HARRY, While I shared your perspective on the importance of bicyclists obeying the law about a decade ago, I no longer believe placing the burden on bicyclists to obey the law in environments designed primarily for automobiles is in the best interests of anybody. I believe there is a safer way to resolve the problem that does not require an unreasonable expectation of compliance with poor legislation: Wisconsin should adopt Idaho's legislation allowing bicyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs.
The problem isn't THAT Mr. Nieft blew threw the stop sign, it is HOW he blew through it. Blowing a stop sign is perfectly safe when the bicyclist has fully surveyed the intersection for cross traffic and found none. If we followed Idaho's lead, I believe bike culture in Madison would quickly adapt to a safer mode of operation. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of HARRY W READ Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 7:46 AM To: bikies Subject: Re: [Bikies] Bicyclist critical after crash at Wilson and Baldwin cyclist blowing stop signs. I hate to sound nannyish (but I guess I'm guilty of sounding that way in a number of my postings already) but I feel that flouting traffic laws is a problem with our biking community. Not that I think we need to obey every traffic rule to the letter; not that there aren't plenty of reckless drivers out there; but there are definitely bicyclists who set a poor example, and it undercuts our efforts to gain respect from motorists - but I will admit, there are instances in my own past where "that couldda been me". _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
