[SDCBC] SD Police: "You need to be in the bike lane"

[JonIsaacs at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/31/2008 12:28:04 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
gcarman at san.rr.com writes:

Ah the  lack of proper education rears it's ugly head yet 
again...  While  indeed there are cyclists that could stand to learn 
how to properly ride a  bike...  there is hardly any reason to do so 
when even the  "enforcers" may tell them they are wrong.  (And I 
suspect you were  riding in a very predictable manner.)
Hello to all... Here's my thinking...
 
 
Educating cyclists is the most important thing we can due simply because an  
educated cyclist has to the tools to ride safely in the real world, the world  
where enforcers are confused and motorists are not aware of proper etiquette 
in  the presence of cyclists.  
 
Educating law enforcement as well as the general driving public is a worthy  
dream but it does not give uneducated cyclists the tools to ride in a safe and 
 sane manner, they are still vulnerable because of their ignorance.   
Currently motorists deal with cyclists from a pragmatic viewpoint, they assume  
cyclists are going to run stop signs and stoplights, ride the wrong way, do all  
the things we see so frequently... 
 
Serge's incident was a non incident because Serge has taken the time to  
learn proper riding techniques. This meant that when he was confronted with  
uneducated police officers he was able to address the issue properly and  continue 
to ride as he has, positioning himself properly in the lane.  So,  rather than 
being a story about a cyclist tangling with a car because of  improper lane 
positioning, it is an interesting story about Serge taking a  moment to educate 
a couple of officers...  
 
So, yes it would be nice to train law enforcement officers.  If the  
enforcers understood the importance of proper lane position and riding in a law  
abiding manner, they just might be more interested in enforcing the laws so that  
people on bicycles would be much more likely to abide by the rules of the  
road...  But for my money, I think the first step give cyclists the tools  they 
need to ride properly...
 
Jon
 
 
 
 



**************Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with 
Tyler Florence" on AOL Food.      
(http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4&?NCID=aolfod00030000000002)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.bikesandiego.org/pipermail/sdcbc/attachments/20080531/e9442046/attachment.html