WiNK wrote:
"Jay Furr" wrote in message
...
"WiNK" wrote in
:

In most states in which I've bothered to check the laws, bicycles =
cars insofar as rules of the road are concerned. They shouldn't be
up on the sidewalk and they shouldn't be riding facing oncoming
traffic.

I know it's that way *now*....I am talking about in the early 70s. I
could have sworn when I went to a bicycle safety course and earned my
big, fluorescent orange flag for my bike, that it wasn't that way.

People offer dumb-ass safety courses to kids on all kinds of things. It
doesn't mean that anything they say actually has any bearing on real life.
A well-meaning group can get an idea to offer bike safety courses, tell
kids to do something, and next week a cop'll stop one of the kids and say
"you know that's against the law, right?"

--
"I wish people who had trouble communicating would just shut up."
-- Tom Lehrer

http://www.livejournal.com/users/jayfurr/

I think that is exactly what happened....I was doing some research, because
it was bugging me. My guess is laws for bicycles were a later addition...
but the bike safety courses often taught kids improper riding:
"Many cyclists make these mistakes because they were taught to ride this way
as children."

I remember riding that way til I was a teenager!

Peach


We were taught (early 60's) to ride with traffic. The reason given
was that you'd be knocked away from traffic if you were riding with it,
but into traffic if you were riding toward it.