Standards...

[Ti Designs]

There's a war going on in my town, over the plans for a section of Mass Ave and how some people want to reduce the number of lanes and put in bike lanes and some people just want more car lanes. The arguments started out on a rather stupid level (each side unwilling to admit that the other has any rights to using the road) and has gond downhill from there. On one side they (I'm not grouping them by "cyclist" vs "driver" 'cause it's not that clear cut) say that a reduction in lanes will slow traffic and cause more more exhaust gasses, greater congestion and slower response from emergency vehicles (they like to use that one). The other half says the road is dangerous to cyclists, the traffic moves at a dangerous rate, and bikes don't really create much exaust gasses. Then it turned into "you're driving too fast" vs. "you don't follow the rules of the road". Well, they're both right! I honestly don't think anyone in this state knows any of the laws that deal with the form of transportation they are using at the time. Lots of drivers yell "single file!" at our pacelines (I never have the time to fully explain how a paceline works - some day...) and by the way, that's not really the law, but the concept of a speed limit on a side street escapes them.

First question: How did our standards of driving/riding get so low? We've had the discussion on this forum about stopping at lights, clearly we as a whole are not raising the average there.

Second question: When did breaking a law of society become something defend so strongly? Drivers and cyclists (and runners and probably swimmers) all have their own reasons for not following the laws - BUT THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!!!

Third question: Once your standards are in the toilet, how do you bring them back up again? Perhaps they could issue the police rubber hoses?

My take on this whole road restructure is this: If the drivers and riders were good at what they do and followed the rules, it would all just work. If not, you can paint anything you want on the roads, it's not going to help much.

Thoughts???

[MattTuck]

Ride on the minute man trail and avoid mass ave. ;)

[JayBay]

Move to Austin, TX.

I just came back from a work trip down there and had the fortune of renting a bike and hooking up with texbike for a few rides (thanks again Mike!). Almost ALL of the roads have bike lanes and/or super-wide shoulders, and for the most part the drivers were all respectful and curteous. And the riders that I saw (they were everywhere!) all seemed to have a good handle on riding responsibly in traffic and obeying traffic lights, stop signs, etc.

Not that any of that helps you much with your situation on Mass Ave, but after riding in MA for the last 20 years (in Boston for 5) I can feel your pain. I'm just glad to see there are some parts of the country that seem to be getting it right.

[fiamme red]

First question: How did our standards of driving/riding get so low? We've had the discussion on this forum about stopping at lights, clearly we as a whole are not raising the average there.I was at a community board meeting in Manhattan, where a woman was speaking in favor of segregated lanes (bike lane next to the sidewalk, buffered by a lane of parked cars):

"I like riding in Central Park, but I can only get there by taking the train, since it's much too dangerous to ride alongside car traffic on the avenues."

Lady, streets shouldn't be reconfigured so that incompetent cyclists like you can feel safe riding to Central Park a few times a year. To quote Ti Designs: "Learn how to ride."

[MattTuck]

Move to Austin, TX.

I just came back from a work trip down there and had the fortune of renting a bike and hooking up with texbike for a few rides (thanks again Mike!). Almost ALL of the roads have bike lanes and/or super-wide shoulders, and for the most part the drivers were all respectful and curteous. And the riders that I saw (they were everywhere!) all seemed to have a good handle on riding responsibly in traffic and obeying traffic lights, stop signs, etc.

Not that any of that helps you much with your situation on Mass Ave, but after riding in MA for the last 20 years (in Boston for 5) I can feel your pain. I'm just glad to see there are some parts of the country that seem to be getting it right.

Western cities that were mostly built up after the advent of the automobile are at an advantage when it comes to the space they have on the roads. New England, because of the way it was settled, does not have particularly good infrastructure for cars or bikes.

If you were to sit down with a blank slate, and start over, you'd have ample space on the roadways for several modalities of transportation.


The conflict is predicated upon the belief (right or wrong) that the road way is a finite sized pie. and if the other guy's piece gets bigger, then by definition, my piece will get smaller. I'd rather see a solution that expands the pie and provides a bigger piece to everyone.

[Ti Designs]

To quote Ti Designs: "Learn how to ride."

Just 999,998 more before I reach ATMO status...

