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Attitude is a major part of the problem. There are, of course, aggressive drivers, and I wish that the Portland police would give more citations to drivers that drive aggressively to the point of recklessness. But there are also aggressive bikers who treat traffic safety laws as not applicable to them. There is bike commuting and there is biking as exercize. In my experience, too frequently bikers on city commuting routes act as if they are biking for exercize, riding as quickly as possible and blowing through stop signs and never signaling. Bicyclists need to remember that there is a time and place for everything, and Skyline Drive and Mt Tabor are available for biking all-out while biking in city bike lines requires remembering and obeying all the traffic laws, for your own safety and the safety of everyone else.
Note: I bike more than drive, and grew up biking in Manhattan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the craziest biking place in America. I am firmly a believer that if you are part of traffic, you need to be very aware of traffic and obey the rules of traffic. Bikers, and drivers, need to obey the rules to be predictable to everyone else, especially those that you don't see.

posted 5 years ago
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