Originally Posted by bragi

I don't doubt police bias in police reports- I've been pulled over on my bike by police a few times simply because the officer didn't like bikes- nor do I doubt that some motorists behave aggresively towards bicyclists out of sheer frustration with the general traffic situation. However, I do not at all have a hard time believing that, in a majority of accidents, the cyclist is at fault. I can't even count the times I have stopped at a red light only to see other cyclists blow through the intersection with only a glance to check for approaching traffic. I've seen other cyclists jump from the street to the sidewalk and back to the street in such a quick, seemingly random manner that I can well imagine motorists' confusion. I've also seen cyclists at four-way stops expecting to be treated as pedestrians; that is, not waiting their turn, but proceding through the intersection almost as soon as they get there. Let's not be too biased ourselves. The majority of cyclists follow the rules of the road, but a significant percentage, either through ignorance or apathy, do not, and one of the consequences of that is that they get injured or killed. Another consequence is that drivers, when they see a cyclist, automatically assume that he or she is a lot like the idiot that they had to deal with a few days earlier.