| American society reports many negative
messages about bicycling in traffic. Bicycling in traffic is considered by many
to be reckless, foolhardy, and sometimes rude. The most common advice given to
cyclists is to avoid busy roads that provide convenient access to important
places; presumably cyclists should only go
to unpopular destinations on undesirable and
inconvenient roads. Another popular idea is that cyclists should stay as close
to the edge of the road as possible in order to stay out of the way of cars.
Getting in the way of cars is supposedly an invitation to certain death, because
car drivers are often expected to run into anything that is slower or more
vulnerable. The rules of the road that apply to bicyclists are considered to be
of no use because they involve mixed with motor traffic, which is thought to be
suicide. Roads are believed to be designed for cars and not for bicycles, which
are tolerated at the pleasure of motorists, who really own the roads. Inferior
bicyclists may have an obsolete legal right to use the road, but they had better
stay out of the way of superior users or they will be "dead right". As a result of these "common-sense" beliefs, American bike-safety programs developed by motoring organizations and "pedestrian-style" bicyclists during the twentieth century attempted to teach cyclists to provide a clear path to motorists at all times by hugging the edge of the road, riding on sidewalks where present, and even riding facing traffic so cyclists can see when to get out of the way. Some towns and states tried to prohibit bicyclists from operating on important roads or roads without shoulders. Engineering projects designed for "bicycle safety" have usually involved construction of mandatory side paths to get cyclists off of roads and mandatory bike lanes to keep cyclists out of the way of motorists. The publicized benefit of these efforts is to protect cyclists from collisions from behind, which are widely believed to be the greatest danger to cyclists and caused by {{U}}cyclists' failure to keep up with the desired speed of motor traffic{{/U}}. This is the taboo that afflicts American bicycle transportation policy: that bicyclists must be kept out of the paths of motorists or they will surely be killed. |