[StNorberter]

Originally Posted by CoryB

That actually makes some rare sense from city hall. They really need to figure out the rapid transit route from downtown to Polo Park/Airport before they make anymore changes to the main east-west corridors.

In terms of methods of transportation, buses behave in a very predictable manner and rarely are in the wrong with the rare exception being when they block intersections to cross traffic for complete light cycles. Other non-bike vehicles on the road, as much as they may break traffic laws, mostly behave in a predictable manner. You aren't going to see a car from the back of the pack suddenly appear at the front of the pack and run through a red light. Cyclists though, and based on my travels in the city, I would say behave in an unpredictable manner in excess of 50% of the time. That is a lot of bad cyclists out there. The other group that is bad and unpredictable are pedestrians.

As someone that walks a lot on public sidewalks the #1 nuisance is bad cyclists and that clocks in even ahead of aggressive panhandlers and public intoxication in downtown. Sure "cyclists don't kill people" but a bad cyclists v pedestrian can still result in life changing injuries for the pedestrians. It's time to put the "cyclists don't kill people" rhetoric out to pasture where it belongs. Respect needs to be a mutual thing and that means following the rules regardless of what other people and other methods of travel are doing. Sure a cyclists running a red light might not kill anyway but did they take time to make sure a pedestrians with the right of way wasn't there?

Not saying anyone is flawless here but if cyclists want more respect they need to clean up their own act and demonstrate that same level of respect to other citizens. That means if your dedicated pathway ends and your choice is road or sidewalk if you want to keep riding it is never on the sidewalk. The pedestrians using that sidewalk are no more to blame for the poor design than the cyclist facing that poor choice and deserve an equal amount of respect. This summer I have had several close calls with cyclists being overly aggressive while riding on crowded sidewalks while I was a pedestrian, sometimes even on roads with dedicated bike lanes. If cyclists want the infrastructure you need to put your tires behind those demands.

Frick. Spreading the spew every forum you go to, huh?