Note to Drivers

People ride bikes for many reasons. It's green, cheap, easy to park, good exercise, leisurely, and in some places popular. People don't ride bikes to be chained to the same driving restrictions as cars. Riding bikes is an escape from cars and the traffic laws and norms of driving. Don't expect bike riders to stop at stop signs, or enter traffic with a blinker--you're lucky if you get an extended arm. Don't expect bike riders to line-up in traffic or go the speed limit. Traffic laws for bike riders are optional. They slither between pedestrian rights and traffic laws, which basically means, they are open to interpretation.

Driving is different from riding. Driving a car is stop and go. Riding a bike is to and fro. Riding a bike is like dancing. The object of riding a bike is to be riding at all times. This excludes stopping. The object of driving a car is not to drive. That freedom was withdrawn centuries ago, when cars started killing people. Bikes do not kill people. They may maim an occasional pedestrian but nothing more.

Bike riders and car drivers are not friends. People who drive hybrids are not any closer to being friends. All cars are hunks of metal and plastic, run by a combustion engine that pollutes the atmosphere and wastes, wastes, wastes. Car drivers do not like bike riders for their own reasons. Cars can only drive on the road. Bikes can travel multiple routes: sidewalks, park paths, wrong ways on one-way streets, down stairs, through gardens etc. Cars must yield to bikes. Bikes have the right-of-way after pedestrians and animals. Cars need constant maintenance and gas. Bikes require near zero maintenance and only human gas. See image above.

As important as car drivers think they are, bike riders are actually more worried about buses. Buses slide in and out of traffic, and across the bike lane picking up people regularly. They are also wide and will push bike riders off the road if the driving lanes get tight. However, bike riders have more patience for buses. They carry a lot of people, and sometimes give bike riders a lift if they break down.

Car drivers love tunnels. Bike riders avoid tunnels. They are confining and hidden from the public eye where reckless car drivers can attack, and hit and run. Tunnels offer no quick escape or methods to weave away from chunks of flying metal and plastic.

Bike riders and car drivers are at odds on every street. A note to drivers, don't expect bike riders to stop at stop signs or go the speed limit. Traffic laws for bike riders are open to interpretation or nonexistent. Bike riders are loose canons and lawless. Car drivers, steer clear.