Bicycles as transport rather than as toys.

From the age of eight until the age of nineteen, a bicycle was my primary means of transport. As a result of that experience, I am quite willing to "share the road". I spent those years in England where, at quitting time, it was not unusual for the factory gates to open and allow two thousand workers on bicycles to depart.

Learning to drive in England (early 1960s) involved looking out for bicycles - there were a lot of them - as an automatic part of the process. Riding a bicycle then, also involved strict obedience to traffic laws: lack of such obedience involved swift punishment, usually by parents (it's amazing how they found out so quickly but that was village life) and occasionally by police.

As an aside, my last encounter with the constabulary involved being dragged off to court and convicted of: riding a bicycle with no lights (it was 11 p.m.), riding a bicycle with no brakes, drunk in charge of a bicycle, and conduct liable to be hazardous to other road users (riding drunkenly with my hands in my pockets - but it was a cold night).

In the USA, the situation is really ugly. As a result of high (at least by our standards) fuel prices, there are now more bicycles on the road - or the same number of bicycles making more trips - and the danger increases by the day.

Too many automobile drivers entirely lack situational awareness when it comes to bicycles. Worse, many seem think that it is their right and duty to scare the living daylights out of any bicyclist who is unwise enough to ride at, according to the driver, a ridiculously slow speed.

On the other side of the argument, too many bicyclists seem to believe that traffic laws do not apply to them. They run red lights and stop signs while weaving through traffic without the least consideration of the only law that really matters which is the Gross Tonnage Rule. That you actually have right of way is little consolation when you are on the wrong end of a collision between 5,000 lbs of pickup truck travelling at 45 mph (in a 35 mph zone) and 200 lbs of bicycle and rider travelling at 12 mph.

While bicyclists are entitled to their share of the road, they should remember that the despised drivers of automobiles are the ones who, through registration fees, fuel taxes, and other levies, actually pay for the construction and upkeep of the roads. They should also remember that speed differentials are intrinsically dangerous and that riding at 15 mph on a road posted for 35 mph is a risky activity. Unfortunately, there seems to be a culture among bicyclists that riding on a bike path is a low status activity although, curiously, riding on the sidewalk and scaring the living daylights out of pedestrians is OK.

Aggressive driving is a general problem not just limited to virtual assaults on bicyclists. Bicyclists, however, could seize some of the moral high ground if they were more willing to obey the law and, when possible, take the bike path rather than insisting on their rights to the road.

Perhaps I am old fashioned in hoping for a return of good manners and consideration but it would be nice if both sides of the argument would contribute. Instead we must suffer aggressive drivers and suicidal bicyclists - all of whom consider a middle finger salute to be a normal form of greeting when they meet.