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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabsc!paulson
From: paulson@hplabsc.UUCP (Anne Paulson)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: More on bikes and cars
Message-ID: <1389@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Sep-83 14:29:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.1389
Posted: Thu Sep 22 14:29:27 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Sep-83 04:05:14 EDT
Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA
Lines: 39

To umcp!zben:

What makes you think bicycling is my "hobby"?  Is driving a car your
hobby?  Bicycling is my main form of transportation, since I don't own a
car.  Your attitude is an example of the prevailing belief that bikes
are toys.  I love my bicycles (all three of them, with a fourth on the
way), but they are certainly not toys any more than cars are toys.
As to paying for the roads, most of the roads I ride on are local Palo
Alto streets, paid for by property taxes in the city of Palo Alto.  I pay
PLENTY of property taxes to the city!  

By the way, for your information, you can't get a bicycle from Japan to
California by truck.

To Michael Ellis:

I'm very sorry to hear that your brother was killed in a bicycling accident.
Nevertheless, I think you have some wrong ideas about how to bicycle.
It turns out that bicyclists who ride on the sidewalk are 70% (or thereabouts)
more likely to have bike-car accidents than cyclists who ride on the street.
This figure is from a study done by the city of Palo Alto, cited in a 
recent bicycling magazine; I can get the references if you want.  And your
idea of never riding on a street where there are cars is hardly practical
for someone like me, who rides a bike for transportation.  I don't think
it's impossible for cars and bikes to co-exist;  we just have to educate
the driver and cyclist populations.

To everyone who complained about cyclists running stop signs and lights:

I agree;  it's a problem.  I don't do it, and I insist that people I ride
with don't either.  It's another manifestation
of the popular belief that bicycles are toys instead of methods of trans-
portation.  (I think the Iowa law that requires cyclists to yield instead
of stop at stop signs is a great idea, though).  

Share the road with bikes!

Anne Paulson
hplabs!paulson