When a bicyclist dies after contact with an automobile, do you suppose that the motorist goes the rest of their life in blissful contemplation of their survival of the incident? Do you suppose that no motorist is sensitive enough to have bad dreams after a near miss?
It could actually be useful to know which bicyclists are involved in the most near misses. It could even make the bicyclist change something, if they have more reports than average.
No one pretends that drivers don't recklessly open doors endangering cyclists' lives. Or cut them off. Or engage in other dangerous behavior affecting ppl w/ bikes. It's tragic. But why do we have to pretend that the converse is not true? That cyclists' behavior is also often dangerous to themselves or others (i.e. pedestrians)!
We don't let pedestrians J-walk. We don't let cars run red lights. Why do two wheels get a free pass?
Everyone (I hope) tries to avoid cyclists. It's a human life; no nitpicking about rules and who is at fault changes the sacrosanct value of a human life. But a bike is not carte-blanche to do whatever you want.
Why? Are they more frequent? Anyway, how frequent it is, is irrelevant. Cyclists can and do cause fatalities (sometimes their own). To mitigate this they should follow the rules.
There are rules of the road for everyone's safety. I obey them when I walk, bike and drive. If we're going to go Stasi on drivers, let's go Stasi on everyone.
> If we're going to go Stasi on drivers, let's go Stasi on everyone.
That is, on the face of it, a ridiculous position. Cars, and only cars, are what matters in road safety. Everything else is less important than obscure threats like falling air conditioners.
What you are really saying is "Lets give cops the tools to harass cyclists" Fuck that. You're driving a deadly tool. If you kill someone with it, it should ruin your life. If you don't like that, wait until cars can be made safe for everyone around them.
"Cars, and only cars, are what matters in road safety."
If you believe that, you don't have a toddler. I don't either (yet), but I do remember running around the streets of BsAs like an idiot with my freaked out mother screaming, chasing after me as I dodged, ironically enough, an ambulance.
Cars matter the most. Agreed. But let's not exaggerate, eh?
