Reply #145: It's too bad we don't have as an extensive a system of dedicated

[lindisfarne]

bike roads as we do dedicated car roads (i.e., freeways). That would even things up. Until then, drivers really do need to be careful. They're getting the lion's share of the public subsidies, both oil subsidies and road subsidies (no, your gas taxes do not cover even 50% of the cost of building roads). Additionally, drivers are creating pollutants which have been shown to lead to higher rates of asthma as the degree of pollution increases.

There was a study of NY City bike accidents. The police had initially determined that bikers were responsible in 75% of the cases. But when the cases were re-examined, the majority of the blame for the accidents was assigned to the drivers. Bias on the part of the police led to erroneously assigning blame.

I'm just astounded at the response I've seen in this thread toward bikers. Just because some small fraction of bikers act like idiots (generally, young males and careless kids) doesn't justify aggression towards bikers.

All the people who have expressed frustration with bikers ought to get out and bike for a month solid, and see what bikers put up with. Bike commuters put up with life-threatening deliberate actions from drivers - and bike commuters are not the ones who generally are biking dangerously.

I'm quite certain that a great portion of drivers violate laws and create a greater potential for killing others than do bikers. There are idiotic drivers as well - does that mean I'm justified in driving aggressively?