[Rescue Muni] Re: bikes, signaling and turning

David Powers (chromo@sirius.com)
Sat, 7 Nov 1998 21:52:57 -0800

[david powers]
>>What kind of signaling would help you?

[Robert Parks]
>I have fairly low standards for this...any type of indication as to
>future behavior. ...

I passed this comment on and I'm sure that this kind of stuff will be
a part of whatever bike driver-ed happens in the future.

>>Can you break out the law violations?

>...using crosswalks for left turns...

You might find this funny or alarming or whatever but a recent "guide
to urban biking" I saw, by a big publisher, listed the crosswalk left
turn as an important trick in a city biker's bag.

Why is it legal in this situation for a bicyclist to walk their bike
across the intersection, but not ride it? Courtesy/safety for
pedestrians? Seems like major league hair-splitting to me, and that
argument's sort of hard to believe considering the various other ways
pedestrians have been shafted by design.

* * *

I don't have counts of bikes on other streets. I saw counts for
Market Street a little while ago but can't remember them exactly:
memory says Market at peak times is close to 1:2, bikes:cars.

The DPT's Bike Program probably has better numbers. I'm writing to
them tonight for this info and hopefully will get something back by
Tuesday or so.

/ dtp /

-- David Powers san francisco ca usa fax 415 436.9141
chromo@sirius.com <http://www.sirius.com/~chromo/screed/> --

Is the difference between philosophy and humor just a trick of the light?