njm

I have an opinion! I think laws like that should be enforced. I ride in an urban environment with lots of intersections, and these often have stop signs and traffic lights. I always find myself sprinting from red light to red light over a span of two blocks or so, then braking because of the need to stop. I will sprint even if I know I will have to come to a stop. The reason is that I ride as a part of traffic, and as such I feel the obligation to not hold up the driver/vehicle behind me. I know I will be honked at if I the motorist behind me wants to go faster than I am going, even if we are both heading towards a red light.

I know people on BF will be familiar with this sprint-and-stop pattern. And I get the impression that there's a consensus on BF that the following is true: motorists who are driving behind a bicycle become angry because they think they are being held up/slowed down, even if they are not.

I think that if laws like the one described in this post are enforced, it would be helpful for bicyclists who ride in traffic. The statement in bold above might still hold, but the strong enforcement and less horn use would reduce the communication of that fact to cyclists, and thereby insulate them from motorists' demands for automobile-like acceleration/top speeds/pacing/distancing on roads.

To the extent that a law like this would create an environment in which I no longer feel obligated to accommodate motorists' perceived need for keeping up with the car ahead of me, I would advocate its strict enforcement.

But maybe this is a ho-hum topic -- does anyone here want to be honked at for 10 continuous seconds?