Re: Rights vs. Responsibility

On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 1:24 PM, Moni <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hear hear!!!  You just said what I have been thinking.  How come a car
> driver feels like his responsibly is different when coming up on a
> cyclist, compared to a motorist?

Entitlement, of course  In their mind, the roads belong to motor
vehicles, not cyclists.  Cyclists don't belong there, they are 'in
the way', don't you know?

A few years ago, I had an email conversation with the Texas
state senator who introduced a bill to ban bicycles from roads
without improved shoulders with a speed limit of 45 mph or
more.  Basically, he wanted to put almost every county and
farm-to-market road in the state off limits to cyclists.

He said it was for cyclists safety.  After all, in his own rural
neighborhood he had been driving on such a road and come
over a hill at speed to find a cyclist "in his lane" and he had
to swerve and brake.

I pointed out that the real problem was operating a motor
vehicle at an unsafe speed for conditions (limited sight lines).
He said, no, it was because the cyclist wasn't travelling at
posted speed.

I asked if the situation would be different if he came over the
hill to find a tractor, stalled car, deer, cow, pedestrian, etc...
"in his lane".  His response for the tractor, was that the rural
roads were built for farmers, so they were *entitled* to use
the road.  (The Texas Farm Bureau was a supporter of the
bill.)

Jon