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

[Robert Flegal]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the excellent write-up on our behavior as cyclists.  I 
especially liked:

"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)."

I ride daily all around town and have little trouble with motorists because 
I follow your advice:  "just be nice and keep the stress level down" ... 
that is why I ride a bike in the first place.

Thanks again,
Bob Flegal (Lightspeed Tuscany and Kogo-Miyata 'dutch' bike).



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At 10:32 AM 4/24/04 -0500, Mike Librik or Amy Babich wrote:
>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
>
>
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