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Comment by dllthomas | Hacker News Reader

'For fun find a cyclist discussion somewhere where they complain about something like this and post a mildly worded suggestion and see what kind of response you get. I absolutely guarantee it won't be "yeah, you know what, maybe we should be observing traffic laws like we're supposed to"'

The East Bay Bicycle Coalition, at least, explicitly tells bikers to abide by the laws, and offers classes in (amongst other things) what those laws are. I fully agree that there are bicyclists that don't know what they're doing and ride unsafely, and I condemn that - as do a lot of other people I know who bike more regularly than I.

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Part of the problem is that people get bikes as kids, then as they got older just start using them on the road without any real understanding of the laws and regulations on bikes. They don't realize that it's a vehicle, there's no required driver training, or licensing or anything to ride a bike on the road like with a car.

As kids you can kind of ride your bike wherever you want, as adults riders just sort of expand where they can ride to include roads and don't really give much thought to it. Police don't really seem to enforce the laws either, so you're kind of on your own to educate yourself or develop some method of ridership that works.

I agree that this is a root cause of some of the problems we see. I do think those problems are less prevalent than some assert, but I'd love for them to be less prevalent still. I approve of increased enforcement of the laws that apply to bicycles, provided the enforcement was sane and prioritized safety.

Note that the bicycle safety classes I mention above was not only free, they gave out free lights to boot!

> Note that the bicycle safety classes I mention above was not only free, they gave out free lights to boot!

Oh that's awesome. I would have loved to have had something like that. Do you know if they have local police come in and give safety talks as well? Cops see everything and they have all kinds of stories and advice to give.

There weren't any cops there the time I went - that could be great or go poorly, depending on the cop... but probably something worth looking into (idk if they have).

Lots of places have a dedicated community outreach officer. It would be worth calling the local precinct and finding out if they have somebody who can talk about road safety. You guys might even have some bike cops who can share and commiserate.

I'm not terribly involved, but I'll bring it up next time I get the chance!

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