Matthew Wolpert
I am cutting and pasting the following post from the "Shift Discussion
List", without the original author's permission, so I have redacted
his name, enjoy:
"
=v= The very fact that hit-and-run driving would lead to a
discussion of a cyclists' "code of conduct" speaks volumes.
"
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 18:58:15 -0800
Subject: Re: [shift] Code of Conduct (long, but hopefully worth your time)
To: shi-@lists.riseup.net
=v= I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Many bicycle
advocacy groups have taken this tack for the last 35 years
or so. I think we've seen the practical limits of this sort
of approach. But even if you were to somehow find a way to
get 99.9% of bicyclists to strictly adhere to the traffic
code, the .1% who didn't would still be held up as an example
of "those eeevil lawbreaking bikers."
=v= Why? Because this approach doesn't address the root issue:
we are a minority. Motorists *already* break more laws more
frequently and with far costlier and deadlier results, but this
has become so endemic and epidemic that it's barely noticed.
Bicyclists, on the other hand, are seen as inscrutable "others,"
probably kind of crazy. So the minor misdeeds of bicyclists are
seen as the end of civilization while motorized carnage becomes
background noise.
=v= Demanding our place on the road also means demanding that
we be regarded as individuals, just as motorists are. When a
motorist blows a STOP sign, do other motorists get their ears
bent about "you scofflaw car drivers?" Is the AAA held to task
because someone goes 30 MPH over the speed limit? The very idea
is ludicrous. We should demand no less than full acceptance as
individual human beings.
=v= I actually do adhere to traffic codes, and you know what?
Plenty of motorists don't like it. What they want is me out of
their way, so they can speed. Many of them don't even *know*
the law. Hell, many police officers don't even know it.
=v= "The three Rs" (and "Cyclists fare best when they act and
are treated as drivers of vehicles.") are fine in theory, but
I've noticed a one-sidedness in campaigns to put them into
practice. The wanton lawless of "drivers of vehicles" is
overlooked. Their less-than-same rules and more-than-same
rights don't even enter the equation.
=v= The very fact that hit-and-run driving would lead to a
discussion of a cyclists' "code of conduct" speaks volumes.