On Feb 27, 3:15 pm, N8N wrote:
On Feb 27, 2:56 pm, wrote:

Cyclists should use lights and reflectors at night. Those laws should
be respected.

Agreed.

But clothing that suits _your_ fancy is not a legal requirement, and
should not be.

Being visible is not "my fancy." If you have no lights, no
reflectors, and are wearing jeans and a dark shirt, I have no sympathy
for anything that might happen to you.

Slow down and think about it again, Nate. The jeans and dark shirt
should not be part of the equation. If it's night, a driver has a
right to expect cyclists to have lights, and possibly reflectors.
(That depends a bit on the jurisdiction.) But night or day, a
motorist has no right to complain about jeans and a dark shirt. They
are legal. It's up to you to watch for others on the road; how
they're dressed should not matter.

I wish police would enforce _all_ rules of the road, including against
motorists who speed through neighborhoods, roll stop signs, run red
lights, fail to yield to pedestrians, and all the rest. Yes, they
should ticket cyclists - but it's a far lower priority for good
reason.

Why? If I hit another car because the driver did something illegal,
or hit a cyclist because he did something illegal, I still hit
something. I'm still inconvenienced...

Sorry about that. But the world's been made too convenient for
motorists, to the detriment of everyone else. Besides, I doubt you
can cite five examples in the last five years where a motorist damaged
his precious car due to avoiding a cyclist's illegal move.


100% of cyclists blatantly ignore stop signs.

Wrong.


Regarding "serious hazards to themselves and others," feel free to
post documentation of the terrible carnage caused by bicyclists. We
know there are roughly 40,000 people killed by motorists each year in
America. How many are killed by bicyclists? Post the number, please.

Mostly cyclists kill themselves.

Mostly cyclists do just fine. Bike commuters live longer than car
commuters. Cycling confers benefits which far outweigh its tiny
risks. Cyclists kill essentially nobody. Perhaps one person per year
in the US is killed by a cyclist. (Data are almost impossible to
find, because the problem is too small to bother with.)

But my car will still be damaged.

:-) Well, obviously, that's what the entire universe revolves
around!

- Frank Krygowski