Keri’s comment about being safer than driving a car strikes home too. My wife and I own and use a couple electric vehicles. They are somewhat more limited than the bike in that the range has to be considered, but it works for my non-commuting wife’s trip to work and other destinations. It’s slower than other motor vehicles, but as with a bike, other drivers go around and that’s all there is to it. There are angry horn-blowers for the EV too, but more thumbs-ups than I get. When she has to drive the Infernal Combustion Engine powered vehicle, she drives slower than surrounding traffic and the trips are more relaxing.

The unfortunate aspect of being a proper road user is that suggesting it to others is not well received. I have ordered the Traffic book suggested in another entry, to better understand why. Keri’s reference to a human powered motorcycle brings to mind the Yahoo group for electric assisted bicycles, (a bunch of Yahoos, to be sure) and the reaction to my suggestion that operating in the lane would be safer. One of the message posts became insulting: http://tinyurl.com/6hqnmt and that’s just sad.

I ride through that intersection regularly on my way to work — with traffic, in the correct traffic lane, as a vehicle — with ZERO problems. Sometimes I turn right on Orange and ride in the traffic lane until I make a left at N Ivanhoe Blvd. Sometimes I turn left and ride in the right traffic lane and turn Rt on S Ivanhoe to go to Lakeview. Both routes are good, conflict-free and safe. My behavior on both is law-abiding and predictable… just as any other vehicle, only slower. My experience has always been good. And it always amazes me to see cyclists making things so unnecessarily difficult for themselves trying to avoid riding on the road where it is so incredibly easy.

The RR tracks are perpendicular to the road. Crossing them in the traffic lane is not a problem. In fact, the way this guy crossed them was actually more likely to cause him to crash because he was at an angle rather than perpendicular. Before they repaved around them last year, they were much more jarring — I used to try to get enough speed to bunny-hop the worst part. They’re nicer now. But either way, perpendicular tracks are NOT a problem… crossing at a closer-to-parallel angle like this guy did is what causes crashes.

This is not an issue of infrastructure. This is an issue of a person not thinking of himself as driving a vehicle with a legal right (and obligation) to drive predictably in the road. Instead he was acting like a pedestrian on wheels… or as my friend Summer says: like an urban deer.

As a result he is far more likely to be hit by a car and to experience constant conflicts with cars.

It’s very easy to ride in a way that produces virtually no conflicts — and is actually far safer even than driving a car. It only requires that you think of yourself as a driver and drive your bike like a human-powered motorcycle. Don’t worry about being slow. Motorists will change lanes and pass. Just take your place on the road and act like you belong there… because you do!

The path he took was not a good one but there are not many good ones there. The reason he was on the far side of the street might have been from picking out a way across the tracks that is also very problematic there.

I was not there so I don’t know. I avoid that corner if at all possible.

Neither of them were. However, the wearing of a helmet isn’t a reliable determinant for the quality of a rider. I’ve seen plenty of helmet-wearing dingbats. And I know some non-helmet-wearing, extremely competent cyclists.

The best we can do is show ourselves to be competent and law-abiding through our behavior on the road… and hope not to be prejudged by motorists who may be biased by experiencing the behavior of bozos. And try to offer them the same equity.

From the Hobo ethical code: “Decide your own life, don’t let another person run or rule you.”?

I wish there was something that identified those of us who try to ride the right way (sometimes I think a helmet does help imply that perception), so that cars could make a quick determintation: “Oh, this cyclist knows what he’s/she’s doing” vs. “Oh, this cyclist doesn’t look right — yes, he’s running a red light! Too bad he’s not like the other cyclists ….”

I mean, I don’t want a uniform for all, but some way of visually telling a motorist “yes, I know the proper way to ride a bike on the road” …….