Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanlife
Of course I am not saying all bike riders are saints, I have seen plenty of them over the years that have disobeyed the laws of the road and it doesnt bother me one bit to see them being pulled over by the police (which does happen in Portland).
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IMO, getting police to pay more attention to cyclists would be one of the best things for cycling in this country. Some car driver are just asses, many more view bikes as unsafe or bike riders as asses because bike riders don't feel like the rules of the road apply to them for some reason. I have literally been driving through a green light and had a bike rider cut in front of me (against a red light) and flip me off when my tires squealed because I had to slam on the brakes so hard to avoid hitting him. Sure that was one biker, but that type of thing sticks with you. It was a particularly egregious act, but bike riders ignoring stop signs, traffic lights, going the wrong direction, and generally ignoring the rules of the road in an unsafe way are not uncommon and they do a vast amount of harm to the image of bikes as safe, efficient, and a "real" transportation device. If the police paid more attention to those types of infractions and enforced the rules of the road, bike riders would be safer, their image would improve, and they'd get more respect.
Btw, I have used a bike as my sole means of transportation in the past, I will be biking exclusively next year when I start school again, and I currently ride a motorcycle... I am not coming at this from an exclusively car drivers point of view.