On Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 10:12:15 PM UTC-7, Doc O'Leary wrote:
For your reference, records indicate that
John B. wrote:

On Sun, 14 Apr 2019 16:09:59 -0000 (UTC), Doc O'Leary
wrote:

My point remains that an obsession with petty criminals is misguided.
Nobody should pat themselves on the back for honking at a cyclist that
safely rolls a STOP sign (or a car doing the same, for that matter),
just like they shouldn’t act like stopping Patty the pencil thief is a
major bust.

You use the word "obsession" as though it meant "obsession with only
major criminals" .

No I mean “obsession” in the sense of *any* minor social infraction
being overblown into a reaction that is disproportionate with the
offense. It’s about how thin skinned people have seemed to become in
the last 10 years.

who decides who and what is major.
Can we
say that anything less is inconsequential? Or do we use the term
"everyone knows" to decide what to condemn?

Your “just asking question” tactic is poor rhetoric. We *all* decide
these things. If you’re unwilling to answer those questions yourself,
you shouldn’t be asking them.

Someone who "rolls a stop" is committing a minor sin, unless it
doesn't turn out to have been safe and someone is badly injured or
dies as a result.

Yep. That’s the way reality works. Just like buying a lottery ticket doesn’t automatically make you a winner.

Please note that it isn't usually determined to have been unsafe un
till after the accident happens.

Again, welcome to reality. Are you trying to make some point?

I see. Given that although the California Highway Patrol in their
investigation of bicycle-motor vehicle collisions in L.A. County
determined that some 60% were caused by the bicycle no serious fuss
should be made?

Possibly. Just because someone gets blamed for something doesn’t
necessarily mean they are actually at fault (bikes seldom get parity
justice), or there wasn’t some other root cause (e.g., drinking). It’s
like speeding. In and of itself, it is usually not the *cause* of a
crash, but it can definitely affect the circumstances of a crash.
Likewise, I seriously doubt simply being on a bike magically made
people crash into cars (or vice versa).

Simply ignore the cause of more then half of all bicycle (in L.A.)
collisions over a period of a year were the fault of the bicycle?

Maybe. If it had more to do with the people than the vehicle, it
doesn’t make much sense to blame the dumb machine. Pickup trucks are
disproportionately the vehicles involved when I’m harassed while
biking. I’d be an idiot if I mistook that correlation for causation.
Try not to do that yourself.

--
"Also . . . I can kill you with my brain."
River Tam, Trash, Firefly

I wouldn't worry too much about it Doc. While it may **** you off at the time someone passing too closely or honking at you soon disappears in your memory. And I think about some of the stupid things drivers do and on reflection, they were acting not dangerously at all. Someone taking a close pass is often people who are unaware that if you stare at a cyclist to make sure you miss them that you steer very close to them while doing so.

90% of the problems with cars do not really involve safety and it is the other 10% that we should focus on. Unfortunately that would involve having the cooperation of the police and in California you in general do not have that.