On Mar 8, 2014, at 6:00 AM, ascpgh wrote:
> As one who spectated, in first person, non-enforcement of a broken law when
> police responded to where I was hit by a motorist, I feel the same about
> legislated morality. Bureaucracy attempts to create outcomes among the
> otherwise disinterested or uninspired. These are individual attributes that
> reflect well on larger populations when enough project them. It is a failure
> by generalization to not expect the exception, a remnant habit from when
> situational awareness and Mazlov's hierarchy framed my daily to-do list.
>
> Drivers don't avoid bicyclists because there are laws that say you'll get in
> trouble. It is a pop quiz for the individual at the wheel, a brief one
> question test that will demonstrate either their humanity, awareness and
> necessity to express concern for another or the validation of their step onto
> a slippery slope leading away from all that is good.
>
> I like to think that for my years and miles of cycling, the places it has
> taken me and the people I have met, that my personal statistical result is
> that more people are good, right and just versus otherwise.
To a great extent, it is for the "otherwise" that laws are written. Sociopathy
is unfortunately widespread but for cyclists the bigger dangers are drivers who
are inattentive, distracted, intoxicated or just inept. Relatively few
car-bike collisions are intentional and quite frankly no law is going to deter
that, the behavior being driven by the rage of the moment, but at least the
laws might put those drivers behind bars where they can't run into any other
cyclists. That is of some value. The law might also- although is certainly
not guaranteed to- remove some of the inebriated and/or inept drivers from the
roads.
The safety of road users whether in motor vehicles, bicycles, other conveyances
or as pedestrians is in large part dependent on the quality and design of the
infrastructure. Roads which are too narrow, have impaired sight lines, poorly
designed intersections, poorly maintained surfaces, etc., all increase the risk
of crashes, injuries and deaths. For bicyclists in the south, you can also add
the epidemic of aggressive, uncontrolled dogs into the mix judging by the
Southern Tier tour reports I have read.
IIRC all of the eight states mentioned are "taker" states- e.g., they get
significantly more from the federal government in taxpayer dollars (shifted
from other states) than they pay in. Basically these are states whose
politicians have chosen to keep them poor and underserved in terms of public
investment and the public pays the cost of that. The problems facing
bicyclists are one set of examples of the deficits and costs incurred by such
policies.
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