Originally Posted by
John Forester
CrankyOne states: "John has this view that massive skills are necessary for riding a bicycle, which is the case for riding with traffic in the U.S., but is not the case for riding on well-designed infrastructure." This is plain false, certainly at the U.S. end, probably at the Dutch end. Operating according to the rules of the road for drivers of vehicle does not require "massive skills". This can be taught to grade-school children in about 1.5 instructor hours; I have done so, and I have supervised other teachers doing so, and the results were demonstrated by actual riding on actual roads in actual traffic. As I understand it, according to those who praise the Dutch system, the Dutch system includes at least as much instruction as I provided in the U.S.
John I agree that riding a bicycle according to RRFDV (Rules of the Road for Drivers of Vehicles) is indeed simple. And yes, 8 year old children can do it... the problem is mixing those 8 year old Children on to roads that are used by much older selfish "Children" that refuse to accept drivers of bicycles as valid road users, but instead view them as users of toys that are obstructing the road for the "serious people". Couple this with laws that modify the RRFDV for the sake of motor vehicle users and for the sake of high speed flow vice safety and therein is the problem.
The RRFDV is massively simple (it is practiced daily in supermakets)... but far too many motorists violate those basic rules and manage to kill 10s of thousands of people.
No doubt you have demonstrated children can be taught RRFDV... but what happens to those 8 year old children on 45 and 50 MPH 6 lane arterial roads where impatient motorists fail even to give way to pedestrians at crosswalks, much less to a small cyclist?
And please enlighten us as to why overtaking collisions are so deadly... being that an overtaking collision is a basic violation of RRFDV; to give way to slower traffic in front of you?
The core problem isn't that we need to just train cyclists, but EVERYONE as to their real responsibilities RE RRFDV.