Being in retail, and knowing how people love to complain to my boss, I can't be so blunt at the town meetings.

[benb]

Being in the area I have plenty of experience cycling & driving mass ave through Arlington.. (Heck the cars are pretty terrifying if you're on a motorcycle too)

It is a trainwreck no matter how you are traveling that road. I hate using the bike path because it's a lot faster to use Mass Ave, but Mass Ave definitely sucks. (Not really sure I think it's any better in Cambridge though)

They could start just by putting good lines on the road and keeping widths uniform through sections. It seems to be a problem in plenty of areas of Massachusetts.. you end up with these semi-wide roads and no lines and the car drivers can't really decide whether it is 2 lanes or 1 lane per side.. so they end up making really sketch passes that of course impinge on the space cyclists would use, etc..

We have kind of the same issue in Bedford where I live now on 225.. not as bad since the town center is smaller.. but it's there. I used to live in Waltham, they kind of had it.. but it wasn't as bad. But I work in Nashua, NH.. absolutely not a problem.. it is clear as day up here.. you know exactly how many lanes the road has everywhere. I cycle-commute on Spit Brook road and it's extremely busy & up to 4 lanes wide but it's never a problem since the roads are very clearly marked.

My wife often attends these types of meetings when they happen in Boston & Cambridge as part of her job.. she is sympathetic to cyclists even though she isn't really one. (She has a road bike, but it has never really "stuck".) 100% of the time she comes back and thinks the cycling advocates sound completely insane and off their rocker. ISTR her thinking they were really nuts when the discussion was about the Mass Ave. Bridge between Cambridge & Boston over by MIT and Charles/MGH.. basically they wanted the bridge reduced to 1 lane per side for cars & for bikes to have an equal amount of space... that would pretty much be impossible without building a new bridge and the cyclists just went crazy when anyone suggested they were being unrealistic. I think an awful lot of it has to do with tone, presentation, and appearance.

[flydhest]

as the saying goes, "I've upped my standards, so up yours!"

[peanutgallery]

about a year ago, 2 crossing roads thru our downtown (state hwys)went from 4 lanes and parallel parking to 1 lane in each direction, turning lane in the middle and bike lane in each direction

observations:
traffic moves slower thru town, but it is an easier drive and there are turning lanes. pedestrians don't pop out of nowhere (PA loves mid block crosswalks where the pedestrian has the right of way), little old ladies can waste their own time when turning against traffic into an alley 10 feet from an intersection and you can park your car without getting the door ripped off by traffic. used to be a drag race block to block. calmer these days for everyone

the bike lane ends up being used a bit of a buffer for parking so one has to pay attention. there is still lots of complaining from the redder elements in town and probably always will be, but the $ is spent and the set-up is here to stay. biggest hurdle was the Fire Cops and the Volunteer Fire Co crowd

[tannhauser]

While you're at it ask how to fix the U.S. economy why don't ya.

[eippo1]

One thing I feel like mentioning is that these types of meetings are often $&#%shows and I mean all of them - zoning, planning etc. People just get really excited about their side and don't want to compromise. Plus you get a lot of show-offs - people who love to have an audience and kind of ham it up for them.

My general feeling on this is that reducing the amount of space does help some like what they did on Blanchard St in Cambridge -Belmont. That said, I've never really had an issue with that part of Mass Ave. I have no qualms about taking the lane, but I'm predictable and usually obey the law.

My biggest annoyance with that area, actually are fellow bike commuters. I've been almost hit from behind multiple times when slowing for a light (yes when signaling), been cut off more often that not, half the idiots want to race me since I'm on a road bike, and I hate having to come to a full stop when I have right of way when turning left onto the bike path at Spy Pond because none of the effing cyclist stop at the damn stop sign.

The only times I've had issues with drivers on Mass Ave is on the weekends when you get people that don't drive all the time or elderly folks causing problems.

[Earl Gray]

...My take on this whole road restructure is this: If the drivers and riders were good at what they do and followed the rules, it would all just work. If not, you can paint anything you want on the roads, it's not going to help much.

Thoughts???

"Standards" can not be set utilizing the work "If".

If they could, there would be no problems.

See what I mean.

