To the editors,
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However, you don’t have to break the traffic laws to do this. I frequently ride with the Evanston Bicycle Club in the city and suburbs, and we always obey traffic lights, signal our turns, and ride with the traffic, not against it. The main reason that I obey traffic laws is for my own survival. Car drivers expect to see other cars, but they don’t expect to see bicycles. So I have found that the best way to avoid getting hit by a car on a bicycle is by behaving as closely as possible like a car. This includes using lights at night, obeying the traffic laws, and not weaving among parked and moving cars. I’ve only been hit once, by a driver who had the setting sun shining directly into her eyes, and my helmet saved my brains.
I also obey the laws to communicate a desire for mutual respect with and from car drivers. The most respect from drivers that I have ever experienced was in Great Britain. There cyclists actually get ticketed by police for running stop signs or riding at night without lights. But car drivers treat cyclists with courtesy, exactly as they would other drivers. In Britain, I have bicycled in fast rush-hour traffic on narrow four-lane highways. Even on the two-lane roundabouts I felt completely safe.
Rogers Park
