Monday, November 19, 2007

I could literally do a dozen of these a day, but I have plenty of other things to do with my time. Here, after running the stop sign at Liberty and Third (which I also captured) is a cyclist running two red lights in one fell swoop!

This Group Looked Official

I don't know if the University of Michigan has an official cycling club, but many of these guys were wearing similar, very nice, maize and blue jackets. Watch them blow through two stop signs at dusk on a cool November evening:



I am certain that if I were to meet any one of them in a focus group or other kind of function, each would insist, very professionally, that they always obey traffic signals. Every time I have been in such, that is what I repeatedly hear, but for some reason I only actually see a cyclist stop about once every six months.

So Far This Year

So far this year, I have actually seen two bicyclists either stop at a stop sign or stay stopped at a red traffic light under circumstances where their being stopped was not forced by traffic.

Only twice, that is, in 10.5 months of driving through town and paying attention. Since I also try to drive in my car the same route I personally take when I ride my bike to and from work, the intersections I watch are the some ones I also bike through. So I know from first-hand experience that it is not painful or difficult to obey traffic signals.

Not my business, some would say. Well, it was about 11 years ago when I had to hold Matthew Young's hand as he went into a coma (and then died the next day) after watching him run a red traffic light on his bicycle and get smashed to death. Matthew, had he not been hit, and had we had a chance to converse, would have probably also told me that it was none of my businss that he had run that traffic light.

He would have been wrong.