Originally Posted by genec
I think so too... but on the current voluntary basis, the cyclists that need the training the most are the least likely to seek it. And in that respect it is very ineffective.
I agree that useful, shall we say effective with a lower-case e, cyclist training programs attract only a very small proportion of the public. There are several reasons for this. The biggest, probably, is that very few in the American public are interested in bicycle transportation. They say they are in answer to survey questions, but few actually are as shown by their participation. The excuse that they offer is that they think the normal roads are too dangerous for cycling. That leads to the second large reason, that they think that bikeways make cycling safe while obviating the need for traffic-cycling skill. As long as our society and government continue proclaiming that bikeways obviate the need for traffic-cycling skill, those powerful forces operate against any program of cycling skill. As long as our society and government continue to operate on the strongly implemented policy of incompetent cycling on bikeways you can't expect anything else; cyclist training will be seen as interesting and useful only by those sufficiently strongminded to oppose the popular attitude on the basis if facts, reason, and experience.
I should not need to remind many of those participating in this discussion that you, as bicycle advocates, are strenuously advocating this policy of incompetent cycling on bikeways and are therefore a considerable portion of the opposition to useful cyclist training.
Oh, I know that some of you want to have your cake and eat it, too, in that you want to continue advocating according to the policy of incompetent cycling on bikeways while recognizing that vehicular cycling is necessary. Well, that won't work, because it will not turn around public opinion in the way that is required for social recognition that cyclists should be operating according to the rules of the road for drivers of vehicles.