[SDCBC] all road users need education

[Gene Carman]

The concepts should be introduced at the same time they are learning 
how to drive an auto.  Dan's videos should be presented along with 
all the rest of the material.

This would both show future motorists where bicycles belong on the 
road, and show cyclists where they belong on the road... all together 
as integrated traffic.


At 04:52 PM 2/12/2007, Serge Issakov wrote:

>On 2/12/07, John Forester 
><<mailto:forester at johnforester.com>forester at johnforester.com > wrote:
>
>We have plenty of evidence of both the power of the public emotion
>against vehicular cycling and of the means of overcoming that emotion
>in individuals. The means of overcoming that cyclist inferiority
>phobia are repeated successful exposure to real traffic of gradually
>increasing intensity. A useful first step in such acclimatization is
>the video work of Dan and Brian, which can be viewed in a
>non-threatening environment, but it has to be followed by success in
>cycling in real traffic.
>
>
>There are plenty of cyclists who cycle successfully, relatively speaking,
>in real traffic, but still don't seem to be "acclimatized".  As an example,
>consider Michael Clarke, the KFI manager recently featured in the NBC
>news story,
>
> 
><http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbeDxOHfT68>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbeDxOHfT68
>
>This guy commutes some 34 miles per day in LA traffic.  By
>most any reasonable measure, he is an "experienced" traffic cyclist.
>But the clips show him riding far to the right (certainly as compared to the
>clips shown by Dan and Brian), we know he has been hit at least once,
>and his words reveal a strong sense of inferiority while he is out there.
>
>I don't mean to pick on Mr. Clarke, but I believe he is a fairly 
>typical example
>of a very common type of cyclist: he doesn't make the gross errors 
>of riding on
>the wrong side, riding at night without proper lights and 
>reflectors, riding on sidewalks,
>blowing through red lights, etc., but he still doesn't act like a 
>(slow moving) vehicle driver
>when he is out there, particularly not in terms of negotiating for 
>ROW and controlling
>lanes when they are too narrow to be shared, when approaching 
>intersections, etc.
>In fact, very few cyclists seem to do that.  How do we popularize 
>this more assertive,
>safer and more rewarding form of "integrated cycling", as 
>exemplified by the work of
>Dan and Brian, within the community of "experienced" cyclists?  As 
>far as I can tell,
>for the most part, these are not the folks signing up for LAB 
>courses, and, much of what
>is covered in those classes they already know.  Plus, they think 
>doing anything much
>different from what they already do  is "crazy" and/or "asking for 
>it".    They believe
>the problem is the motorists and favor bike lanes as reprieve that 
>gives them space
>that they don't have to fight for.   They believe most if not all of 
>the problems that they
>have, be they close calls or actual hits, are par for the course, 
>something that is
>inevitable.  How to reach them?  How to get through to them?
>
>Serge
>
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