As for breaking laws, EVERYONE breaks laws. That’s cyclists, pedestrians and motorists. The human who doesn’t break laws on the road has yet to be born and probably never will be. This is why motorists who go on about scofflaw cyclists are hypocrites.

Cyclists do break laws that were designed for cars on roads designed for cars. That’s a fact.
However, from my own experience, the only time I’ve ever been in an accident was when I was following the rules.

1988: Doored on my first day as a bike messenger. That never happened again because I took the lane whenever I needed it after that day. I was not found to be at fault. Zero additional accidents 4 years as a messenger “breaking the law” and not waiting for lights to turn green.

1990: motorist made a right turn into me, no signal. I was obeying all rules. He was found at fault by the Allston Cops.

2006: motorist made a right turn into me, no signal. I was obeying all rules. Cop found me at fault. I wasn’t in the mood to fight it, my hand had just been crushed by a emergency room nurse in a Rav 4. Sadly, I didn’t press charges. I will if there is a next time.

Most people who enforce road laws, enact road laws, design roads, build roads and live in this country don’t ride a bike to work 190 times a year or 3 times a year. Therefore, they really have no idea what is and what isn’t safe for a cyclist. Most Americans only ride a bike once or twice a year and then they are sore for days afterward.

When I get to a red light, I check for cars and then I go. I feel safer doing that than being at a red light with a texting teen looking down at their new iPhone 4S approaching from behind me in their parents Lexus SUV. It’s against the law for me to do that. It’s also against the law to text and drive, yet a large majority of drivers does it. Both are wrong, but if you are in a car, you might live. If I’m stopped waiting for the light to change and get rear ended on my bike by a car doing 30 or 25 or even 20, the prognosis is less positive for me. So, when I get to the red light, I’m going if I judge it safe to go. I don’t “just blow through lights” blindly. Yup, it’s still illegal, and in all three instances where I have come into contact with a car, it was not my fault and I was following the law. So, I say, do what you need to do to feel safe. The road designers/DPW folks, cops, drivers, law makers and all the rest are in their Ford Excursions texting, updating their facebook status, trying to get SA-821 passed to eliminate Transportation Enhancements and complaining about how all those cyclists are so brazenly breaking the law and doing so many bad things. It’s likely they are just mad that they are stuck in traffic and the cyclist is not.

From my own experience (currently commuting 12 miles round trip about 150-190 times a year in suburbia) cycling is generally pretty safe, however, most people don’t ride bikes enough to realize motorists don’t want to hurt them(unless you are 35 miles southwest of Cleveland and get beer bottles thrown at you, but that’s pretty rare). Most don’t know how to ride to protect yourself. Also, it’s scary to be riding 10-12 inches from a moving car because that doesn’t happen when you play Call of Duty, Black OPS. I don’t blame people for not riding, cycling is scary when you are so used to being in a massive machine/living room detached from the outside.

I’m sure the American Journal of Public Health data is honest data, but I think it is most likely comparing apples to oranges, in that it takes into account freeway driving. No cyclist travels 120 miles in a couple of hours on a freeway: freeways are a very different matter than the average street, having fewer distractions, fewer and safer intersections, no oncoming traffic hazards and less speed differential between users. When freeways are taken out of the equation and similar trips are compared, the statistics I’ve seen seem to indicate that cycling becomes as safe as or even safer than, driving a car.

I think that’s a very unfair analogy. No VCer has ever hanged opponents as the Puritans did, nor has any VCer ever advocated or done anything like what the Taliban have advocated or done. We should not be demonizing anyone – especially not those of us who are trying to make road cycling popular.

VC makes cyclists stronger and safer. When you boil it down, that is its goal and its effect. Bicycle infrastructure advocates make cyclists weaker and less safe. As such, the former is good for cycling, while the latter is very bad for cycling. Weak and poor cyclists are overwhelmingly the ones who get injured or killed when they interact (as they must) with the road. Bike paths don’t go everywhere and until they do, VC is the best and safest way to go. I have never understood why so many people choose to demonize a way of cycling that is demonstrably better and safer for all cyclists.

But that’s the point. Nobody is arguing for wearing helmets while walking or driving. Our society’s concern about brain injuries is highly selective.

None of that is the basis for arguing that helmets are unnecessary for cycling. If anything, this is an argument for wearing helmets while walking, motorbiking and driving. While I agree that helmets feed fear and tend to make helmet-wearers feel invulnerable, the problem is the fear and the false perception, not the helmet use.

1) We support higher fines and jail sentences for drivers who hit highway construction workers. Mr. Wilson would contend that the courtroom wife in his parable should (rightfully) be outraged that the plaintiff in her husband’s case received a much lower fine than that of the driver who killed the highway worker. I think most reasonable people would agree that the courts got it right.

2) Helmet laws. Mr. Wilson says that cyclists ” account for about six percent of traffic-related brain injuries, and three percent of all brain injuries.” While that seems like a low number at first blush, remember that cyclists account for far fewer than 3% of all traffic (actually less than 0.5%). In that light, cyclists are far overrepresented with respect to brain injuries.

3) More helmet laws. Mr. Wilson would contend that mandatory seatbelt laws for drivers/passengers reinforces the belief that driving is dangerous.