"Rolling Stops" a yeild to common sense over "Crack Downs"

This blog was originally published in "Michael Holloway's BikingToronto Blog" where I also write. See the Biking Toronto Banner in the side bar to link to my spaces there, or many of the links in this piece.

Over at the Biking Toronto Discussion group, "Bikelanes & Infrastructure" Colin McKay started the topic: "Can we please have a police crackdown on cyclists running reds?".

The inflammatory title of the piece serves to begin a discussion about the differences between cars and bike, the history of infrastructure creation and the bias towards car traffic reflected in traffic law.

No?

Oh well; but that's what I wanted to talk about here.

Three weeks and three days ago Mark added a common sense essay to the discussion the included a link to this great video below. This seems like a good place to start here.



Bicycles, Rolling Stops, and the Idaho Stop from Spencer Boomhower on Vimeo.

So far there are 12 comments on the discussion including one added today, by Todd Tyrtle - have a look.

My take here (Michael Holloway's BikingToronto Blog) and at this blogs sister site the "Toronto/GTA Bicycle Route Mapping Wiki", is that everything must change a little, some things must change a lot in the transportation infrastructure of the city to make Toronto a bike friendly environment.

I rode courier for four summers and 3 winters people running reds was never a problem. Like the video says you make a habit of running red the problem will soon be gone - you'll be dead. The main point of Mr. McKays introduction if I read it correctly is that we need to be taken seriously with in the commons.

I'm all for that - but you're not going to stop a practice used by messengers to get they're job done, on a grid that treats them like second class users - with a crack down - what ever that might be.

Equal, that's the key I think; we all want to be treated like equals, but the stage the way it's set right now has people with a car being a lot more equal than them without.

I agree that responsible cycling is key to the discussion, I even think bicycles should be licensed - along with changes to the drivers license test that includes much more about sharing the road, and perhaps even a section of the test that involves a bicycle road test for motor vehicle drivers! You can't drive a car until you've got your cycling license for example.



mh