Those Darn Kids
I’m riding home from school today on the Burke-Gilman trail, in Lake Forest Park, coming up on first intersection south of the Lake Forest Park Mall, (the one I got the ticket—which was dismissed, eventually—at a couple years ago for going through the stop sign), and there’s a group of three or four kids sitting with their bikes and skateboards on the south side of the intersection. The oldest looks about 10; the youngest is maybe 5; the two in the middle are probably 7 or 8.
I come rolling up to the intersection and slow a bit, look both ways, see no cars in either direction, so roll on through. “Hey!” yells the oldest, “That’s a stop sign!” I kinda smile, thinking he’s kidding, but then the middle ones chime in “Stop sign! Stop sign!” And the little one cries, “You’re supposed to stop at a stop sign!”
So I yell back, as I pass on by, “Yeah! If you’re a car!” And I chuckle to myself as I leave them in my wake.
Good for them, I guess, to be so well trained in the rules of the road; they’re right, of course, you’re supposed to stop at stop signs, but in practice, on a bike, especially on the trail, it hardly seems necessary. I certainly wasn’t doing anything unsafe, either for myself or for any automobiles (since there weren’t any around). Now, I suppose the argument could be made that it’s the principle of the thing; traffic laws are to be followed without fail whether they enhance safety or not, but that seems overly dogmatic, especially when you’re fighting a bit of a headwind.
I wonder who put the kids up to this, anyway; they’ve probably heard their parents complaining about cyclists running the sign and are just echoing those sentiments. If that’s the case, I’m glad I ran it. I just wish mom and dad were around to yell at me, too.
I come rolling up to the intersection and slow a bit, look both ways, see no cars in either direction, so roll on through. “Hey!” yells the oldest, “That’s a stop sign!” I kinda smile, thinking he’s kidding, but then the middle ones chime in “Stop sign! Stop sign!” And the little one cries, “You’re supposed to stop at a stop sign!”
So I yell back, as I pass on by, “Yeah! If you’re a car!” And I chuckle to myself as I leave them in my wake.
Good for them, I guess, to be so well trained in the rules of the road; they’re right, of course, you’re supposed to stop at stop signs, but in practice, on a bike, especially on the trail, it hardly seems necessary. I certainly wasn’t doing anything unsafe, either for myself or for any automobiles (since there weren’t any around). Now, I suppose the argument could be made that it’s the principle of the thing; traffic laws are to be followed without fail whether they enhance safety or not, but that seems overly dogmatic, especially when you’re fighting a bit of a headwind.
I wonder who put the kids up to this, anyway; they’ve probably heard their parents complaining about cyclists running the sign and are just echoing those sentiments. If that’s the case, I’m glad I ran it. I just wish mom and dad were around to yell at me, too.
posted by Professor Dave at 7:25 PM
2 Comments:
Hey pal, the law is the law.
This means you!
Here's the short version of how I see it: we on bikes are responsible for our own safety whether we run a stop sign or not, or whether there is a stop sign even there or not, so it ends up not mattering a whole lot to us either way. the framework of traffic laws does little to protect bicyclists and so they have to make their own "rules" to ensure their own safety. rules that fail to provide a beneficial structure end up not getting followed.
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