Re: Rights vs. Responsibility

"He said, no, it was because the cyclist wasn't travelling at
> posted speed."

Posted speed limits are maximum speed limits not suggested speed limits!
On Feb 7, 2011, at 1:46 PM, Jon Meinecke wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
> Touring mailing list
> [email protected]
> Browse and search the archives: http://search.bikelist.org
> Unsubscribe or list settings:
> http://www.phred.org/mailman/options/touring
> 

Harold Bielstein
[email protected]
Laissez Faire Capitalism: Its only a theory!