mostly a cause de jour. Yes, drivers can be distracted when using a cell phone, and especially when texting, but they're also distracted by children in the back seat, advertizing along the road, what's happening around them, and even by bicyclists who require some more attention than is needed in the laminar flow of traffic moving at the same speed.
I'm not endorsing cell phone use on the road, but a cell phone on a 2 lane road, is probably less distracting than driving down any avenue in NYC.
I don't deny that there are rude, aggressive, or bicyclist hating drivers, but I really don't find that many here in Metro NY. The numbers might be different elsewhere where bicycles on the road are rare, and a fairly new thing. However, I'll venture that if cyclists in or near major cities in the northeast, and cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle and San Francisco are honest with themselves, they'll agree that decent drivers are the rule and problem drivers the exception.
Overall I think MOST drivers tend to treat us with the same indifference they treat other traffic, we are there and they are there and we all have similar goals to get somewhere else using the roads and our chosen means of transportation... and generally things work as they should.
I think the exceptions are the rare extreme... the really considerate motorists and the down right rude and dangerous motorists. I honestly can say that when commuting daily I tended to only have encounters of one kind or another no more than a couple of times a year... my most memorable considerate motorist was driving a Rolls Royce, and rolled down his window to complement my bicycle "driving."
One of the more annoying motorist encounters was when I had signaled for a left and moved into place in a similar proper manner and a motorist pulled up and berated me for the move and told me I should hug the curb like the other cyclists... and had no suggestion as to how to make a left turn if I stuck to the right curb.
Overall I think a few things I would like motorists to keep in mind... is that we ALL share the roads and cyclists and peds tend to be a bit more vulnerable than folks surrounded by padding in metal cages. And to that end I would really like motorists to keep their heads on the task at hand... of properly piloting a heavy powered vehicle in a safe manner.