I agree that no campaign to change bicyclist behavior is likely to near the effect of a law change like the Idaho law would be good. In my experience most stop signs are put up less for traffic flow reasons than to slow automobile traffic - often at the request of citizens in their neighborhoods. There is a substantial difference between a bicyclist riding down a street at 5 - 15 mph and a car or truck blowing through at 30 mph or faster.
That difference demands different treatment for bicycle traffic and motor vehicle traffic. Mike o L_ j O +' O --- On Thu, 9/10/09, Doug Adler <[email protected]> wrote: While much discussion has focused on audible signals, I think this really represents a small percentage of bike-"other" interactions. I think that by far the biggest improvement in bicyclist/motorist relations would be made by allowing bicyclists to treat stop signs as yields, like Idaho. Robbie Webber wrote: I can't tell you how often I've been told, "I never see bicyclists stop at lights/stop signs!" This is a hugely common sentiment, just read the comments/letters that accompany any story about bicycles. Change the law to a more common sense approach, and you take away one of the most convenient excuses motorist have to dislike bicyclists. Those people still won't like us but at least they'll have to give a different reason like "I have to pay attention to my driving when they're around" or "They get in my way and slow me down". Another possible side benefit drivers might get is more bikers using side streets instead of arterials. I like to ride on the main routes because the stoplights are longer and fewer, whereas on the side streets I have to stop or feel guilty about not stopping every few blocks. But I would happliy get "out of the way" and breathe less exhaust were it not for the stop signs. Until then we're all just a bunch of scofflaws (except of course for gallant few who actually come to full stops all the time). I don't know if peer pressure will help - it sure doesn't seem to when I drive the speed limit. Maybe we should just adopt the slogan "Cars speed. Bikes roll stops. Call it even." Doug I have no problem following the basic rules laid out by both the article and the TA web site. However I do agree with Matt that people who don't bike - whether they drive or walk - will almost always notice the bad behavior, and conveniently ignore the good behavior if they want to see bicyclists as villains. I also think that we have as much chance of stamping out bad behavior in bicyclists as we do stamping out bad behavior in motorists, which is about zero. [snip] Now, about behavior on shared use paths...... Robbie Webber Bike Walk Madison Steering Committee www.bikewalkmadison.org Join our group on Facebook!
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