[simonlebo]

I live in Australia and the debate here is pretty heated between cars and cyclists. The main reason pedestrians are not really mentioned is, in my opinion, because Australia does not have many pedestrians centres and they don't coexist with bikes all that much.

I do agree with a lot of this article about the uselessness of enforcing outdated road rules to cyclists. I personally will rarely completely stop at stop sign. I find the danger much higher to try to immobilize the bike, un-clip the shoe and start again with a very slow speed (potentially exposing myself for a much longer period of time in that dangerous crossing zone).

To solve accidents between all of these actors, I think there should be a simple rule of giving the slowest vehicle always the right of way, which is what courteous people do. A pedestrians should always have priority over a cyclist and or a motorist. If accident happen, the cyclist/motorist should take the full responsibility for it. Likewise a cyclist should have priority over a motorist. The person at fault should be proven guilty unless proven innocent of some unpredictable situation.

It is a bit the same on the water, where motor boats have to give way to wind powered boat for the same logical reasons.

[gbog]

Wow, no, sail boat will not cut the path of a super tanker, if I remember correctly (I have navigation permit).

And you can't apply your courteous rule for traffic in places with many elder pedestrians like China: other people and vehicles would never move.

I think, however, that removing rules and applying common sense could work if we could use a communication network inspired from biological patterns.

[simonlebo]

Yes there are some logical exceptions to the motor boat always give way. These are however exceptions. http://www.gosailing.info/Navigation%20Rules.htm

The equivalent in the cycling example would be that trains have to give way to cyclists which was not my point.