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As one who <i>can</i> balance at a complete stop (albeit briefly), the
reason for going well beyond the minimum reduction in speed to avoid an
accident is communicating to cross-traffic that you respect
"right-of-way". Most drivers will yield it as
they do not wish to seriously injure/kill a reckless bicyclist running
the stop sign. And while taking advantage of motorists' understandable
caution can preserve the "precious forward momentum of the moment", it
contributes to the long-term, often subconscious, erosion of our right
to the road.<br>
<br>
I have seen enough click-out-and-scrape, riders coast past me at the
limit line to
realize that some think "I put down my foot" is a legal defense. And
even if some judges do use it as a simple criterion to parse the "he
said she said" courtroom arguments and keep their caseload flowing,
getting off on a technicality not only creates negative bias in the
mind of law enforcement, but can encourage others to play "Russian
Roulette". There is that one-in-a-thousand driver who, having a
particularly bad day, will say, "I arrived first and stopped - it's not
my problem".<br>
<br>
To our police: if you see a cyclist inching forward at the limit line,
recognize (s)he is respecting the law. To our community: Yes,
human-powered commuting and recreating can confer a righteous "part of
the solution" attitude. No, it does not <i>entitle</i> us to usurp the
rights of drivers whose vehicle's mileage-and-occupancy profile/carbon
footprint make them "part of the problem".<br>
<br>
Omar Firestone<br>
<br>
<br>
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