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Comment by mchanson | Hacker News Reader

In Cambridge, MA the police have been enforcing traffic laws with bikers. Dunno what effect it has had, but enforcement, IMHO, as a place in getting bikers to obey the traffic laws.

Drivers, on the whole, behave pretty badly too. As a driver, biker, and pedestrian in the Boston area I don't think I would say any of those groups act better than others.

Would love separated bike lanes. Biking in the city is very satisfying, but also nerve racking for me.

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I live and bike in Cambridge. We have separated bike lanes in some places, but pedestrians generally don't respect them in my experience. I used to think pedestrians that walked in designated bike lanes just didn't know it was a bike lane. But the lane on Vassar Street has a bike icon every 30 ft or so and is a different color than the rest of the sidewalk. Yet pedestrians still seem to prefer it to "their" sidewalk just to the left or right. Same thing on the Southwest Corridor, which has designated bike and pedestrian lanes, which are not respected ignored by pedestrians at all when I've been on them. If they are going to ticket cyclists, it seems only fair to start ticketing pedestrians walking in the bike lane too.

Same goes for Mass Ave. I don't think I've ever seen the bike lane on either side of Mass Ave not blocked by a pedestrian or parked car every couple of blocks.

  I don't think I would say any of those groups act better than others.

As a driver, cyclist & pedestrian in London I second this. Some cyclists are dangerous jerks. Some car drivers are dangerous jerks. Some pedestrians have their heads in their phones and cause a danger to everyone. Rather than ranting about it, I'd prefer each user group to just be more aware of the others & take a bit of care.

That and make all London taxi drivers cycle everywhere for a month to see how they like it ;-)

I once got a ticket ($140ish) for cruising through a stop sign on a bike. Ever since then, I come to an obnoxious tire-skidding halt at every stop sign before starting up again (and take the opportunity to swear at those who don't obey the rules).

The trouble is that I'm currently in America, where traffic planners have apparently decided that every goddamn intersection should have a four-way stop sign. This, to me, makes no sense -- put in roundabouts, or a Give Way sign going two out of four ways, to make traffic flow efficient. But anyway, it makes cycling anywhere a huge pain.

A couple of months ago, I started riding extremely rule-abiding, only making an exception for hook turns when I don't feel safe doing a normal left turn, mostly so I could feel morally superior to those who don't and feel better about myself. (It's great thinking I obey stop signs more than 90% of motorists I see!) Although it definitely helps that my ride is a rather casual 12 minute affair (and uphill, so all the stops give me a breather), after a couple of months it became rather second nature and honestly not a big deal. I also found that Toronto pedestrians smile at you when you give them way :).

Agreed about the lack of yield signs in North America though. Problematically, it normalizes rolling stops, making it harder to distinguish intersections where a stop is actually necessary.

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