Interesting

I was watching the news this morning. They were talking about how San Francisco is considering closing parts of Market street to cars.

Interesting idea. There seems to be some theory that this will ease congestion or somesuch.

I'm unconvinced.

Anyways, one of the bits of the story was how bicyclists were upset at the lack of a bike lane and how cars don't "play by the rules".

I totally get the bike lane thing. Riding a bike in San Francisco as a whole is akin to juggling flaming chainsaws while doing a tightrope over a pit of hungry bears. It's kind of dangerous. There really ought to be proper bike lanes for those insanely-fit folks who can handle the hills and all that.

That said, I find the claim about "playing by the rules" to be a tad hypocritical.

If I had to pay a dollar for every time I saw a car violate a traffic rule and earn a dime for every time I saw a bicyclist violate a traffic rule, I'd have enough money in the bank that I could put down a nice deposit on a house in a good neighborhood... or buy a new car.

Possibly both.

As a bicyclist myself, I totally get where the bicyclists are coming from. You have drivers in a ton or more of metal, often gabbing (illegally) on their cell phones and zipping along with nary a thought to the poor bicicylist who is trying to pedal along at speeds sufficient to not become a stain on the road.

Makes sense.

That said, the law is moderately-clear. If you're on a bicycle, you're a vehicle. You have to obey those pesky things like stopsigns, traffic lights, pedestrian right-of-way, etc.

Bicyclists in San Francisco don't really help their cause much by the self-righteous posturing I often see. "Critical Mass" is the best example of that. Having a thousand bicyclists hijack San Francisco's streets on a busy Friday night by just blazing through intersections, heedless of traffic lights and the like, does not do much to earn respect for the cause. Instead, it usually inspires fantasies best seen acted out in horror flicks.

Is it so hard to find a happy medium?

I guess so. Bummer.