Thursday, January 03, 2008

Obey, or Not?

StreetsBlog recently asked "Are there in fact, good reasons to ignore traffic regulations when you can, because after all, they are really meant just for cars?"

I guess I'm just the kind of person who obeys the rules the best he can. The article, and many of the comments that follow it, seem to say that it is dangerous to follow the rules. I disagree. Sure there are times that I end up having to run a light because it won't change for me - and there have been a few times I've rolled through a stop sign - but I can't think of a time that treating my bike like a vehicle has ever put me in danger.

"Given that most traffic controls were put into place solely for the benefit of drivers, why should the rest of us have to obey them? They're not helping us. In fact, they're impeding us."


I dunno, so you don't get a ticket?

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

Sounds like glorified jaywalking to me, which I find equally annoying.

Noah said...

Spend some time in downtown KCMO watching people on bikes blatantly disregard all the traffic laws, then tell me how great it is.

Also, many of the recent local cycling deaths have been caused in part by cyclists disobeying traffic laws and doing stupid stuff to get themselves killed. Of course I'm not talking about John Triggs or The Gaunts (search the Internet for their stories).

Then we wonder why it's hard to get charges pressed when a motorist really obviously is at fault.