BIKE: Car-Free Word newsletter | April 20, 2004

[Mike Dahmus]

Chuck_Thomas wrote:

>It seems to me that hurling 4000lbs of glass, steel and rubber thru an
>intersection at a high speed on a light that just turned red is a bigger
>hazard to society than me pedaling thru it after quadruple checking that
>the coast is clear.  Granted both may be bad but why would you consider
>my offence more grievous?
>
"Running the orange" is a matter of education trumping impatience. We'll 
get there sooner or later.

"Running the red" is a matter of your own convenience trumping 
_everything_ - it shows a complete lack of respect for the law that 
requires motorists to treat you as a vehicle.

Ask yourself which is worse from a purely motorist perspective: 
continuing to turn left at an intersection even though the light just 
turned red, or running the intersection halfway through the other 
peoples' green cycle.

You run enough red lights and stop signs, and drivers will, no matter 
what the law says, treat you as a menace.

I've nearly wrecked my car at an intersection near UT because some bozo 
on a bike ran the stop sign. If I were older (worse reflexes), I would 
have. So there you go.

But getting back to the point - 99% of the people in this town drive. 
Pissing off 99% of the population in order to make some point about 
danger is really really really stupid from a pragmatic political 
perspective. Sooner or later, it comes back to bite you in the ass, as 
it did when our UTC chairman voted against bike facilities, using lack 
of respect for the law as his stated reason for doing so.

- MD