From: byer@adobe.com (Scott Byer)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles
Subject: Re: U.S. Federal Bicycle  Policy
Date: 27 Jul 92 18:43:55 GMT
Reply-To: byer@adobe.com (Scott Byer)
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated

stek@alcvax.pfc.mit.edu writes

> Come on now.  6 miles per hour is about the speed of cars
> downtown in most cities.  I think we need not insist on
> going faster than cars.

I do insist on going a reasonable speed, and 6mph isn't
it.  I can average 22 by car, and can manage 20 on a good
day by bike on my commute.  Slow that down to 6? You
forget that in the U.S., due to a combination of history
and lifestyle, most people do not commute downtown -
downtown.  Longer commutes are impractical at such a
ridiculous speed.

> The speed at which you travel is not that important in
> getting around town.  If commuting by bike is relaxing
> or a social, wouldn't more people do it?

There is a difference between 'getting around town' and
commuting.  The intent of a commute is to *get there*.
Sure, maybe some more people would commute if you gave
them end-to-end bike paths.  They would love the leisurely
illusion of safety.  Don't, however, condemn those of us
who seriously commute by bicycles now to some automotive
utopia of all the bicycles off the road, tooling along
in their easter bonnets.  If I was forced off the road
and onto bike paths I would quit biking to work.  I just
don't need that additional danger, frustration and stress
in my life.

>> 	  As  for  the  exclusion  of pedestrians  and
>> 	  beginning cyclists, nowhere  in the U.S. has
>> 	  this been accomplished and  there is no reason
>> 	  to suspect that it will be accomplished.

> What a pessimist!  Again this works great in Holland.  Why not here?  

How would you exclude beginning cyclists here?  As soon
as you tried to do anything at all, you'd get statements
containing the word 'rights' thrown back in your face.
It's just a piece of this nation's culture.  Do we try
to get incompetent drivers off the road?  Heck no!  Never
have, never will.  Driving is a privilege, but do all
those 'licensed voter' drivers believe that?  How would
you do it for bicycles then?  As soon as you required
licenses for bicycles, the pols would think up ways to
extort money out of you by making laws designed to catch
the most 'wrongs', not the unsafe ones.  Just like they
do for cars.

John has continually given extremely good reasons why a
bike path will never be safe.  There is just too much
history, concrete, and economic concern to be overcome
to do anything reasonable with a bike path system.  This
is still a car-dominated society, and any bike path plan
that would have been safe in original conception would
be whittled down to 'just another sidewalk' by the time
it was approved, with intersections all over the place.
Intersections will then always be a problem, because out
of sight is out of mind for most drivers, and they won't
consider that bike path intersection until they are
scraping some poor soul off of their bumper.

To be safe, we must be 'in their face' all the time,
sharing the road as equals.  Relegating bicycles to bike
paths would just keep bicycles as the permanent underclass
of the American roadway system.

Scott Byer                                   NeXTMail: byer@adobe.com
Adobe Systems Incorporated               These are *my* opinions, and  
1585 Charleston Road, P.O. Box 7900        do not necessarily reflect
Mountain View, CA 94039-7900             the opinions of my employer.
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