Joe Cipale

The ONLY time I am going to weigh in on this cluster...

One of the BIGGEST issues of the last 30 years has been driver's education. Back 20 years ago, the powers that be (ignorant fools as I prefer to call them) decided that teaching students how to drive on the road was a waste of time. A few years later, school districts stopped teaching drivers education altogether. Now, if a student wants to learn to drive, they must go to Sears/ACME/Bobbaganoosh School of Driving Etiquette and Airline/Culinary Academy.

The bare minimum is being taught on what the rules of the road are, let alone such topics as driving defensively. Chief among those is 'knowing your surrondings'. Being aware that others are sharing the road with you - be they other cars, buses, or even cyclists is not your worry.

Enough of my rant. Time to killfile this thread and go out and ride.

Monty Hill wrote:

> To me making this a law speaks to the attitude of the average non-cyclist, that it is always the cyclist's fault he/she got injured or killed.
>
> It is so indicative of the prevailing attitude, "riding a bike is so dangerous" well the only reason I wear yellow, or strap on the lights or yes even wear a helmet is because there are so many vehicles on the road piloted by people who are just not aware of us or even don't care. It is not their life in jeopardy.
>
> Case in point after the young boy was murdered by the tri-met driver the news gave a lot of coverage to the mother who stated that they always talked about riding safety. This really frustrates me. Why did they not interview the drivers mother to ask her how she was taught about safety. Remember the facts of the case at the time were unknown, but the assumption was that they boy was just not riding safely enough. When driving a 10,000lb vehicle across a bike path maybe I should double check that there is not a cyclist. If it were a train line I might double check, but a bike lane? I am sure the driver is traumatized but the prevailing attitude is pre-meditated and remorse is not a remedy to the issue.
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA mailing list
> obra@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
> Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org