Global Breaking News - Monday, December 23, 2024

The Rules of the Road
According to the League of American Bicyclists, there has been a 61.6 increase in bicycle commuting since 2000. New York has introduced a successful bike share program and the mayor of Chicago intends to create a 500-mile network of bike routes. With more cyclists on the roads, and bicycle safety a constant source of debate, should the laws and infrastructure be altered to recognize differences between bikes and cars, or should cyclists be treated the same as drivers?
* commute = 통근하다/ mayor = 시장/ constant = 끊임없는; 거듭되는/ infrastructure = 사회(공공) 기반 시설/ alter = 변하다, 달라지다; 바꾸다, 고치다 

 자전가와 자동차의 차이를 인정하기 위해 법과 기반시설은 고쳐져야 하나요? 아니면 자전거 타는 사람들을
운전자와 같이 대우를 해야 하나요?

1. Drivers and Cyclists Should Be Equals
Cyclists are fully capable of obeying the rules of the road; they fare best when they act, and are treated, as drivers of vehicles.

2. In Copenhagen, Separate but More Than Equal
Cyclists have their own roads and signs in Copenhagen, and they are often allowed to use streets both ways that are unidirectional for cars.

3. Make Cars More Inconvenient
Let's ban cars downtown (except for taxis and commercial vehicles); allow cyclists to roll slowly through stop signs like in Idaho; and give cyclists free, secure parking.

4. Different Spokes for Different Folks
Bicycles have different dimensions, speeds, and stopping distances than cars, and these factors need to be taken into account when roadways are designed.


Sample Essay

Drivers and Cyclists Should Be Equals

Since the 1920s American car culture has carried on a campaign to make motor transport the highest priority for streets and highways. While cyclists originally had the same rights as other drivers, the vehicular campaign against bicycle traffic was based on three arguments:

1. Roads are made for motor vehicles.
2. Cyclists must stay close to the edge of the roadway, or off of it if there's a path, because the greatest danger to cyclists is same-direction motor traffic.
3. Cyclists cannot be expected to be capable of obeying the rules of the road.

So cyclists grew up feeling guilty for trespassing on the road and for slowing real traffic, feeling scared of the same-direction motor traffic behind them, and helpless because there was nothing they could do. Eventually many of them became motorists themselves, losing any sort of cyclist-sensibility they once had. I have described this occurrence before: "The cyclist who rides in traffic will either slow the cars, which is Sin, or, if the cars don't choose to slow down, will be crushed, which is Death, and the Wages of Sin is Death."

There is a motorist-superiority/cyclist-inferiority complex in this country. In the 1960s, various changes produced an increase in both young-adult and mature-adult cycling for both transportation and sport. California's auto culture feared that these cyclists would clog up the roads. The problem was solved by instituting new and tougher restrictive laws and mandatory bikeways. But California's cyclists caught motordom in the act and fought back. Cyclists did not win any political battles, but managed to prevent the worst from being imposed on them. Two products from this era are American bikeway designs and the bicycle traffic laws that we have today.

But cyclists did win the scientific battle. Both of motordom's scientific claims were proved false. Turning and crossing movements are the cause of 95 percent of car-bike collisions and only 5 percent of accidents are the result of same-direction motor traffic. Cyclists are fully capable of obeying the rules of the road; they fare best when they act, and are treated, as drivers of vehicles.

So we have a bikeway system and bicycle traffic laws designed by motordom to oppress cyclists for the convenience of drivers, but which are contradicted by the scientific knowledge available. Furthermore we have a cycling population that still believes motordom's nonsense and rides with feelings of guilt, fear of same-direction motor traffic and belief in its own helplessness. Working out the difficulties of this situation is a pretty problem.