Comment 31331

By Ted Mitchell (registered) | Posted May 27, 2009 at 21:57:10

Second all those points, kevlahan.

But there SHOULD be a double standard for cars and peds/bikes.

Cyclists may flaunt rules, but they do so from a better vantage point than inside a car.

  1. Your vision is higher and wider than in a car, even an suv.
  2. Your ears give important feedback that is inaudible or drowned out from inside a car.
  3. You are way, way more aware of your surroundings. Granted, some are not, but on average a cyclist's brain is going twice as fast because of the awareness of risk and the adrenaline of physical exercise.

So where it is illegal to blow a stop sign at 20 km/h, doing so in a car exposes others, especially vulnerable road users, to unacceptable risk.

Doing so on a bike is similarly illegal but sometimes not unsafe, because of the much heightened senses that allow you to do it while knowing there is no one coming from another direction to injure you or be injured by you.

This doesn't apply to all streets, but on a calm day in light traffic you could blow all the stop signs on Sterling quite safely for everyone. I see it done all the time, although I generally slow to about 12 k, because not slowing down at all just makes me feel guilty!

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