Originally Posted by
buzzman
I lifted JF's statement because it was illustrative of a point that I, and dare I say several others, have continuously made in these forums. And the point is that JF's tendency towards denigration of cyclists makes it difficult to understand for whom or what he is advocating. The use of the word "stupid" is nothing I recall seeing in instructions of that time. The word and it's use in that context is solely JF's interpretation of what is being implied in cycling instructions that he may or may not necessarily agree with. My sense is that JF advocates for his distinct version of what he coined as "Vehicular Cycling". He does not advocate for cyclists, he does not advocate for "safer streets" and he holds those who do not follow the strict dogmatic and ideological interpretation of his particular brand of VC as gospel with great contempt and disdain.
much snipped to emphasize the above concept
Of course you would never see cyclists explicitly described as stupid in the bike-safey instruction materials. However, my use of the word stupid as applying to what a motorist would think about a cyclist does not, contrary to your assertion, buzzman, result simply from reading an instruction that I may or may not necessarily agree with. Decades ago, when I was assisting (unpaid, of course) in California's attempt to improve bicyclist training (which was given up, probably because the bikeway program was seen to be more effective in keeping cyclists in their supposed places) I examined many bike-safety instructional materials that were then recent or current. One characteristic that I noticed was that none of these materials ever instructed the cyclist to look at traffic and exercise his judgement as to what to do and when to do it. The authors of the materials apparently believed that as long as the cyclist stuck to the edge of the road, stopped at stop signs, and signalled his turns, he would be safe, or as safe as a cyclist can be.
As a kind of confirmation of this way of thought, I had (don't know what's happened to it) a poster published by the AAA. The poster is the view from the rear of a pair of cyclists as seen by a motorist overtaking them. The left-hand cyclist is riding a bicycle and may be a child. The right-hand cyclist is riding a tricycle and is clearly a child. Both cyclists are just riding along the road, looking ahead in what might be the normal manner, except that both of them have their left arms extended horizontally in the left-turn signal. Does that boggle your minds, readers?
This is the public way of thought that created the bikeway system to keep cyclists in their place.