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Old September 19th 16, 11:36 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Joy Beeson
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Posts: 1,638
Default What we have here is a failure to communicate: was: AG: This is not a post.


Whenever anyone says "It's not a good idea to move as far right as you
physically can, then close your eyes and hold fast to that position
with both hands and your teeth.", the person addressed hears "You
should move to the center of the lane, close your eyes, and hold fast
to that position with both hands and your teeth."

I don't know of any way to communicate the idea that one should look
around, be alert, and do what the situation calls for -- short of
taking all twelve-year-olds out on their bikes and teaching them the
rules of the road and how to tell what situations a twelve-year-old
can handle and when he should get off and walk and when he should whip
out his cell phone and yell for his mommy.

And then doing it again when the child is thirteen, and again when he
is fourteen, and again when he is fifteen.

Unfortunately, this would have the side effect of making the children
capable of learning how to be competent drivers when they are sixteen.
Individually, Americans think this would be a good thing, but as a
culture, we are keenly aware that if our streets and roads aren't
regularly anointed with human blood, the sun god will stop rising and
we will all freeze to death in the dark. Therefore any plan that
would actually increase traffic safety will never be widely accepted.

Not to mention that a population that understands the rules of the
road would make it harder to change traffic laws into fund raisers.

"What do you mean by pretending that a photograph of a car passing
through an intersection proves that it ran a red light? What matters
is what color the light was when the driver decided to enter the
intersection!"

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net


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