[gdw]

"Once your standards are in the toilet, how do you bring them back up again? Perhaps they could issue the police rubber hoses?"

We're talking about Massachusetts right? State with the worst drivers in the nation... Land of the Massh**es...
The only way to get drivers and cyclists to behave in a civil manner is to banish the current population, with the possible exception of the folks in the Berkshires, and start over. The only problem with that plan is that no other state would want the refugees.

[Orrery]

As long as you don't send me to whatever $#!+ty state you're in!

I'm not sure what the best solution is. I feel like the drivers in Arlington are probably more used to cyclists than some other surrounding towns due to the Minuteman. Perhaps this brings the issue to more of a head than other communities.

[jtakeda]

That conversation sounds nasty. There should be a bicycle/automobile coexistence section in drivers education. This will at least help drivers understand how cyclists feel when they are on the road. That would be a good start.

[benb]

I think technically Rhode Island drivers are the worse in the country.. Mass is right up there.

This was based on some study that tested what percentage of licensed drivers in each state could pass the written license exam. It was dismally low in both RI and MA.. like well under 50% if I recall? Maybe it was under 25%?

But in any case I've pretty much been driving in MA the entire 18 years I've had my license and the RI drivers still scare me when I visit, and when I see them in MA I actually give them extra room! I do feel like there is a noticeable difference.

It's like the MA drivers are overly aggressive, the RI drivers are overly aggressive and suicidal.

But I drive in VT plenty too and I swear they have been steadily picking up their aggression the last 10 years.. maybe it spreads over the internet!

[Orrery]

I got hit by a person with RI plates in MA so in my small sample size I guess that must be true!

[Bob Ross]

I honestly don't think anyone in this state knows any of the laws that deal with the form of transportation they are using at the time. Lots of drivers yell "single file!" at our pacelines (I never have the time to fully explain how a paceline works - some day...) and by the way, that's not really the law

Not sure it's the same in MA, but in many (most?) other states in the US the law is pretty unequivocal: cyclists may ride two abreast unless doing so will impede other traffic.

Note: The law doesn't give a schidt whether or not you're a pro team executing a flawless rotating paceline, or two grandmothers chatting while pedaling their adult trikes side-by-side...nor should it. You're still riding two abreast.

[William]

I think technically Rhode Island drivers are the worse in the country.. Mass is right up there.

This was based on some study that tested what percentage of licensed drivers in each state could pass the written license exam. It was dismally low in both RI and MA.. like well under 50% if I recall? Maybe it was under 25%?

But in any case I've pretty much been driving in MA the entire 18 years I've had my license and the RI drivers still scare me when I visit, and when I see them in MA I actually give them extra room! I do feel like there is a noticeable difference.

It's like the MA drivers are overly aggressive, the RI drivers are overly aggressive and suicidal.

But I drive in VT plenty too and I swear they have been steadily picking up their aggression the last 10 years.. maybe it spreads over the internet!

You are right. But in my experience driving around this State, that's mainly from Warwick north to the Mass/RI line. I used to work in Northern RI and we live and hang out in Central & Southern RI. The Northern part of the State has by far the worst drivers around (IME).






William

[Likes2ridefar]

Not sure it's the same in MA, but in many (most?) other states in the US the law is pretty unequivocal: cyclists may ride two abreast unless doing so will impede other traffic.

Note: The law doesn't give a schidt whether or not you're a pro team executing a flawless rotating paceline, or two grandmothers chatting while pedaling their adult trikes side-by-side...nor should it. You're still riding two abreast.

In Ny, and maybe NJ and perhaps elsewhere there are town ordinances that make it illegal to ride two abreast. Knowing which town has the rule is the trick.

Police love to harass riders in the wealthy towns lining the Hudson River where there's minimal crime and hand out $100+ tickets for cyclists riding two abreast. My buddy got one last year. I was on the right side of him so did not receive the violation.

[Mark McM]

Not sure it's the same in MA, but in many (most?) other states in the US the law is pretty unequivocal: cyclists may ride two abreast [I]unless doing so will impede other traffic.

