BIKE: red lights

[Jeremy Elliott]

Cyclists can not waive the "we are vehicles, too" flag
only when it suits them. If we want equal or shared
facilities, we must be prepared to follow the same
rules.

The "powers that be" view cycling advocates as
annoying freaks, and any little piece of shrapnal they
can dig up to cast a darker light on cycling advocatcy
will surely be utilized in their quest to give the
general public what they think it wants rather than
what we know it needs.

It seemed to me in my limited travels in Europe that
the idea of all vehicles basically treating a red
light as a 4-way stop worked rather well. Here in the
U.S., we tend to over-design the driver awareness out
of the transportation equation. Although doing so is
in the name of safety, one adverse affect seems to be
that, since so little alertness is required from
drivers, vehicle operators tend to "zone out" to the
point that they then mess up when our over-the-top
safety designs fail. If we saddled our unalert drivers
with the task of knowing when to safely and legally
run a red light, I think we'd have trouble. The rest
of the roads are built to lull drivers to sleep--we
can't suddenly ask them to think!

I try to remember that every time I'm on a bike, I'm a
P.R. rep. for cycling in general towards the mass
public. Maybe it's futile, what with their windows
rolled up and Rush blaring. But maybe it works one out
of 400 times. 

On another note, last Sunday there were 13,000
cyclists out in front of the Texas History Museum.
Man, it would of been cool to have at least stuffed a
"Share the Road" bumper sticker in their jerseys. 

=====
_______________________________________________
I wonder how many fine, inspiring ideas in every walk of
life are strangled in the womb of the imagination
because there's no way past the gates of commerce?


	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢
http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash