Shot in the Dark

I Fought The Law

As I noted on the show last Saturday, I watched this  Channel 5 piece on bicyclists that go through stopsigns and lights.

And I thought “whooie!  I’m a public enemy!”

I started my biking-to-work season about two weeks ago.  It’s not really about gas prices – my company pays half the cost of my “all you can ride” bus card, so I very rarely drive to work anyway.  It’s partly about health – I’m 45, and I’d like not to spend the next forty years in hospitals, if I can avoid it – and largely because it just plain feels good.  It’s an energizing way to kick off the morning, and a relaxing way to end the day. 

It’s also fun to be able to drive up next to “Obama”-sticker-clad Priuses and yell “you earth-destroying gas-guzzler!”, and watch them wither with guilt.

One of the little secrets about biking is that if you keep your legs moving, they are much more efficient.  If your legs settle into a rhythm – if they don’t have to cool off, then warm up, then cool off, then warm up, then cool off repeatedly – they can, with a little conditioning, keep on going for an amazing time.  That’s why proficient bikers don’t coast down hills – it cools down your leg muscles, and makes you exert much more energy when you start pedalling again. 

Maintaining a rhythm also leaves you less susceptible to injury.  With my very screwed-up right knee, that’s important to me. 

So – like a lot of bikers – I’ll play each stop sign as it lies. 

If I’m pulling up to a sign, I’ll check carefully in both directions, and for cars behind me, and cars ahead that went to turn in front of me.  I’ll yield to any of the above, of course, because in addition to traffic laws, I have the laws of physics working against me; my bike and I will bounce off a 4,000 pound car like a pigeon off of a semi. 

Otherwise?  Yep – with great care, I’ll go through the intersection.

So – send a camera crew and a paddy wagon.

Or at least some ice packs.

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Mitch Berg

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Comments

11 responses to “I Fought The Law”

  1. Andrew Rothman Avatar
    Andrew Rothman

    Is it equally okay for me to coast through stop signs in my car? I don’t have regenerative braking, so keeping a steady pace saves a lot of gas and brake pad expense.

    Most illegal immigrants, who are not here to rape, steal or murder, but to work for a living wage, also probably play their border crossings “as they lie,” and, really, what’s the harm?

    When some laws are broken and not enforced, it devalues all laws.

    When is the rule of law important, and when can it be ignored for the sake of efficiency, convenience or cost?

  2. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    Challenge and change certain laws, like this one. Wherever possible, swap Stop signs for Yield signs or flashing yellow lights. Replace intersections with roundabouts. A few traffic laws, especially Interstate speed limits and Stop sign placements are designed as a tax on the populace, not as a safety measure. Oh and while we are at it, get rid of freaking left arrows at every freaking intersection! Replace them with a falshing green on busy intersections, and obliterate them on the rest.

    We need meaningful laws on the books. I do not hink we want to open a can of worms on the silly laws on the books in Minnesota and elsewhere.

  3. Bike Bubba Avatar
    Bike Bubba

    I wanna try the Prius trick…..thanks, Mitch!

  4. Loren Avatar
    Loren

    Replace intersections with roundabouts.

    No, no roundabouts! Those are an invention of demon spawn, where everyone either thinks he doesn’t have the right of way and waits for someoneelse, or everyone thinks they HAVE the right of way, and waits for noone.

  5. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    I bet a lot of people think they were gonna die the first time they took the training wheels off their bikes. Everything takes a little getting used to. Roundabouts are fun!

  6. Master of None Avatar
    Master of None

    “Roundabouts are fun!”

    Ditto! My first experience in a roundabout was driving in a rental in England. I had just started my first attempt at driving on the wrong side of the road while sitting on the wrong side of the car when up comes this whirlpool of whizzing little cars. There were at least seven inputs and outputs to this thing and I had no clue which one take. Sheer terror for at least two revolutions until I got my bearings. After that, it was cake.

    They seem to be extremely efficient compared to a four way intersection.

  7. DiscordianStooj Avatar
    DiscordianStooj

    Mitch, I imagine you do pay attention to the cars and intersection and such. But, driving around downtown Mpls. all night, I watch bikes fly through intersections in front of moving cars, then get angry at the cars that almost hit them.

    It’s refreshing to tag them. Better than writing a serious injury accident report.

  8. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    I “just say no” to roundabouts.

    I can imagine how they could be “done right”, but my only first-hand experience with them (Hilton Head Island, SC) has been dismal. Fun in light traffic, but like a clogged drain in heavy traffic. It may be different if everyone was used to them. *shrug*

  9. Badda Avatar
    Badda

    One of the reasons I’m leaving my little neck of the woods… roundabouts. I wish our city council would just pack up and move to Europe and be done with it.

  10. charlieq Avatar
    charlieq

    Roundabouts work, but people who don’t deal with change well have trouble with them. They’re based on the same principle Idaho has put in statute for cyclists:

    “A person operating a bicycle or human-powered vehicle approaching a stop sign shall slow down and, if required for safety, stop before entering the intersection. After slowing to a reasonable speed or stopping, the person shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle in the intersection or approaching on another highway so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard during the time the person is moving across or within the intersection or junction of highways, except that a person after slowing to a reasonable speed and yielding the right-of-way if required, may cautiously make a turn or proceed through the intersection without stopping.”

    In other words, Mitch, in Idaho, we’d be totally street legal.

  11. Bike Bubba Avatar
    Bike Bubba

    Roundabouts are great–and yes, it takes a while to get used to them, but they’re great fun, especially on a bike. It actually seems safer to me, as bike speed and car speed are generally about the same–reduces the incidence of my dreadful sheet metal allergies.

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