Before a new law was passed in 2009, cyclists in Massachusetts were required by law to ride single file unless passing. The new law (known as the "Bicycle Safety Bill") finally gave cyclists the right to ride two abreast, as well providing other provisions: it adds police training on bicycle law and dangerous behavior by bicyclists and motorists; explains how a motorist should safely pass a bicycle; explains how a motorist should safely make a turn in front of a bicycle; makes “dooring” (opening a car door into the path of a bicycle or other vehicle) subject to ticket and fine; and adds legal protections for bicyclists who choose to ride to the right of other traffic.

[gone]

Western cities that were mostly built up after the advent of the automobile are at an advantage when it comes to the space they have on the roads. New England, because of the way it was settled, does not have particularly good infrastructure for cars or bikes.

If you were to sit down with a blank slate, and start over, you'd have ample space on the roadways for several modalities of transportation.

Sadly, not always true. I cite as an example West Des Moines Iowa. The area there is all green field development. The roads are two or three wide lanes wide in both directions but no bike lines at all.

Rather surprising since the Des Moines area probably has more bike trails than any other urban area I'm aware of but nevertheless true.

Edited to add: you said you'd have ample space which is certainly true, whether or not that space is used to support different modalities is another question.

[Ti Designs]

There should be a bicycle/automobile coexistence section in drivers education.

There should be some education in drivers education... What gets me is the attitude on behalf of the primary form of transportation for any given road or path. Drivers feel it's not just a right, it's a NEED to pass cyclists. I had a small argument with a woman who claimed the cyclists was riding dangerously because in passing them she put herself into oncoming traffic. The concept of "pass when safe" never crosses their minds. On the bike path the cyclists do the exact same thing with walkers. I've seen dozens of crashed bikes come in with the same story: "I was on the bike path, went around a walker and..."

What is so hard to understand here, there are multiple users on the road, it takes a bit longer to get places, try not to crash into anyone else...

[fiamme red]

A bill has been introduced in the Rhode Island General Assembly that would prohibit motorists from driving with dogs in their laps. :eek:

[shinomaster]

My memories of Mass. Ave. ( between Arlington and Harvard) are of double-parked delivery trucks, j-walkers, and lots of close calls with cars doing left turns. It's no wonder I moved to Portland, a place where (for the most part) cyclists and drivers follow the rules. The cops just need to enforce what ever laws are in the books.

[djg]

Lanes? Drivers in Boston use lanes?

[aaronv]

Lanes? Drivers in Boston use lanes?

Around Greater Boston, the road is a canvas and the car is the paintbrush. It is a mode of expression. Painting by number (using lanes) is looked down upon.

My first two decades were spent riding in and around Portland Oregon. Within my first 5 minutes of cycling in Greater Boston a truck whizzed by me and the driver yelled out "Get the **** off the road". There are some regional differences.

[William]

It's definitely better in Portland, but it had it's issues as well. I clearly remember running battles with Tri-Met bus drivers and the messengers hopping curbs, running stop signs and lights as well as riding the wrong way down one way streets. But, yes, in general it is more civilized toward cyclists.






William

[Merlmabase]

Oof. If I jump headfirst into this old debate, I may never emerge. So I'll limit myself to two brief points, one general and one specific.

In general, I've found that the overall "road-use" culture has by far the greatest effect on how pleasant/safe/practical cycling in a given city feels. Most of my urban cycling experience is in Montreal, and I've also spent a fair bit of time in Portland. It's like night and day. Both cities have made considerable investments in bike-friendly infratructure, but folks in Portland (drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike) seem more patient, and more concerned with safety even if it means showing a little deference to other road users. Here in Montreal, it often feels like everyone's making it up as they go along.

Of course, good roadway design can improve matters. Great roadway design can even help shape the aforementioned driving culture.

And on a very specific note - I find the argument that adding cycling treatments to existing roadways impedes the passage of emergency vehicles to be totally specious. In most cases, just the opposite is true. Say we're talking about a buffered bike lane, which is an appropriate treatment for heavily-trafficked urban streets, you've actually created a priority lane for emergency vehicles. Cyclists can make room under any circumstances. Automobiles in bumper-to-bumper traffic - not so much.

