Frank Krygowski wrote in part:

It wasn't right or wrong in any normal sense. It was part of the job.
Civilian cyclists shouldn't ride like that. Is that clear?

:-) It's clear that you're in some quasi-military fantasy! "Civilian
cyclists" indeed! So what are you - a Commando Cyclist?

Uh, whatever.

In the past century of non-stop warfare the most effective military
use of the bicycle was demonstrated by the Vietnamese nationalists,
who defeated the French and then the US in large measure by loading
bicycles each with hundreds of pounds of supplies and PUSHING them in
long trains along jungle paths from North to South. The colonialists
meanwhile could not fathom the use of anything but trucks and were
bombing the roads, suckers.


Have to as in have to.

... and you refuse to realize that most people who flout traffic laws
think exactly the same: "I've got a good reason for doing this,...

No the vast majority of people who blow lights have no good reason for
doing it, and they know it. They do it anyway, just because they can.

Messenger work is work, it is not some scofflaw joyride.

...and I'm
way better than the average dummy these laws are _really_ designed
for... BANG!!!"

I am more concerned with what happens to experienced riders like me
who are likely to get their BANG!!! while riding lawfully. Talk about
a rude awakening.

It's a question of Awareness, once again. It all comes
back to Awareness. Experienced cyclists get hit when their awareness
lapses.

Please stop pretending this is new information. And please stop
pretending that vehicular cyclists don't know this and teach this.

I can hear you now. "If we just follow them, Traffic laws work
_remarkably well_. And, oh yeah, most experienced riders who are hit
by cars are riding lawfully when they get hit. Thank you and good
night!"

There is no conflict between telling people that cycling is not
unusually dangerous, and telling people that they need to be alert while
riding.

You act as if you don't believe that statement. All I have been saying
is that cyclists need to stay alert, you are fighting it every step of
the way. Let me ask you Frank, WHY do cyclists need to stay alert, in
your words?

I believe most people understand the latter point instinctively, yet
when teaching cycling classes, I emphasize it with practical details.
Again, this is part of the official curriculum.

I believe the "safety industry" has deluded people on the former point -
that is, deluded people into thinking all cycling is an "extreme"
activity. Consequently, I spend some time in those classes and in these
forums rebutting that delusion.

I believe that you are so immersed in the helmet crap that it is
clouding your judgment. Many of those who think cycling is plenty
dangerous are people who have broken bones or have been in some bad
accident and they wish not to repeat the experience if they can help
it. Get it? It doesn't mean they will stop riding, it means they will
have a different attitude when they do. It's called learning. Deluded
is what they used to be.


Again, I have no idea what you propose as an alternative ... perhaps
meditating on "vigilance" and "distrust" before riding into traffic with
no skills at all?

Skill is important, but yes people should take a moment before they
leave the house, consider that the stakes are high, and commit to
maintaining consistent vigilance throughout whatever ride or drive
they are about to take. This vigilance won't spoil the ride. Vigilance
in itself can actually be fun--mountain bike trail riding is
essentially an exercise in vigilance/concentration, for instance. In
fact only one thing can spoil the ride and that's a collision
resulting from a moment of non-vigilance. So, vigilance it is.

Yes, traffic IS people - and the traffic rules work specifically because
they were designed with people's limitations in mind.

Despite your fear mongering, the rules DO work remarkably well. There
is no "hanging by a thread."...

Wrong, sorry, it only seems that way to the uninitiated. Behind a thin
veil of apparent order and predictability is the human element which,
other than a few physical parameters, is the SOLE determiner of the
movement of traffic. We must deal with traffic on the level of the
young woman who just spilled a bit of Big Gulp on her favorite CD
while negotiating a busy intersection in her Celebrity, not on the
level of hopeful civil servants and engineers in some remote nerve
center. Forget what the signal says, forget where the lines are,
forget who has the right of way. What good is law if the driver
doesn't know it? What good is a lane marker if the driver doesn't see
it? What good is the cyclist's right-of-way if the cyclist goes
unnoticed? None, none, and none. Concern yourself instead with what
the people are DOING, and what they could do, based on the physical
parameters that govern their vehicular extensions. When that is taken
care of, you can worry about PR and projecting whatever type of image
you want to project. Anything else is distraction.

Yeah, yeah, I know, you already teach that, right?

Instead, there are millions and millions
of trips taken daily by people of all ages, skills and mental abilities.
The level of injury is low enough that nobody worries "I may get
hurt!!!" before setting off in their car, or on foot.

Wrong again, Frank. Plenty of people worry they could get hurt in
traffic, people who have been hurt before. People who know. The only
people who don't worry that they may get hurt are innocent people like
you who haven't yet experienced a bad accident. Like I said, it is
pathological mass-delusion.

What we have now, thanks in part to propaganda such as yours, is that
many people _do_ think that when considering a bike ride. This despite
the fact that biking in traffic is as safe as walking near traffic!

My "propoganda" is based on considerably more experience than you
possess. I hope people realize that. There are many people who adopt a
certain paranoid style because they have been injured in the past, or
have seen others get injured. They are not victims of propaganda,
Frank. It's just that they were able to peek behind the veil that you
still think is reality.

And it's quite ironic to hear a "commando cyclist" excusing his
violation of road rules, all the while wringing his hands about the
danger of cycling. It's amazing you see no connection.

I see no connection! That's a laugh. I have demonstrated with your own
statistics that you do not understand the nature of the connection
between traffic law and cycling accidents.

I have personal experience. Again, I may not do as many miles as you,
but my experience stretches over more than thirty years, countless
cities, several countries, and decades of bike commuting....

Think of it as time in the saddle. How much time actually spent
riding? I'd wager that, even with your long career, I've spent about
four times as much time actually riding my bike. I say this only in
response to your trumpeting your own supposedly monumental experience.
I'm sure there are others out there with twice as much experience as
me and they are laughing at us both.

Really it's not about miles or hours. The last measure of urban
cycling experience is the serious collision. Those who have felt that
indescribable weight and violence, and have recovered, have received
the greatest gift. The gift of Knowledge.

The world's not perfect - but when I'm biking, the world's a nice place
indeed.

I'm with you. Riding a bike makes me happy. It might be the only thing
keeping me remotely sane.

I want others to experience the same world. I'm not about to
accept the use of fear-mongering to drive them away.

Look, if there are people out there who are afraid to cycle but think
nothing of barrelling down the highway at 70 mph, then to hell with
them. They're idiots. Who cares what they think or if they'll ever
ride bikes. They will make idiot bike riders. It's not going to help
us to have them out teetering around on the roads.

But the new cyclists who love to ride, they are going to ride, and
they deserve to hear the straight ****. We relate our experiences in
hopes that they can avoid the painful incidents that are common to
beginners. And we are honest about the shortfalls of traffic law, so
they can better protect themselves from serious injury resulting from
car-bike collision, because that is the bottom line of urban cycling
whether you like it or not.

Robert