[*BCM*] MassBike To Blame For Biker Awareness

[Robert Arnold]

>Similarly, I like the idea of making ALL traffic laws apply to ALL types
>of vehicles equally.  Then the safety issues of individual vehicle
>designs can be dealt with seperately (but they should all include
>things like lights, brakes, and good visibility).  Equality breeds
>respect, in my experience.

Unfortunately, bikes simply aren't the same as cars or trucks or
busses, etc. We can't move as quickly. We're much more susceptible to
debris in the roadway and potholes. We are less dangerous to ourselves
and to innocent bystanders. There are different laws for different
classes of motorized vehicles, so why not different laws for
non-motorized vehicles? Pretending that bikes are the same thing as
cars seems disingenuous to me, and misguided. And it's equally
misguided to crack down on "bicycle offenses" like headlights without
first showing some enforcement of laws that actually help cyclists.

Rob

On 7/24/05, David Hammond <dabbotthammond at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> >> * Defining a class of electric/electric-assist micro-
> >> vehicles, and enacting legislation facilitating their
> >> development and proliferation;
> 
> =v= Why is this a goal?  These gadgets may be hyped as some sort
> of eco-whiz-bang replacement for car use, but in practice they
> do no such thing.  Indeed, they are marketed to compete with
> bicycles and they are an annoying, noisy, polluting, obstructing
> addition to bike facilities.
> 
> =v= (I of course make an exception for people with disabilities
> who truly need an electric motor assist, but that's not what the
> above says at all.)
>     <_Jym_>
> 
> I'm not trying to start a flame war here, but you have NO IDEA what you're
> talking about. Did you think I was referring to those nasty scooters powered
> by weed-whacker motors?  Read my posts again.
> 
> Even if you charge your electric bicycle's batteries from a grid powered by
> coal-burning plants, you are causing far less incremental pollution than if
> you drive a Prius in making the same trip. Have you ever even seen, much
> less ridden, an electric-assist bike? Where's the noise?? The most noise
> mine generates happens when I pass a peloton in a full up-hill sprint, and
> I'm pedaling backwards as a joke. The "Holy s*it!", "Whatthefugizat?" and
> "Hey, you're cheating!" comments can be deafening. Never mind that I'm
> coming back from the supermarket with 12 bags of groceries and the Sunday
> Globe on board.....
> 
> As it's designed, my bike is completely undefined by Mass. Laws. All the
> references to Assisted Bicycles vs. Mopeds vs. Motorcycles talk about engine
> displacement, a concept completely alien to electric motors.  For me, this
> is both good and bad - good in that a judge or jury would be compelled to
> accept the "undefined, therefore unregulated by law" argument; bad in that
> when I finally retrieve the bike from police impoundment, it'll be wrecked.
> That's why I want favorable legislation for electric/electric assist
> micro-vehicles - 500 lbs and under - so that more people will retire their
> "annoying, noisy, polluting, obstructing" AUTOMOBILES.
> 
> And as for competing with bicycles, how many more people do you think would
> take up cycling if a majority of the vehicles on the public roads were less
> than 500 lbs and going less than 40 mph? Just picture the morning rush hour
> on the S.E. Expressway - twice the people moving twice as fast, with half
> the crowding, and every other vehicle a bicycle ..... what's wrong with this
> picture? It's a pipe dream, that's what, unless we get the enabling
> legislation.
> 
> Oh, and to the OTHER guy, who said that headlights and helmets are for
> dorks-  I'M A DORK. DEAL WITH IT.
> 
> Dave Hammond
> 
> 
> 
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