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

[John Forester]

Serge Issakov wrote:
>
> Danette shares a story about a group of cyclists who were somehow 
> systematically ridden into a ditch by a plumber, and the police 
> officer sided with the plumber, apparently saying they should have 
> been in the bike lane.  Why were they not in the bike lane in the 
> first place?  Doesn't this illustrate one problem with bike lanes - 
> that it puts the onus on the cyclist to justify being outside of it?  
> What lead up to the incident?  Were they not aware that the plumber 
> was behind them?  Did they acknowledge him in any way?  Again, was 
> there a good reason for them to not move into the bike lane to let him 
> pass?  What was the reason?  Was it explained to the officer, and, if 
> so, and why didn't he agree?  And how exactly were these cyclists 
> ridden off the road into a ditch? 
>
> As to the other incident, that was pure assault and battery.  People 
> like that should be in jail, but they are very rare compared to the 
> run-of-the-mill guy who honks, or yells "get in the bike lane".  Those 
> are the ones I'm talking about diffusing.  By the way, any time anyone 
> yells "get in the bike lane", that just confirms how bike lanes are 
> commonly seen as "that place off to the side where bicyclists 
> belong".  Advocating for facilities that ghettoize cyclists like that 
> hardly seems like advocacy for cyclists to me.
>
> By the way, the only time I ever had anything thrown at me was an egg, 
> which hit me in the calf, while I was riding in the bike lane on 
> Torrey Pines Rd on a Friday night.
>
> Serge
>
>
Putting the onus, both legally and socially, on the cyclist to prove
that he was riding in a proper lateral position, when such is not
required of motorists, has always been one of my criticisms of bike
lanes, and of sidepaths, where such are applicable. The bicycle
advocates who advocate bike lanes and bike paths don't seem to mind this
problem. Maybe they feel the same as the motorists do?