Graphic: BikingToronto
Last month in San Francisco we covered the
shocking story of a man who went on a rampage and ran down four
cyclists. While that kind of pathological behavior is rare, those
of us who pedal through traffic-choked streets every day know it doesn't
take much for a driver to get angry behind the wheel and cause a great
deal of harm, whether it's careless or intentional.
Today on the Streetsblog Network, we turn to Canada, where Biking
Toronto begins a 10-part series on the "10 Secrets to Cycling with
Traffic." Even though many cyclists sometimes feel like drivers are out
to get us, whizzing by with tempers flaring, riding with traffic can be
less intimidating when you think about the human being behind the wheel:
They may not be your biggest fan, and they may think you are intheir way, that you are too slow, that you don’t belong on the road, and they may be a bit jealous of your tight cycling butt, but most of themare not homicidal.
They may seem scary because they are seeing things from a drivers’perspective, and often have not given much thought to how vulnerablecyclists are. The vast majority of drivers don’t want to kill you… theyjust don’t understand you. As well, the very LAST thing 99.99% ofdrivers want to do is hurt someone.
A lot of drivers are also cyclists (and vice-versa) and don’t want to be in a collision with you.
I bet any cyclist you know with a drivers license can tell you thatknowing things from a cyclists’ perspective has made them a much betterdriver.
Knowing this one thing will give you a lot of confidence.
Good advice, but I also can't help wondering how many more people
would feel comfortable following it if urban motorists consistently
drove in the range of 20 mph, the
speed limit that's currently sweeping Britain.
Elsewhere around the network, Market
Street Railway offers up a historical piece marking the three-year
anniversary of San Francisco's T-Third light-rail line, the Greater
Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition is frustrated by the lack of
progress on a bike-share program, and Yonah
Freemark examines lower-cost high-speed rail in France.
