[lkbm]

Most bike lanes don't fix intersections, which is where my biggest beef with most cyclists in my area is.

I drive about once day a week and bike five days. I get to be on both sides, and gosh darn do I hate both groups. I hate a few drivers in all areas, and most cyclists at intersections. (t's a daily thing to see cyclists fly through an all-stop intersection when there's someone at the cross first. It's a weekly thing to see a car driving the wrong way down a one-way road.

That said, it's the drivers that are going to kill me. (Leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 26: the human driver.)

[roel_v]

You're right that bike lanes don't fix intersections, and much of the problem stems from the New World-style grid city layout. Roundabouts are much safer for cyclists, although not a panacea of course. It's also a chicken and egg problem: right now there are enough cyclists in 'cycle-unfriendly' cities so to say to be dangerous, but not enough to find safety in numbers. Inner cities in much of Europe are cycle-friendly because there are so many cyclists that they interact with other agents in the transport system as swarms more than as individuals. This makes the reactions from other agents very different.

[bweitzman]

Seeing the number of other cyclists that just blow through lights and stop signs, I'm pretty sure that the majority of them must not even know that they're supposed to stop.

There are a few bike specific lights on my route to work and the number of cyclists that stop at these intersections is astronomically higher than at other, equally busy intersections.

[noobermin]

>Seeing the number of other cyclists that just blow through lights and stop signs, I'm pretty sure that the majority of them must not even know that they're supposed to stop.

As a biker, I think we need to educate others on this. If we bikers want respect, we need to be willing to share the road sensibly. I have a bit of strong feelings towards drivers, but I also disdain bikers who don't follow the rules and just make it harder for the rest of us to garner the respect we badly need on the road.

[ajmurmann]

Do schools I the US teach children how to safely ride a bike? When I went to primary school in Germany we had a cop cone by several times and we went to a parking lot that had fake roads painted on it and he taught us about traffic rules and we ride bikes around the lot while he gave us feedback. We learned about right of way, arm signals etc.

[bweitzman]

Not a thing where I grew up in the US

[toothbrush]

Another good idea (seen in the Netherlands) is to give red lights a countdown [0]. In my limited, anecdotal experience, people are more willing to wait when it's clear how long it'll take. Of course, this should be done in combination with bike-specific traffic lights, of which i am an advocate.

0. https://s3-eu5.ixquick.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=http:%2F%2...