BIKE: Our Dreary Flame Wars (was: more songs about buildings and food)

[Mike Librik or Amy Babich]

maniac wrote:

> I haven't contributed on here in a long time mostly because I don't want
> to get involved in silly arguments that get rehashed over and over, but
> what the heck, might as well add some more granola to the fire...
>
> >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.

Bravo to Stuart the Saniac.

The most frustrating thing about our periodic flame wars over cyclists' behavior at red lights is that
there is never any interest in sorting out where and how the positions differ and determining what we
agree upon. Experienced cyclists, as a group, exhibit plenty of idiosyncrasies in their traffic
behavior. If we are to try to distill the collected wisdom of experienced cyclists in order to transmit
it to beginners, there needs to be a more unified message.

Clearly, analyses of the wisdom of running red lights must be viewed in terms of the presence of cross
traffic and the density and distance of the traffic if it is present. The presence of opposing traffic
has plenty of relevance as well. Pursuing traffic stands in a different relation to the act, since it
poses no direct threat of collision.

Beyond the simple concern of just avoiding collision, we move on to the more subtle matter of driving in
a way that helps to keep the stress level of other drivers down. I believe that the true ace driver
drives with this goal in mind as well as that of avoiding accidents. The assumption that stressing out
drivers leads, a priori, to disrespect for cyclists is not valid, but this is of little concern because
the need to avoid stressing out other drivers is a suitably important consideration in itself. (That is,
we have failed to some degree just be stressing another person out, whether or not this stress results
in lowered respect for cyclists in general).

This distinction between safe behavior as one level of skill and stress-reducing behavior as an advanced
level was demonstrated in stark, spatial terms during a previous flame war about how thru cyclists
should position themselves in a right lane while waiting for a red light. One writer stated his habit of
holding the lane as opposed to positioning himself in the right hand gutter and letting cars turn past
him on his left. This is basically a sensible and well supported tactic. The writer's attitude of "let
them wait" may risk increasing the pursuing drivers' stress in being denied the right turn on red, but
does so while increasing the cyclist's safety.

But then another writer (that fellow with the distracting peeve about the use of his last name) wrote an
angry letter about how the first writer should have voluntarily moved *further left* in the lane to
allow right turning traffic to go through. Here is an advanced level trick, and a dicey one at that,
aimed at both improving the cyclist's safety and reducing overall stress. The problem is that the
mid-level cyclist is being abused for essentially doing the correct thing (that is, not keeping too far
right) and not attempting a more ambitious, if unproven technique.

Notably, the person dispensing this advanced advice seemed to assume that everyone rode the same style
of bike he did, and had the ability to lift and drag the bike sideways while stopped. On the whole it
was not bad advice, and good food for thought for the person looking to improve their driving skill, but
it was not grounds for abusing someone who did not bike exactly as the pundit did.

Congratulations on making it to the end of my post. I know it would have been more interesting if I
called somebody a Hippie Faggot, or held down the caps lock key, but my prose is, alas, too dry for
that.

--
Mike Librik
Easy Street Recumbents
512-453-0438
45th and Red River St.
Central Austin
info
www.easystreetrecumbents.com
www.urbancycling.com