Originally Posted by
Speedo
Interesting.
I voted yes. I'm 51 years old. At some point in the early sixties my grandparents gave my brother and I pamphlets on bicycle safety. I certainly wouldn't claim that it taught vehicular cycling, but what the pamphlet taught was bike safety when riding on the roads. What I remember most was the insistence on acting like a car in the sense of stopping at stop signs and red lights, and signaling turns (and stops.).
By and large the only signaling change I've made since my childhood is to use an extended right arm for a right turn (as opposed to the car centric bent 90 degree left arm).
I can't claim that this was vehicular cycling, but it was in the neighborhood. I didn't grow up with the sense that it was my responsibility to cower at the curb line.
I should note that I was considered to be a dork by my peers for signaling my turns!
Speedo
Your description tallies quite well with the instructions of the time. Stop at stop signs. But you do not mention instruction in how to determine when to start again. Signal your turns. But you do not mention instruction in how to determine if the way is clear, or from what point to start your turn. We have been all through these discussions time after time with people who received these instructions and then proceeded to act without judgement as to when and how. These instructions were written on the assumption that cyclists are unable to exercise traffic judgement and should stay out of traffic as much as possible, and, when it was necessary to "enter" traffic, as for a left turn, to do so without using the judgement that is necessary.
Note the import of the instructions. Stopping at stop signs protects the motorists who have right of way. Signalling your turns alerts motorists that the cyclist is going to do something stupid, like turn in front of them.
One of the objectives of my instructional program for child cyclists was to demonstrate that children have the visual and mental abilities necessary to exercise traffic judgement, in contrast to the societal judgement that cyclists, especially child cyclists, do not have those abilities. As I have often phrased it, any child who can play a reasonable game of soccer has the visual, mental, and physical abilities necessary for riding properly in traffic.