I didn't mention stop signs or red lights in my comment. I just pointed out that there's a large population of conscientious, safety-minded cyclists out there who get ignored in these types of discussions.
Your invocation of law-breaking bike messengers in the second half of your comment is in fact a perfect recapitulation of the tendency I was referring to!
Previous commenter was giving an example of 'suicidal' riding. The fact that others ride in a responsible manner does not serve as a counter-factual. That's all I was saying. That, and I believe that there are reasons other than "irrational crazy" why people ride the way they do. Can you do a trakcstand on the side of a steep hill? How about ingress/egree from a clippless pedal? That stuff is hard and slow, so people take "shortcuts" around norms of doing things (eg, run stop signs, go up one-way streets, etc) that are more rational to them than "giving up the bike". Either because they need the money or just like the fitness/lifestyle/image etc. Its not even that you need to :"look down" on these guys...just you can't have a policy discussion and pretend they don't exist. =D
I didn't mention stop signs or red lights in my comment. I just pointed out that there's a large population of conscientious, safety-minded cyclists out there who get ignored in these types of discussions.
Your invocation of law-breaking bike messengers in the second half of your comment is in fact a perfect recapitulation of the tendency I was referring to!