From: rlk@underprize.think.com (Robert Krawitz)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.soc
Subject: Re: Bike paths (FROM Re: Cycling and Environmentalism)
Date: 21 Dec 92 17:25:05
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge Mass., USA
	<1992Dec21.183806.1402@news.cs.brandeis.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: underprize.think.com
In-reply-to: dkw@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu's message of 21 Dec 92 18:38:06 GMT

In article <1992Dec21.183806.1402@news.cs.brandeis.edu> dkw@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (David Wittenberg) writes:

   This sounds disturbingly like auto drivers complaining about
   bicyclists: they're slow, they swerve, you never know where they're
   going. 

It is, and quite rightly so; bicyclists who don't know what they're
doing are as much of a hazard to cyclists who do know what they're doing
as they are to cars (if not more so).

   Where do you want these people to ride?  If people are going to
   bicycle at all, they must learn somewhere.  I hope my daughter will
   want to ride a bicycle eventually, and I can imagine that she would
   get frustrated if restricted to the 100 or so yards of our street.
   My wife and I average 12 mph.  Many people in this forum claim to
   average 24 mph.  If we can't share a 2 lane (per direction) highway
   with no cars, how are we going to ride on a 1 narrow lane (per
   direction) with cars?

It's not a matter of speed, but rather of style.  If I'm getting passed
climbing a hill (the usual state of affairs :-(), I move to the right to
let the faster rider pass me, and wave her by if there's any doubt as to
whether I'm aware of her presence.

The point is to teach your daughter how to ride correctly, whatever her
speed is (no doubt John Forester will have a lot more to say about that;
_Effective Cycling_ discusses that issue in considerable detail).  That
means riding in the appropriate lane position for her speed and
direction (if she's making a turn, or if other traffic's making a turn),
not to weave in and out (that can be done, if at all, on a playground or
parking lot), etc.  How did you learn how to drive?  Certainly not by
getting on Rt. 128 at rush hour.  Similarly, an inexperienced rider
should start on quiet streets, or ride with a teacher.

2 lanes in each direction is plenty of room for lots of bikes, if
everyone's obeying the rules (slower traffic keep right, turns made from
the appropriate lane, avoid sudden stops, don't weave in and out).  But
when those two lanes are filled with people weaving in and out, figure
blading, or such, it's very dangerous for cyclists who are trying to get
somewhere.

   I have ridden on several roads when they were closed to auto traffic,
   and found that the riders weren't as skilled as those I normally meet
   on the roads.  With the extra road width, I didn't think I was in any
   more danger than  on  the roads I normally commute on.  I did have to
   change my style of riding somewhat.

That probably depends upon your speed -- at 18-20 MPH (my normal speed
on the flat), there's not a lot of time to react if someone jumps out in
front of you.
--
ames >>>>>>>>>  |	Robert Krawitz <rlk@think.com>	245 First St.
bloom-beacon >  |think!rlk				Cambridge, MA  02142
harvard >>>>>>  .	Thinking Machines Corp.		(617)234-2116

Member of the League for Programming Freedom -- write lpf@uunet.uu.net