Originally Posted by
kickstart
Problem is some on both sides of the fence stop reading at "shall ride as far to the right as practicable". If everybody did what they are supposed to do it wouldn't be an issue.
Too many people selectively choose the rules and laws that justify their actions, when in reality the rules and laws in their entirety are only intended to define what our duties are.
Unfortunately, you are wrong there. The specific law to which you refer, the cyclist Far-to-the-Right law, was deliberately designed to retain motorists' proclamation that cyclists' prime duty is to stay out of the way of motorists, just so far as it was possible to enact this according to legal principles. There was no evidence supporting motorists' desire, but there was plenty of evidence that FTR endangered cyclists. The proper act would have been to repeal the FTR law, but motorists demanded their legal superiority. Enacting a traffic law that endangered cyclists to suit motorists would have been reversed by the courts as exceeding the police power. Therefore, the law that got written proclaimed that cyclists' prime duty was to clear the way for motorists except under one of the then-recognized situations in which FTR endangered cyclists. As all of us recognize, I expect, the public and the police recognize the requirement that cyclists stay out of the way of motorists without bothering to learn the exceptions or the reason for the exceptions. Real life is more complicated than Kickstart thinks.