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"Well, the 15mph speed limit is just a rule, not a law. I'm not sure you can be ticketed for it, and it isn't on every trail, but still, how do you "count" speed limit violations? Is speeding for 1 second the same as speeding for 10 minutes? How you answer changes the count by a lot."

Well, I look forward to seeing you use that defense when you get clocked and cited on the Capital Crescent Trail.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/31/AR2008053102022.html

"I think of it this way. Freeze every road user where they are and then count what percentage of drivers are breaking the law in that moment, and what percentage of cyclists are doing the same. Even if I run every light the whole way home I won't be out of compliance with the law for more than 5% of my commute, but someone who speeds habitually could be out of compliance 60% of the time. I couldn't hit 60% if I tried."

Well, that's not really a very fair metric. I saw a peleton of 50 people run a stop sign today in Haines Point (which I'm sure they did repeatedly), but by your definition, not one of them would be "out-of-compliance". So congratulations, you win by selecting an arbitrarily discrete window of time that can excludes of my observed offenses. That's really helpful.

As for what oboe says; yeah, some people are just jerks and there's no appeasing them. However, some are legitimately and genuinely aggrieved that cyclists flaunt an undeniably high fraction of traffic control laws--often illegally inconveniencing cars. For example, when a slow cyclist rides up around me and stops in front of me at a stoplight or passes me on the right as I'm clipping in, I have an undeniable urge to run them into a parked car in retaliation for rudely getting in my way or forcing me into traffic. If they didn't do this routinely, I wouldn't care. I imagine that a share of car drivers feel similarly, and those are the drivers we can target by being better citizens.

Again, this has nothing to do with the victim in the article, who has my deepest sympathy.

by Jon on Jun 7, 2012 10:42 pm • link • report