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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I ride a bike and drive a car. I have no problem with holding bikers and motorists to the same obligations to obey all traffic signs regardless if on a bike or a car. That makes both safer. How can anyone argue that it is safer for bikers to be able to run stop signs?  Again, love cycling but this is just common sense to me. [/quote]

Generally, if you can just proceed through the intersection as soon as you verify that it is clear, that is better for bikes, instead of stopping fully.  Bikes and cars are totally different vehicles.   [/quote]

Right and I am sure most of the time you are right but if we are all held to the same standard it makes biking more safe to stop. If a bike cruises through a stop sign and does not realize that a car is traveling at a high speed and will not be stopping for whatever reason, then the biker is dead. I have seen too many bikers cruise through stop signs when cars are stopped assuming they have some sort of right of way. That is also inherently dangerous for the biker. Courtesy goes both ways. [/quote]

I have made this point before, but drivers *think* they wants all bikes to scrupulously adhere to all laws, including the requirement to come to a complete stop, but they really, really don't.  Consider that (i) there are not bike lanes in most of the city; (ii) cyclists are permitted to take the lane when there are no bike lanes; and (iii) even when there are bike lanes, cyclists aren't required to ride in them, and still may feel safer taking the lane.  Then think about driving along and you come upon one or more cyclists.  They are in the middle of the lane, and you can't pass them.  Then they stop at each stop sigh - a complete stop, and then laboriously start up again, only to repeat the same thing at the next stop sign.  Then think about the cyclist commuting home from work, taking the lane on Connecticut Avenue, with a long line of cars crawling behind him, trying to get into the left lane to pass.  And then think about his neighbor, commuting home on Mass Ave., which narrows to one lane of traffic in spots because of construction, also taking the lane.  And then think about . . .

See where this leads?  If cyclists scrupulously observed every traffic law, and drove only in a legally permitted way, drivers would lose their freakin' minds.  [/quote]

Yup - the only thing that makes a driver madder than a bicyclist running a stop sign is a bicyclist stopping at a stop sign.[/quote]
Nice projection. [/quote]

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