[SDCBC] Fwd: Share the Road is actually a requirement, not a request

[Trevor Bourget]

Here is my response to the editorial.
-- Trevor

>Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 23:44:25 -0700
>To: GLDillow at aol.com
>From: Trevor Bourget <trevorspoke at cox.net>
>Subject: Share the Road is actually a requirement, not a request
>
>>Now, I'm sure I'll be hearing from bicyclists 
>>who will explain to me – in a civil manner, I 
>>hope – just how wrong I am on this one. If so, 
>>I'll try to fairly present their point of view in a future column.
>
>Thanks for getting one thing right in your 
>column. The "Share the Road" campaign is a nice 
>way of reminding motorists that there is a legal 
>obligation between highway users, including a 
>legal requirement to yield to an overtaken 
>cyclist, passing at a safe combination of 
>speed/distance when the opportunity presents itself.
>
>It has been studied, demonstrated, proven that 
>the major risk factor between any two highway 
>users is related to crossing conflict. Unless we 
>build grade-separated crossings at every 
>intersection, the safest way for slow and fast 
>traffic to mix is to put them in lanes 
>channelized by direction of destination (left 
>turn, straight, right turn) and teach them how to merge legally and safely.
>
>Bike paths, barricaded bike lanes, and other 
>such physical segregation prevents bicyclists 
>and motorists from preparing early to merge into 
>proper destination channels, so they provide 
>false security between intersections that 
>concentrate and magnify the danger of the 
>intersections. Also, road surface maintenance 
>(trenching, pothole, sweeping) of any 
>non-motoring facility is nearly always worse, 
>while bicycle tires demand better surfaces than do motor vehicle tires.
>
>By the way, many cyclists who don't know the 
>real risks in traffic are afraid of all the 
>things you mention, and without education this 
>can lead to many of the very incidents you point 
>out. For example, cyclists who try to stay too 
>far to the right may suddenly swerve out into 
>traffic when they come upon an obstacle. Far 
>safer behavior is to always ride closer to the 
>well-traveled part of the roadway where such 
>obstacles are less likely, and where overtaking 
>motorists can notice the cyclist and provide 
>appropriate increased lateral distance or slow 
>down while overtaking in order to make an 
>evasive maneuver of their own if required.
>
>Thanks for the offer to post a follow-up 
>editorial which will remind all your readers to 
>share the road with each other: motor, cycle, and ped.
>
>-- Trevor Bourget
>Poway, California
>LCI (League of American Bicyclist Cycling Instructor) #998