On 11/07/2017 11:07 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 11/7/2017 9:32 AM, Joy Beeson wrote:

In the U.S., non-riders regard cyclists as superhuman jerks.Â* The
character "Jef the Cyclist" in the comic strip "Pearls before Swine"
has been toned down from the public perception.

There is nothing one can do about "superhuman", but one *can* refrain
from abetting the perception that we are all jerks.

So when I run a stop sign, I always exaggerate my head movements, to
be sure that observers can see that I'm not just barrelling through
and expecting drivers to magically avoid me.Â* If a child is in
earshot, I narrate my actions so that he will know what he should do
when approaching an intersection.

If I ever notice a child watching me who is too far away to hear, I'll
come to a full, complete, foot-on-the-ground stop.Â* Children shouldn't
be confused with fine details before they master the basics.

FWIW, my almost-daily shopping route involves a T intersection with a traffic light,
the stem of the T to my right. The sign says "No turn on red." And that right turn is
my route back home.

I don't know why the sign is there. There's a school a block away but kids are
crossing only a tiny proportion of the time. It seems pretty silly to wait.

Still, when I'm the first vehicle at that red light, I always sit and wait for the
green. Always! I'm hoping to educate the motorists around me, to teach them that
there are cyclists who obey the laws.

Attitudes toward bicyclists in the US can vary wildly by location.

I live in a very bicycle friendly area with drivers generally quite tolerant of the
slowpokes on two wheels that navigate the roads with them.

Since I live in a college area, particularly in September, we get a crop of new
students who come from areas which clearly are NOT bicycle friendly. I've had kids
driving by me in their cars yell at me to "get on the sidewalk where you belong" as I
ride my 10-11 mile commutes.

But I think over time, they come to learn to be more tolerant if not by choice, then
by law, or just resigning themselves to the inevitable bicyclist sharing the road
with them.

I pretty much *always* stop at stop lights or signs, even those T intersections where
going right or going straight really has no effect on traffic (not crossing a lane of
travel).

It's not my job to educate the motoring public concerning bicycle use on roads. But
I feel behaving legally, in particular at stops, is a sort of educating effort by
itself and certainly doesn't reinforce someone's negative view of bicyclists as
generally ignoring traffic laws.


SMH