On Friday, November 8, 2013 8:46:16 PM UTC-5, Dan wrote:
Rules of the Road.



This is of course a huge, sprawling topic, of utmost importance to many

(most) independent travelers; but my coverage here will be short.



The Rules of the Road greatly affect Situational Awareness, because it

*strongly* influences what other road users are *apt* to do. It does

not constrain what is possible, but it heavily drives probability. (The

SA rider still needs to pay attention - to get inside the head of others

and consider how "ruled" they are by the Rules.)



The Rules of the Road - in The United States of America, at least - are

almost entirely geared for automobile traffic, so they are often the

proverbial round hole for the square peg of a bicyclist. But wait! The

Rules of the Road (pretty much) *only* apply to the road, which it but a

very small part of the bicyclist's landscape :-)



Golly I guess that's about all I have to say about this (for now),

except that (and we'll get into this with the other closely related

Horseman, Social Interaction) certain unwritten fundamental rules are

always in effect.

I believe it was Quakers who when building wooden ships used square pegs in round holes because that stopped the peg from twisting loose in use. So, sometimes even a square peg in a round hole is useful.

Cheers