[Ti Designs]

Road planning and design can't change the minds of idiots. This morning I had a run in with an idiot in a truck (with the company name on the side) on Concord road in Belmont. They spent a fair amount of time and money adding a bike path/sidewalk there in the past years, which I opted not to use. I don't think I'm a special case on a bike, I follow all traffic laws when I ride, but using the path vs. road was a decision I had to make. That section of Concord road is about 1/2 mile and flat, I can hold the speed limit for that. A bicycle is a vehicle in MA, there are no signs prohibiting bikes on the roadway, and I thought that 30mph on a sidewalk was a really bad idea. I was holding distance with the car in front of me when the truck pulled up and the driver started giving me some advice about where I should ride. Given the traffic, he couldn't just stomp on the gas pedal, thus making some point that escapes me, so he decided to change lanes instead.

So, is it better to build bike lanes, knowing that most of the drivers will respect them, and some idiots will be driven into a violent rage? This wasn't the first time a driver has taken action to get me off the road because there's a bike path somewhere that they think I should be on. I still think the answer lies in education and perhaps making it more expensive to drive like a total idiot...

[Grumbs]

I think people who act like that, in their cars/trucks, are just like that. It doesn't matter whether they're in a car or not. Though, being in a car probably encourages people who otherwise wouldn't act that way to get into the attitude of needing-to-teach-someone-a-lesson.

I ride in the city quite a bit, and I can't really imagine any solution to drivers making cyclists unsafe, besides this: traffic cops actually being present in large enough numbers, and being willing to pull over and ticket motorists who break the law in dangerous or obstructive ways. I can never understand why they don't ticket double-parked vehicles on Harvard Avenue. There are so many of them, and they do it because they can. What an easy source of revenue!

The traffic in Arlington is some of the worst to drive in, I think. I am sympathetic to the situations of the elderly, but they drive very slowly; they often turn out onto the street very quickly, without looking, and then proceed to drive very slowly. There don't seem to be very many motorists who drive predictably, at the speed limit, in Arlington. It's either slow-pokes or speed-demons.

Traffic problems on Mass Ave don't seem to me to be related to lack of space, but to lack of people paying attention. I don't think putting in a bike lane would effect this very much, if at all. I'm also not sure how education would work. In my experience, adults don't usually like being educated-at. I think people will just eventually get used to the bikes being on the street. Enforcement of major traffic violations could serve to calm the tempers and the attitudes of entitlement in the meantime.

[Kontact]

I don't think laws are necessarily standards. No one should feel moral outrage about an expired parking meter or crossing the street away from the crosswalks.

And much of what is wrong are actually failures of courtesy, not law. When the traffic sign says "Right Lane Closed Ahead. Merge Now" and people wait to merge because they know it will be faster to just stay in the right, they aren't breaking the law.

Society works because everyone agrees to a certain standard by actual use, not by the passage of laws by representative government. Bicycle lanes get built because the drivers see there are too many cyclists in the road, not because the cyclists alone call for them.

And cyclists go through stop signs because they really aren't perceived to be vehicular traffic, despite the laws that everyone starts shouting about. We are just fancy pedestrians, and most everyone implicitly understands that the only person likely to be hurt when we blow a stop sign is the cyclist.


So the current traffic standards for our society are pretty much the following:
1. Don't speed by too much.
2. Don't jaywalk in front of a cop - it's rude.
3. Don't do anything that causes people to have to swerve or slam on their brakes.
4. Don't complain when you got caught breaking a law, even if it really doesn't matter.

Aside from the busybodies that are constantly on guard for anyone else's minor legal violations, if you don't scare anyone or slow them down unnecessarily you aren't likely to violate the things people actually care about.


Terrible things I am likely to do in the coming week:
1. Buy something online and not report the sale on my state income taxes.
2. Drive 7 MPH over the speed limit.
3. Roll a stop sign on my bike in a low traffic neighborhood.
4. Throw an apple core into the bushes.
5. Drink an alcoholic beverage in a park without first getting permit.

Does anyone feel I require the rubber hose treatment to stop this behavior?

[Grumbs]

^I agree with your entire post. When I said traffic cops should pull over and ticket drivers who break the law ]in dangerous and obstructive ways[I], that's what I meant. I drive and ride my bike, and walk a ton. I don't see laws as standards either, and I don't feel any kind of moral outrage. Nothing would work smoothly if people compulsively followed laws to the letter.

