|
Cyclists fare best when they act and are
treated as drivers of vehicles.
--John Forrester
Most of us learn the basic physical skills required to ride a bicycle as children. However, as children we often taught only to stay on sidewalks and avoid traffic at all costs. This may be adequate for very young children, but it's poor advice for most people. Adults using bicycles as transportation are generally better off being a part of traffic, and the law treats bicycles on the road nearly identically to other vehicles (see this summary of the relevant Michigan and Ann Arbor law); after all, bicycles were using roads before cars existed. John Allen's Bicycling Street Smarts (available in its entirety on-line) is one excellent manual for cycling in traffic; it has been adopted by the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania as their official bicycle drivers' manual, and there's an effort to do the same for the city of Ann Arbor.
Last updated . |