Bicycling Season (FINALLY!)

BICYCLISTS CONTROL THEIR OWN SAFETY BY THEIR OWN BEHAVIORS

I parked my car very carefully, making sure that it was centered in one of downtown Mystic's precious, clearly defined car parking places. I had reached for the door handle when an impulse caused me to first check my side view mirror - just as a bicyclist squeezed past my door with less than two feet clearance. Had I even partially opened the door to look rearward  for approaching traffic I would have sent the rider crashing down or possibly out into the travel lane and under the wheels of a passing motor vehicle.

Bicyclists who believe that they are promoting their own safety and being courteous to motorists by hugging the curbs and gutters (sometimes riding to the right of the white line even as their "imaginary bike lane" disappears into piles of gravel and debris, glass, sticks, deep cracks and potholes) are doing just the opposite. Those who ride in the "door zone" - that treacherous space between parked cars and lane-sharing traffic that I described in the opening paragraph - are risking serious injury or death.

When bicyclists believe that they are not traffic, and thus not subject to traffic rules and patterns that drivers are trained to automatically respond to, roads become more dangerous for all users. The last time I checked, our eyes were located in the front of our heads. Traffic rules thus follow concepts that acknowledge that drivers must keep eyes looking in front of the vehicle. in order to operate safely. When bicyclists violate these human anatomy-based and logical traffic rules, they add a level of complication and danger to what is designed to be a simple system.

BUT - a bicyclist who drives defensively may be subject to harrassment by motorists, and sometimes by law enforcement officers whose interpretations of traffic laws follow society's common misunderstandings of bicycling traffic rules and bicycling safety. It is sad for those of us who invested time and treasure to learn what makes bicycling safe and effective as PART of traffic, as opposed to attempting to make bicycling irrelevant to traffic, which becomes very dangerous. The joy of becoming a responsible (and car-free) part of traffic can be quickly crushed by being stopped for defensive driving, and having to defend one's good driving practices in court. Most bicyclists who defend their defensive driving practices see their cases dismissed, but the extreme financial and emotional stresses involved in this defense is costly.

Connecticut's bicycling laws include some of the most discriminatory anti-bicyclist-safety language in the USA. This language leaves bicyclists vulnerable to harrassment and promotes the idea that bicyclists must act as second-class road users, severely endangering themselves for the convenience of others. But there is hope, and it comes from the State that is trying to change its status as having the most bicyclist deaths per year - Florida. Some bicycling educators and transportation professionals in Florida have clearly proven that bicyclists fare best when they act as and are treated as traffic, and that the overwhelming majority of crashes and fatalities (about 95%) are caused by bicyclist's own behavior (mistakes).

The other epiphany that this group is sharing with the rest of our country is that we MUST come together to defend bicyclists who drive defensively (and legally) predudicial laws and instances and patterns of harrassing law enforcement.

Here is thier discussion of this problem: http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2014/04/08/enforcement-for-bicyclist-safety/

Bicyclists:  Be safe! Be a responsible, predictable and visible part of traffic.  Follow the traffic rules designed for all vehicles and well-proven for over a century. Don't add confusion, chaos and danger to a simple and safe traffic system.