tsmith@laidbak.UUCP (Tim Smith) (10/16/83)
How many cyclists out there have read (or even heard of) "Effective Cycling", by John Forester? It's a book, which has been floating around now for a few years in a spiral- bound offset version. I have heard that it is to be published "officially" by MIT Press this fall. Anyone seen it yet? Forester is a controversial guy in cycling circles. His basic tenet is that cyclists should behave, on the road, just as motorists do, and should have all the rights and responsibilities of motorists. That means you don't run red lights, or *flagrantly* run stop signs (we all do it slowly), you always ride on the right, and you make left turns just as the cars do, unless that is completely impossible, in which case you become a pedestrian, and behave like a pedestrian. This would hardly be a controversial position in Europe, or most of the rest of the world, but in the USA, for various reasons, most adult cyclists feel free to ride however they please. On a typical day in Evanston, Illinois (a town with a LOT of cycles), I will meet 10 or so wrong-way riders, see at least 15 cyclists casually run red lights at full speed, watch 20-30 cyclists riding on the sidewalks (these are just the ADULTS I'm counting), and I will feel much more threatened by the other cyclists I encounter than by automobiles. Try to get ahold of a copy of "Effective Cycling". Some of it is pretty esoteric, especially Forester's novel theories on the physiology of cycling, but there is a good deal of very practical and well-though-out advice in it too. -Tim Smith (...!laidbak!tsmith)
wct@angband.UUCP (Bill Thompson) (12/07/84)
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A news item which might be of some interest from the November
issue of the California Bicyclist, Vol2, No 9.
" Sunnyvale resident and bicycling author, John Forester has announced
the creation of a new organization aimed at changing public opinion and
the attitudes of highway officials from fearing cycling and cyclists
to accepting lawful, competent cyclists as normal road users. Following
the title of his book, 'Effective Cycling', published by MIT Press,
Forester has dubbed the group the Effective Cycling League. Himself
a former president of The League of American Wheelmen (now renamed
Bicycle USA), he cites policy differences with that venerable organization
as the reason for the founding of the Effective Cycling League. For
information, write: John Forester, 726 Madrone Ave., Sunnyvale, Ca.
94086."
--
William C. Thompson III (S-1 Project, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
U.S. Mail: LLNL, S-1 Project, P.O. Box 5503, L-276, Livermore, Ca., 94550
Phone: (415) 422-0758
MILNET: wct@s1-c or s1-a UUCP: ...!decvax!decwrl!mordor!wct