New York City launched a PSA campaign aimed at helping cyclists survive riding through downtown. The first wave of the campaign was these posters that suggested car drivers ought to "look" for bikers in bike lanes. A series of television ads that were produced by people in the city, presumably bikers, is part of the second wave of advertising. What's baffling about this next round of advertising is that all the cyclists made their movies about wearing helmets and stopping at lights. The standout ad of the LEGO biker getting crushed by a car shows the guy stopping at a red light before getting run down.
These biker-produced ads are picking all the wrong fights. Sure, we could encourage people to stop at red lights before running them, but isn't that enough? Do we really want to insist that they stop and wait at every red light? If that's the case you may as well ride a bus; at least that's a lot safer.
the problem is that buses don't go exactly where you need to go. they'll get you within a couple blocks, but then you still have to walk. also, there's the time spent waiting for a bus and god forbid you need a transfer...
i wait at all the red lights because i once saw a girl stop, look, keep going, and then get hit by an suv that had come out of an alley literally in the two seconds she was looking in the other direction. i myself once got clipped by a bus that was running a red light.
if you expect drivers to be patient enough to look out for you and give you the room the ride, then be patient enough to follow the same laws everyone else does. jesus christ, is it really that hard?
Liquid Astronaut, perhaps you should leave that acid stuff behind and spend some time in New York prior to pontificating on the relative efficacy of buses and bikes.
You could stop at every red light and beat just about every bus in Manhattan. You could beat some of the buses by a considerable time frame...for example, the average speed of the M34 is around 3 mph over the 3 miles it goes. I beat it walking with regularity.
I bike from South Brooklyn, across the Manhattan Bridge, and up to 19th street every weekday. I don't expect cars to look out for me when I'm running red lights, but I do expect them not to drive in the bike lane or cut me off. I'm not going to sit and stare at an empty street. If it's safe, I'll cross. It's actually safer to run a red light and get out a couple blocks in front of the next wave of traffic than it is to sit there and takeoff with them when the starting gun goes off.
