Re: [Bikies] Comment on the biker hit by legislator who ran the red light incident

[Doug Adler]

I agree with Harry, regardless of whether the light is green for 3 seconds or 30 seconds it is always a good idea to make sure there's no one coming when you cross an intersection.   I remember this point from driver's ed a few years back.  Would I have slowed and tried to see around the bus in that situation?  Probably not, but as Harry points out it is a good case point in defensive driving, because we all know there are lots of idiots, jerks, and distracted drivers out there.   I know because from time to time I am one.  Pointing out that an incident like this illustrates why you have to be careful does not in any way excuse the red light runner.  In fact I showed it to my 11 year old to make that exact point.  This was after he started riding across a crosswalk on the walk signal and some jerk turning left turned towards him, stopped a few feet short of him, and laid on his horn.  I could rail on all day about what a jerk he was and how he wasn't following the rules and taught my kid to use his middle finger, but I think the better lesson was to always make sure cars are doing what they ought to before you cross, and assume nothing regardless of lights and signs.  I was actually sort of glad it happened because I realized I hadn't stressed this.  And now he gets a kick out of riding around pretending he is invisible. Bob your tagline always makes me thirsty.  But alas it's Monday morning.  -Doug Michael Rewey wrote: I timed it this morning. The all-red phase is 3 seconds. Plus at least a 3 second yellow phase. On 26 Sep 2009 at 21:27, robert paolino wrote: On Sat, 2009-09-26 at 20:02 -0500, Michael Rewey wrote: Good grief! Don't start alibiing the car driver's bad behavior. The bus was already moving forward off the GREEN light. The bicyclist was not a young stud. He was 57! Plus there is an ALL RED phase before the light turns green. I don't think Harry was excusing the MV driver's violation in any way. The way I read it, he was simply saying that we (whether as bicyclist, as pedestrian, or as MV driver) need to be alert/aware/careful and not assume anything about the behaviour of other users of the road. (I'm also not clear on why the bicyclist's age should be relevant to this discussion, whether 57 or 17.) -- Now go have a beer, Bob Paolino "Are Canadians just Americans who carry hockey sticks instead of guns, or is there more to it than that?" --"This Canadian Existence" Wisconsin Public Radio ( ) ASCII ribbon campaign X against HTML e-mail: / \ Friends don't send friends HTML-bloated messages! A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation. Q: Why is top-posting frowned upon? _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list Bikies@lists.danenet.org http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org

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