Road Rage on Angeles Crest

Reply Subscribe

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

06-29-11, 02:11 PM

#26

Ray R

Registered User

Join Date: Jun 2004

Location: San Diego, California

Posts: 445

Bikes: 5 Colnago, 2 Olmo, Bianchi, 4 Austro-Daimler, Merlin, Fisher Tandem, John Waite track tandem, Schwinns, Steyrs, Bill Holland Ti path racer, Chinese prototype FS

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)

Tagged: 0 Thread(s)

Quoted: 0 Post(s)

Likes: 0

Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts

Quote:

Originally Posted by vertical bob

Interesting, I had not heard of this. Is this part of the 3 foot law? I have mixed emotions about that. Arizona has a law like that. While in Flagstaff in February of last year there was a story in the local paper about a cyclist that was suing the local bus company. He had been bumped off his bike by a bus. Flagstaff has numerous bike lanes and is a very bike friendly town but three days before the accident they had received several feet of snow. While I was there the bike lanes were burried in snow and there was barely a lane to drive in but these were the exact conditions that this guy was riding his bike in, expecting the bus to somehow pass him with 3 feet to spare. I thought to myself, what kind of fool would be riding a bike on these streets in the first place. I could barely find one lane to drive on. I left town and never heard anything more as to how the case was settled but my feeling is that we all have to be responsible for our own actions. If we choose to ride in unsafe conditions and in an unsafe manor, how can we hold the public responsible for our poor judgement. "Good judgement comes as a result of experience, which comes as a result of poor judgement" Teddy Roosevelt

Drivers in Europe, or even in Minneapolis for that matter, don't seem to have trouble with people cycling in bad weather. When I was studying in Germany if I didn't ride in the snow I couldn't get to class. City buses and private vehicles didn't seem to have a problem waiting for a safe place to pass or with effectively sharing the road with me. With strict liability laws in place, the burden to operate a potentially deadly vehicle safely around other road users is clearly on the operator of that vehicle. Drivers are more patient because they are not willing to take a chance on assuming financial liability for their actions, and they don't want to lose their licenses.