Sunday, April 06, 2014

Bicycle Safety, on Highway 49, between the San Juan Ridge and Nevada City

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A Thread Dealing with People Who Drive Highway 49 between The San Juan Ridge and Nevada City, and the apparent total disregard some of them have for bicyclists, who might wish to travel the same route.

If you try to drive the whole thing at 45, it is narrow and windy. If you relax and do 20 to 45, as portions of the road and safety dictate, it is way more than wide enough, with each scenic turn revealing a new vista of joy, unless of course you run into those who believe that 45 is a mandatory requirement instead of an upper maximum limit, and have strayed into your lane because of it.

The freedom to travel safely was an assumption of the Founding Fathers, otherwise it would have been ahead of the 2nd Amendment. They never considered the possibility of bandito automobilius infesting the public right-of-ways.

Many are blaming the bicyclist, exercising his lawful rights, for the unsafe driving of the motorist, at too high a speed to avoid a 3 foot wide 6 foot long colorful object, on a roadway that is 10 to 12 feet wide minimum, per lane.

If blocks of concrete of the same size and colorations were randomly placed each night along the edges of the road, you can bet that after the first five or six crashes, motorists would learn to SLOW DOWN in the riskier spots. In short, if there was a clear and present danger to the motorists themselves, for which they would be held fully accountable, and quite possibly medically endangered, they would learn to drive the road safely and respectfully.

If you do not wish to hit a bicyclist, drive at a speed that allows you to avoid doing so. The "speed limit" is just that. The fastest speed allowable without a ticket on SOME parts of the roadway so marked. All the rest of the roadways are governed by the BASIC speed law, which is, no faster than what is SAFE, for everyone one, it's not just about YOU.

If you truly cared about the well-being of bicyclists, and not just you ability to go slightly faster than is safe for them, you certainly would NOT promote the idea that if a bicyclist got bumped off, "well it's his fault, he shouldn't have been on that road, motorist in a hurry hurry, is excused." Yes, being bumped by a vehicle is as bad as rape, and it is totally avoidable, and spreading attitudes that might make high schoolers or adult jerks think is is OK to open a door, as it will be the bicyclist's fault for being there, is just plain vicious, and brings you down to their level, and makes you an accessory, in my eyes. You don't like how I see things, so be it, I have a right to my own opinions, just as you have a right to yours. Happy Venting!

1 comment:

AbbotOfUnreason said...

here here

or is it

hear hear?

Anyway. What you said. Yep. I never got up the courage to ride down 49 in that direction, but I didn't particularly like driving it either -- anybody would think that rocks and trees never fall into the road the way people peel around those curves.