Originally Posted by Helmet Head
I'm convinced that the only way to effectively address this issue is to educate cyclists about their rights and safety, and get more cyclists riding like you were this morning. Sure, you could get this one woman reported, and maybe she'll get a ticket. Maybe. If she does, it's only because you got it on tape. But doing so is going after the symptom. For every driver who actually acts on this notion, and gets busted for it, there are probably tens if not hundreds of thousands that will never have a reason to change. No, we have to identify and address the root problem. The root problem is the cultural expectations created by cyclist behavior: curb huggers create the expectation that cyclists are supposed to be hugging the curb, regardless of what the law says.
The only way to solve that is to change cyclist behavior. Your riding assertively like you have been is probably accomplishing much more in that respect than busting even 100 drivers for doing what this woman did this morning.
It's easy to focus on this one woman, and ignore the thousands who have seen you doing what you do, and did not clip you. But you have made an impression. Maybe they're wondering what you're doing "out there", but at least the question has popped into their heads. Maybe some of them are cyclists who normally hug curbs, and seeing you will cause them to consider moving out a little further themselves. The ones who see you every day, and see how predictable and safe you are, are particularly getting an important lesson. Now if only they would see a couple more cyclists regularly doing the same thing...
Stay the course.
HH. You never replied to my earlier post and you won't accept e-mails, so I'm reposting it in reply to a more recent post as I think your only educating one half of the users, and the least dangerous at that. As demonstrated by this rider's experience and the ones I have every other day in Los Angeles there are obviously motorists who would benefit from a little education. I concede the point about educating cyclists, but there is already an infrastructure in place to educate motorists, signage, DMV's, testing, and traffic school. Why not utilize what is already there? We're not talking about new legislation, only education of existing regulations and rights. Kind of like the big DUI education initiatives of the last decade.
The obvious problem is that at least every other day I have a motorist who passes to closely because they feel I shouldn't be in the lane. I attribute these common occurrences to motorist ignorance and the resulting 'problem' is that every close pass increases the likelihood of being clipped or worse rear-ended. You are always quick to point out that these are the rarest accidents, but they are also, when the occur the most likely to be fatal. So obviously the closer a motorist passes the more likely it is that there will be a collision. It is all well and good to ignore the behavior, how noble of you. But it doesn't do anything in the long run to change the behavior. You say you don't know what to do about law enforcement ignorance, but I would argue that it is symptomatic of the lack of education of all motorists to cyclists rights and responsibilities. When the folks that are charged with enforcing the laws are ignorant of the laws what do you think that says about the level of education across the board of all roadway users. You are so set on educating cyclists, as these are the ones we can all reach and change, but in the end this ignores the vast majority of roadway users.
I recently took a traffic school course, don't ask, and there was almost nothing about cyclists, except to watch out because we are unpredictable. On the other hand there was an exhaustive section on alcohol and narcotics. It is my opinion that a few more pages in the drivers manuals and an increase in signage would go a long way in getting the word out about our rights to the roadway. And I don't mean the share the road baloney, but a few "Cyclists allowed full use of lane" at some of the more contentious intersections and some sharrows that have been shown to increase passing clearance in studies in San Francisco. HH, you make the argument that bad drivers will just ignore such signage anyways, but this is a cop out argument, because if law enforcement and motorists are aware of the laws they are breaking it is more likely that scofflaws will be ticketed, instead of just having to ignore it.