neal@druny.UUCP (Neal D. McBurnett) (04/23/85)
In Boulder CO, they tried a really nice idea for a while: the carrot rather than the stick. For a month, police officers gave presents to bicyclists who DID follow the rules! This caused a lot more good feeling and adherance than ticketing people. They have also been known to give out speeding tickets, though.... As for passing cars on the right, in Boulder the law is that you can pass all the cars stopped at a light except the last one. This avoids the danger that someone might suddenly turn right in front of you. -Neal McBurnett, ihnp4!druny!neal, 303-538-4852
lanin@csd2.UUCP (04/25/85)
>Reasons why you shouldn't pass cars on the right at a light: > >You are breaking traffic regulations >You are unecessarily creating hostility towards other cyclists >You give motorists an excuse to run you off the road >You may get run over by someone turning right >It is difficult to see you and an unexpected move therefore it is harder for the auto driver to avoid having an accident The second and third reasons are effects, not causes. As for the first, is it really illegal? I know that on a road with two lanes going each way, there is often a line of cars in the left lane at an intersection waiting to make a left turn. If I am driving a car in the right lane, am I supposed to stop behind the last standing car in the left lane??? Does any driver do this??? I may be wrong, and so would like to know if it really is illegal. As for the fourth and fifth arguments, I am pretty sure the best place for a bike to be is where it is seen by the cars around it. At an intersection, Such a place is to the right and in front of the front car standing at the intersection, where he can't make a right turn without immediately bumping into your rear wheel. That's my opinion, anyway. Vladimir Lanin {ihnp4, allegra}!cmcl2!csd2!lanin
wagner@uw-june (Dave Wagner) (04/25/85)
> As for passing cars on the right, in Boulder the law is that you > can pass all the cars stopped at a light except the last one. This > avoids the danger that someone might suddenly turn right in front of > you. > -Neal McBurnett, ihnp4!druny!neal, 303-538-4852 > This is a fair and reasonable rule. As soon as the light turns green, all the cars you passed are just going to pass you again anyway, so who's been harmed by your passing them while they're not moving? But you should never, I mean never, pass a car on the right and then pull in front of him. The reason is, I might be driving the car and I would run your butt right off the road! Dave Wagner University of Washington Comp Sci Department wagner@{uw-june.arpa|washington.arpa} {ihnp4|decvax|ucbvax}!uw-beaver!uw-june!wagner "Oh no! I've got . . . . . HAPPY FEET!"
bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys) (04/26/85)
> >Reasons why you shouldn't pass cars on the right at a light: > > > >You are breaking traffic regulations > >You are unecessarily creating hostility towards other cyclists > >You give motorists an excuse to run you off the road > >You may get run over by someone turning right > >It is difficult to see you and an unexpected move > therefore it is harder for the auto driver to avoid having an accident > > As for the fourth and fifth arguments, I am pretty sure the best place for a > bike to be is where it is seen by the cars around it. At an intersection, > Such a place is to the right and in front of the front car standing at > the intersection, where he can't make a right turn without immediately > bumping into your rear wheel. That's my opinion, anyway. Not really. (1) When you come up on the right side of a car, you are coming up on the driver's "blind side". Think about it, from the point of view of the driver of a car. Where do you look for traffic to come from? That's where your attention will be. Statistically, a large number of accidents happen when the driver makes a right turn into a cyclist who is tryng to go straight through on the driver's right side. (2) In Austin, (and probably in most places), the lanes near most intersections are too narrow to accomodate both a car and a bicycle. The safest place to be is *in the middle of the lane*, where a car would normally be. The car behind you can see you best because that's where the driver expects another vehicle. After negotiating the intersection, you can move to the right when the road widens. (80% of accidents happen at intersections, by the way). This is all discussed quite thoroughly by John Forester in "Effective Cycling", just published by MIT press, and (more readably) by John Allen in "The Complete Book of Bicycle Commuting", published by Rodale Press. Every cyclist ought to read one of these thoroughly. You will be surprised by how much you don't know about the real causes of accidents. -- "Men never do evil so cheerfully and so completely as when they do so from religious conviction." -- Blaise Pascal Bill Jefferys 8-% Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712 (USnail) {allegra,ihnp4}!{ut-sally,noao}!utastro!bill (uucp) bill%utastro.UTEXAS@ut-sally.ARPA (ARPANET)
roy@hpmtla.UUCP (roy) (04/27/85)
>(yes, I know the typical >egocentric bicycles-don't-exists type in the 'lectra 225s don't think this >way. Watch out for 'em!) I thought these types drove pickup trucks with gun racks in the rear window. !hpfcla!hplvla!hpmtla!roy
era@hao.UUCP (Ed Arnold) (05/14/85)
> I thought these types drove pickup trucks with gun racks in the rear > window. > > !hpfcla!hplvla!hpmtla!roy Only in Colorado, Wyoming, etc.! (By the way, that's a large, American-made pickup truck). The little old ladies in the Electra 225s (who don't seem to know where their fenders are) are almost as dangerous, but at least they don't run you off the road on purpose ... -- Ed Arnold NCAR/SCD (Nat'l Ctr for Atmospheric Research/Scientific Computing Div.) USPS: POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 BELL: 303-497-1253 UUCP: {hplabs,nbires,brl-bmd,seismo,menlo70}!hao!scd-sa!era CSNET: era@NCAR ARPA: era%ncar@CSNET-RELAY