[SDCBC] Pet peeve: cyclists have "no choice" but to be unsafe/crazy

[Tom Lettington]

Serge,

One variable not discussed is the cyclists "seriousness" factor.  By 
this, I mean the difference between a rider on a bike giving the 
appearance of a "road worthy machine" pedaling steadily in a straight 
line at a speed of 12-18 MPH vs a beach cruiser toodling along at 5-8 
MPH. I'm not pre-judging how different the data would be, but it 
would be interesting to see.  When we teach road skills to a wide 
variation of cyclists, not all are going to look like you do when 
they "take the lane".  I suspect cyclists in the later category would 
incite more road rage in motorists who believe bicycles don't belong 
in the roadway and thus would likely result in more close brush 
"lesson teaching" behavior.  I also suspect the data sample size 
would need to be quite a bit larger to show this.

     - Tom

At 02:18 PM 2/19/2008, you wrote:
>[WAS: specific information about Encinitas community meetings re: 
>Coast Highway]
>
>As long as we're sharing pet peeves, I am going to share mine here, 
>which is when bicyclists promote the false but widely held notion 
>that cyclists often have to be crazy and are often forced into 
>unsafe situations while trying to "survive" in traffic.