But seriously, the double parked cars on Harvard Ave...that does not fit in the category of harmless, expected routine behavior that it involves being flexible with the law. They actually do f-up traffic. I don't want to beat them with a hose, or the old ladies either.

There is no way I am stopping at a stop sign or a red light, at 2am when there is very visibly not a single car on the road. I've always thought of cyclists as a type of pedestrian.

[Ti Designs]

Terrible things I am likely to do in the coming week:
1. Buy something online and not report the sale on my state income taxes.
2. Drive 7 MPH over the speed limit.
3. Roll a stop sign on my bike in a low traffic neighborhood.
4. Throw an apple core into the bushes.
5. Drink an alcoholic beverage in a park without first getting permit.

Does anyone feel I require the rubber hose treatment to stop this behavior?

I think having the rubber hose available and at the ready would be a good first step.

So while we're putting our own spin on the law(s), let me ask this: What if I were to drive 8 MPH over the speed limit? The next guy, using the George Carlin line that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot then goes 9 MPH over the speed limit. The problem here isn't one person applying a reasonable amount of give and take, it's everyone doing that. People are like sheep, if one person can do something, everyone thinks they can. One person rolling a stop sign on a bike isn't a big deal, every cyclist on the road running every red light is - I stopped and watched the cyclists in Porter Square the other morning, it really is that bad. What's worse, "everybody else does it" had become a defense of their actions. So yeh, they should issue the police rubber hoses.

The moral issue I have with using the road instead of the bike path is the issue of other cyclists following my example. I can hold the speed of the car traffic for that whole section, something I can't say for most cyclists, but nowhere in the law does it say anything about that. The bike as a vehicle is allowed on that road as well as the bike path. My decision to use the road was a judgement call based on matching my speed with other traffic. Judgement calls are something best taken away from the public, I can just see little Suzie riding her hybrid down Concord road at 10 MPH... In the end I think people should be held responsible for following the laws as they are written. On that stretch of Concord Ave they should probably restrict bicycle traffic to the bike path - it'll take me 30 seconds longer to get home, I can live with that...

[Kontact]

I think having the rubber hose available and at the ready would be a good first step.

So while we're putting our own spin on the law(s), let me ask this: What if I were to drive 8 MPH over the speed limit? The next guy, using the George Carlin line that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot then goes 9 MPH over the speed limit. The problem here isn't one person applying a reasonable amount of give and take, it's everyone doing that. People are like sheep, if one person can do something, everyone thinks they can. One person rolling a stop sign on a bike isn't a big deal, every cyclist on the road running every red light is - I stopped and watched the cyclists in Porter Square the other morning, it really is that bad. What's worse, "everybody else does it" had become a defense of their actions. So yeh, they should issue the police rubber hoses.

The moral issue I have with using the road instead of the bike path is the issue of other cyclists following my example. I can hold the speed of the car traffic for that whole section, something I can't say for most cyclists, but nowhere in the law does it say anything about that. The bike as a vehicle is allowed on that road as well as the bike path. My decision to use the road was a judgement call based on matching my speed with other traffic. Judgement calls are something best taken away from the public, I can just see little Suzie riding her hybrid down Concord road at 10 MPH... In the end I think people should be held responsible for following the laws as they are written. On that stretch of Concord Ave they should probably restrict bicycle traffic to the bike path - it'll take me 30 seconds longer to get home, I can live with that...
The slippery slope thing is always brought up, and it is always nonsense. In that particular example, a certain amount of speeding is tolerated by the police, so the defacto speed limit is not what's written on the sign. It truly is a fuzzy number somewhere north of what's posted, and people familiar with the area very consistantly average whatever that speed might be.

If you don't like that sort of thing, there have been a variety of totalitarian societies in history that like your take on the absolutes of the law and government edict. They usually collapse because the level of enforcement necessary leads to revolutions or extreme corruption. But functional societies manage to balance order, courtesy, government requirements, selfishness and enforcement in a way that works for them. And they do so in a pretty stable way.

There's always a few people on any type of forum that love to speak in absolutes (especially firearms forums). Absolutes do not leave any room for personal responsibility and judgement, which is a real shame because that's what this country is really about. You simply can't say that everyone one should be thoughtfully responsible, then tell them there is only one way to do so.


