It seems that I was wrong about pedestrians being able to cross against the light in Madison. I got that information from someone when I moved here, but I don't remember who it was that told me. In any case, it does seem that there is confusion about what is legal and illegal for bikers and pedestrians. In the case of bikes, I think a lot of it has to do with people wanting bikes to be either just like cars, or just like pedestrians, when they're neither. I guess it makes people uncomfortable to have more than 2 choices.
But I still think that driver attitudes shouldn't dictate how we act. For example, if we waited for public opinion to change before implementing rights and protections, a lot of people would still be unable to vote (please don't assume that I put the right to coast through stop signs on the same level as voting rights, though). Social change generally happens at small grassroots levels, then through institutional and legal change before it's accepted by the general public. We can't sit around waiting for drivers to decide they respect us before we ask for reasonable legal rights. And are driver attitudes a huge problem? How often does everyone here experience harassment? I see drivers being inattentive pretty often, but I've experienced harassment more often for being female than for being on a bike--and I still have the legal right to be female in public, whether people bother me because of it or not. In my mind, it's the person doing the harassing that's wrong... By the way, I saw 4 drivers glide through stop signs without stopping on the way into work this morning. I didn't harass any of them. On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 2:43 PM, Dar Ward <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Oh...and I don't know if this got corrected, but I'm pretty sure that it > is illegal for peds to cross against the light. I know that's the case when > there is a ped specific signal (i.e. the red hand, white walker)...I'm not > as sure about intersections with signals for vehicles and none for peds. > > But this goes to prove the point that few people know the particulars of > traffic law (my post here is NOT an invitation to a drawn out debate about > what the law says...the fact that these questions are so prone to that kind > of debate shows that the law is rarely clear, well-understood, or not open > to interpretation)...so probably best to keep things as consistent amongst > various vehicles as possible...and don't expect changes in the law to cause > changes in attitude. > -Dar > > ------------------------------ > Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it > now.<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51733/*http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ> > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies > >
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