http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

END OF THREAD!!

Will Campbell rides his bike to work every day, and it’s not exactly down the street from where he lives, and last time I checked, he’s still alive. Maybe he has some super powers that I’m not aware about. But the *only* way for things to be safer for cyclists and for motorists to take cyclists seriously is to have more cyclists on the road.

Yes, you could die on a bike, but you can die in a car too. Or on a plane. Or you can get shot in any neighborhood. Life is full of risks. And I’m willing to bet there are more car fatalities every day than there are for those on bikes.

If hostility and danger from cars is the only negative to biking in this city, what about the positives? Well, there’s the relatively flat topography, many connecting streets and great weather. So there you go, the advantages outweigh the disadvantage.

any motorist who breaks the law, and many do, damage the flipside of my argument as much, if not more, than cyclists who break laws. i guess the issue is that motorists are not fighting this fight, they are not a unified community the way bike riders are, in a lot of ways, they don’t care. and their lives are not put in danger by bike riders every day. and that is what bikers are up against.

my comments here are not a bitter anti-biker tirade, they are frustration at a worthy cause that is doing itself harm by breaking the law on one side and demanding it be upheld on the other. in a very roundabout way (trying to word this carefully now…), bike riders in la are fighting a microcosmic civil rights battle for equal treatment. i think that winning such a fight requires the higher ground, as evidenced by the nonviolence of several such movements around the world. when i ask that the bikers obey all of the laws that apply to them, i am not really saying "you guys want better treatment, act better, then we’ll talk", i am saying "i think you guys are right, but the law breaking is really hurting your cause".

i know it’s hard out there, heck i could ride my bike to work but honestly, i don’t want to die, and in la riding a bike to commute is serious business. i applaud everyone who does, and i wish that there weren’t so many drivers out there putting you in danger. i see it all the time from my driver’s seat, i’m not blind to it. and i do think that a more bike-friendly la is in all of our best interests. so to hopefully sum it all up:

take the high ground and obey the law. nobody will win this fight by taking the lower ground.

As easy as it would be to get baited into making demands of motorists similar to those you make one-dimensionally of cyclists, I won’t go that route because like you said "it doesn’t fix the issue, it deepens it," leaving everyone spinning their wheels, whether it’s two or four.

And just for the record, blank-check ordering me and my bike off the sidewalk isn’t as easy as you think it to be. While there are ordinances in Santa Monica and West Hollywood prohibiting the riding of bicycles on sidewalks, it is perfectly legal to safely do so in and throughout the city of Los Angeles.

But I do know boardmembers of other neighborhood councils, and so after reading this post, I’m determined to help out the cause by using my influence to help convince other NCs that this is a good idea and that their neighborhood will also benefit from this.

Elson Trinidad
President (and fellow cyclist)
East Hollywood Neighborhood Council

what i am saying is that making grand declarations about how poorly cyclists are treated in this city is greatly undermined by not following the rules of the road. you deserve these rights, with or without them being declared. but stop at every stop sign. don’t ride on sidewalks. don’t ride against traffic. don’t ride in crosswalks. yield to pedestrians. obey speed limits. don’t make illegal turns. for god’s sake have a light on if you plan on riding at top speed on pedestrian paths at night.

the problem of bikes vs cars in la is mostly one of mutual disrespect. in order to solve it we need more bike paths, more bike lanes, more bike friendly mass transit, and no more breaking laws from the bike riders. we need to respect each other and give each other room to travel safely- and it makes me extremely less sympathetic to the cause when i have to sit and wait at my first stop sign as i go to work as bike rider after bike rider blows through it, making unsignaled turns and generally acting like "share the road" means "bikes first".

I make room for bikers- i change lanes, slow down, make my intentions clear, and wait patiently. it bothers me that i am not returned that same courtesy. and i know that many drivers are bad in la, and that riding here is dangerous, but that does not entitle anyone to break the laws, and it does not work towards fixing the issue, it deepens it.

You want anecdotal ammunition biased against drivers? I’ve got ‘em — three alone from my ride home Monday night! — that I could offer up as to selfish motorists not participating in that sacred two-way process. It seems in Andy’s point of view that either doesn’t matter or is acceptable.

Am I some sort of by-the-book bicylist? Mostly. But for all the yielding and stopping and law-abiding I do, I also rolled through a half-dozen stop signs at a half-dozen empty intersections over the course of the 13 miles to work this morning. And I made an illegal left turn. I even road against traffic on the wrong side of the road for a spell. Does that mean I’m not holding up my end of the bargain and therefore I’m unworthy to declare my allegiance to the Cyclists’ Bill of Rights? Apparently so, from Andy’s perspective. Behind the wheel of his vehicle.