[Yak] Re: Reflective sidewalls

[Geof Gee]

If we're voting, Lee, I thought that your response was over the top too.  

 
Regardless, back to folding bikes?
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Washington, DC  20037


"Growing up is a terribly hard thing to do.  It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another."  F.S.F.



----- Original Message ----
From: Lee Lloyd <lee at lmlloyd.com>
To: yak at bikefriday.com
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 9:06:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Yak] Re: Reflective sidewalls

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 4:15 PM, Andrejs Ozolins <andrejs at ozolins.com>wrote:

> Wow.
> I remember this New Yorker cartoon from many years ago. It's a woman with a
> very elaborate hat on her head in front of a mirror in a hat shop -- and
> she's sticking out her tongue at the hat. The sales lady is saying "Please
> madam, a simple yes or no will be enough."
>
>>
>>
Actually, I don't think a simple yes or no would be enough. I have seen
several cyclists who think a blanket "take the lane" approach is the answer
for everything, as though where you are in the lane is the single factor
which decides if you are safe or not. It isn't. No matter what vehicle you
are driving, traffic can be a complex and dangerous situation. A bike is not
a car, and riding your bike around town behaving like a car is not the
solution to every possible danger. There are some situations where "taking
the lane" is the best approach to take, and there are others where it is
suicidal. To suggest that anyone who has been hit or had a near miss must,
by the very nature of having been in danger, have done something wrong, is
offensive, and poor logic. I could just as easily point to any number of
people who have never taken their beach cruiser anywhere but on the
sidewalk, and never had a single accident. That doesn't mean that riding on
the sidewalk is the safest place to be, any more than the fact that he
hasn't been hit means that riding in the middle of the lane somehow makes
you impervious to the stupidity of others.
Most of the people I have known in my life have never been mugged or
physically assaulted. That does not mean that those who have been, were
somehow "asking for it." There are some people who have been lucky and never
had a serious accident in their life, and they invariably feel that somehow
gives them the right to say that they somehow would have magically avoided
that drunk driver who plowed into the back of that sedan killing a family of
four. This is the same thing. I'm very happy for this person that he has
been lucky and avoided accidents his whole life, but it sickens me that he
somehow thinks that anyone who has not been as lucky was automatically doing
something wrong.

-- 
The goal is to overcome the deliberate nature of the process.
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