There is a reason people refer to cities as concrete jungles. They are crazy, hectic, and people are animals especially on the road. What is the answer? Are we supposed to join in the insanity and act like we are taking our lives in our own hands and do whatever it takes to come out ahead?
Sorry for all the dramatics, but I just got through reading the article 10 Rules For Urban Commuting by Josh King over at Commute By Bike, and I can not as a responsible cyclist, although don’t ask me how my bike is doing right now, agree with a lot of these rules that he is putting forward. City riding has always been a little troublesome and, dare I say it, dangerous, but the answer to this cannot be to not signal and not obey traffic rules. Granted he has a few rules in there that are good like wear a helmet and don’t be to close behind other bikes, but we can’t be advocating breaking the law. Running red lights and rolling through stop signs is fine in certain circumstances, I would never claim to be the perfect cyclist, but I would never tell someone to do this. Nor would I try to do this on an official ABC ride where we are trying to set the example for cyclists in Albany.
Heated, yes I am. We can not write things like this as a guide for people to follow because people will, and when they get hit by a car because they were being aggressive who going to get hurt, the writer or the cyclist? I understand that Albany and cities like New York and Seattle are different. In my opinion a rider needs to judge his or her own comfort level on the road. Are you okay with blowing through a red light? Fine. This should not be the standard though.
As always read the comments after the article. They make some good points.
Albany Bicycle Coalition 