Scott en Aztl‡n along.
It's no solution - it's capitulation. I enjoyed biking to work - it was close by, and since the place to park was far from the office, I actually made better time door-to-door with my bike. And it was cheaper, and I felt better, and I got more done at work. Driving a car is a net minus.
What does smart have to do with it?
Drivers' anger at cyclist is quintessential MFFY. Why in the heck be angry with me? I followed all the laws to the letter - even moreso than when I was in a car. I never held up traffic (by the legal definition,) and pulled over if I built up a queue of more than four cars (the law here.) Heck, motorhomes and tractor-trailer rigs don't have that much consideration for their fellow road users.
If lifted trucks started running motorcyclists off the road, or if dump trucks ran Geo Metros into the gravel shoulder, folks would properly condemn that as a crime. But because drivers can "get away with it", they do this to bikers. And then complain when bikers ride against traffic, run lights and signs, etc.
Sometimes I wonder how folks can extol one part of the vehicle code, and then rationalize ignoring some other part - not because it doesn't make sense from an engineering standpoint, but because they have irrational dislike of non-motorized roadway users. And then use that dislike to go ahead and find all sorts of reasons that new laws should be pbutted, none of which address any sort of reasonable, *real* problem with bikes sharing space with cars.
HAND,
E.P.