Just like Christians casting stones, I would bet that you have broken minor laws like everyone has and shouldn't be so upset that someone would actually say that it is normative and within our society's range of acceptable behavior. I am much more concerned about the people that make life hard for everyone, even though they may never break a single law. They gum the works and make it hard to find the compromises that civilization is made out of.

Allowing people the right to exercise their judgement makes good citizens that will choose to do good more often than bad.

[Ti Designs]

Allowing people the right to exercise their judgement makes good citizens that will choose to do good more often than bad.

It probably would not shock anyone to know that I have a perfect driving record at the age of 47. It's not that I don't know which pedal makes my car go faster, I own an autocross car and I know how to use it. I practice two things, personal responsibility and observation. Personal responsibility means knowing when not to use it. I have the driving skills to leave cones shaking but still on their marks after a run, I could enter and exit traffic circles at 50 MPH all day long - I don't. My observations tell me that few people have that sort of restraint. People don't view this as doing good vs. doing evil, they mostly view it as their right to live up to their ability, or at least the ability they think they have. I see this in driving all the time, people making high risk moves on the road to save a few seconds. In riding it's worse because there's no risk of getting caught. Just today I was returning home from a ride on the bike path. For me it wasn't a hard pace, but some guy was killing himself to catch and then pass me. As he passed he almost took out a woman running in the other direction. This sort of thing happens all the time, I would go so far as to call it the normal mode of opperation for some people. It's not a matter of choosing good, they just don't get the bigger picture.

My town has an issue with a few roads where accidents continue to happen. One such bend in the road had three accidents in the space of two months including the death of a high school student. They discussed "traffic calming measures". Traffic doesn't need to be calmed, people need to learn how to act responsibly. In the end all of the traffic calming measures failed ('cause people kept hitting them with their cars) and the road is back the way it was. My suggestion was that parents educate their kids about the limitations of their driving and the dangers of putting their car into a house at speed.

In the end, personal responsibility is just that - personal. I am responsible for myself (and the riders I coach on the road). If you wish to break the law, I can't stop you. If you want to complain about the cost of getting caught breaking the law, you can do that too, but I don't want to hear it. When a town can't plan road reconstruction because each side is pointing fingures at the other side, I can honestly count myself out of that whole argument.

perhaps there are just no good citizens in Arlington...

[Grumbs]

I really think that people will eventually come around and accept the bike lane. Even in Arlington. I also think that the cyclists running reds in Porter Square are most likely new to bicycle commuting in the city, and that they will eventually learn to be more careful.

The guys racing you on the bikepath are a different story. If they only ride the bikepath on weekends, recreationally, they might never learn safety habits or etiquette. You could verbally rubber-hose them, I suppose. I probably would, but people don't try to race me, they just pass me.

[Ti Designs]

I really think that people will eventually come around and accept the bike lane. Even in Arlington. I also think that the cyclists running reds in Porter Square are most likely new to bicycle commuting in the city, and that they will eventually learn to be more careful.

The guys racing you on the bikepath are a different story. If they only ride the bikepath on weekends, recreationally, they might never learn safety habits or etiquette. You could verbally rubber-hose them, I suppose. I probably would, but people don't try to race me, they just pass me.


I've watched the bike traffic in Porter square a number of times, I would guess that less than 5% of the riders obey the traffic lights there. It seems to be a case of "if they don't have to, neither do I", which is a hard cycle to break.

The guys racing on the bike path are what I call the common bike idiots, there's no known cure. I don't do many big bike events (as a bike coach and fitter it's painfull to see how so many people ride), but last fall Liz and I did the Hub on Wheels on the tandem. The tandem is way faster than most individuals. Some of the riders gave the big bike some respect and just stayed with us, most other riders raced the tandem by pushing as hard as they could every chance they got. Most of them didn't stand a chance against the tandem, you would think they would figure that out early on, but when the pedals start turning the brain stops. I can't tell you how many times the group was held up, then as soon as we could go a few of the guys bolted down the road in a full sprint, only to blow up and watch the tandem cruise past with ease. Some of those idiots did that for the whole 50 miles.