Comment 32710

By LL (registered) - website | Posted August 08, 2009 at 20:00:37

Ryan: I too ride assertively, plugging a lane when I have to, directing traffic behind me with hand signals, generally following the traffic act, etc. But you really follow the road rules to a tee? That's quite different from 99% of drivers. Think of the "rolling stops" and "acceptible speeding" that is the norm.

In current conditions, following the rules to a tee makes riding infeasible. If I'm approaching a four-way stop, I slow down. If nobody is around, or if I'm arriving at it just before someone and I make eye contact, I flow through. If I'm at the Farmer's market and I have to head west, I go slow on the sidewalk until I get to the sidestreets past Bay, rather than detour right around the core on the one-way streets.

This is North America. Most people understand that rules are made to be bent. In my experience, those same vast majority of motorists who accept cyclists don't mind us rule-bending - as long as we're cautious and don't take anyone's right-of-way without a wave. It's the Dave Shittleworths of the world who insist we follow the rules to a tee, while they don't. I don't see any point in taking the moral high road for them.

By the way, Hamilton is already a cycling city - way more than any of the GTA suburbs. Huge proportions of people in Central, Downtown, and West Hamilton already use bikes to get around. Suburban politicians need to stop sniffing the new car smell.

LL believes that the problems of the city reflect deeper social contradictions

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