Toby Murray wrote:
> Someone in my area is starting up a new website that is focused on
> cycling in the city. They have decided to use OSM as their map which
> is awesome.
Streets are not dangerous to bicyclists; ~intersections~ are
dangerous to bicyclists.
When bicyclists modify their behavior in search of "safe streets"
they set themselves up, lemming like, to be killed at intersections.
Most of the dangerous and (mostly) illegal cycling behaviors that are
widespread, such as riding on sidewalks, riding on the wrong side of
the road, riding on sidewalks on the wrong side of the road, and
weaving around parked cars are derived from this fantasy cyclists have
that some motorist is going to come up from behind in a faster, larger
vehicle and cream them.
In reality, the self-preservation of motorists forces them to be
looking ahead of themselves for vehicles that behave like other
automobiles. Cyclists are most likely to be picked up by that scanning
behavior if they follow traffic rules. If they disobey traffic rules,
they're at much greater risk.
Cyclists may be safer if they follow a "dangerous" busy street that
is well signalized and has few dangerous intersections than riding on a
"safe" back alley that crosses numerous busy streets at poorly defined
intersections. There very well may be an "objective" measurement of the
safety of ways, routes, and intersections, but the majority of
cyclists have demonstrated in everyday behavior and by their actions in
the political sphere that the mental model of "safety" that they have is
dangerously incorrect.
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