On Wed, 21 Feb 2018 12:22:24 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:
And those ignore interactions with bicyclists. I know a smart and
dedicated bike advocate who has worked a long time trying to influence
them to teach respect for cyclists, care when passing cyclists, etc.
She's also lobbied to get appropriate questions into the official
driver's license exams. She's been repeatedly rebuffed, but she keeps
trying.
She's holding the wrong end of the stick.
No amount of instruction will give a driver the gut-deep understanding
that is required when one's spine is making several life-and-death
decisions per second.
What she needs to do is to say "Our teenagers wrap themselves around
trees and crash into other vehicles because they are trying to learn
too many things at once. We should start teaching the rules of the
road a few years ahead of time, and take our children out on their
little bikes for on-the-road supervised practice. Then when they turn
sixteen, all they will need to learn is how to control a car."
*That* would give the drivers a gut-deep understanding of how bikes
move.
But it's quite out of the question, of course. It would cost almost
as much as building ten feet of separated bike path, and you'd have to
pay it again every year. No way the taxpayers would ever stand for
such a ridiculous expense.
--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/