Re: The College Crowd Isn't Representative

Jym Dyer <jym@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:

> > First, being near a major university was mentioned as an
> > indication that our college-age bicyclist population comes
> > from all over the U.S., so the typical behavior we see here
> > is pretty much representative of elsewhere.
> 
> =v= I don't think that's quite true.  The college-age population
> is often made up of people who abandoned the bike at age 16 to
> move "up" to the car.  Many college towns (as opposed to, say,
> a commuter campus) have local density, with amenities for the
> college-aged within walking distance.  Having a car in this sort
> of environment could be expensive.

The guy I was replying to was claiming that the behavior of bicyclists
we see around here (near Stanford University) is somehow atypical of
the rest of the U.S., and it isn't.  Lots of people run red lights
and stop signs when using bicycles.  They'll look both ways or
listen for traffic, out of self preservation.  Their behavior was
no doubt the same before they showed up at Stanford, and for the
reasons you mentioned, so they were running stop signs and red
lights with abandon earlier in their lives as well. Since Stanford
students come from all over the U.S., what I see here is a pretty
good sample of what people in that age group do elsewhere.

Keep in mind that the claim I was responding to was one by some
guy who claimed to never see bicyclists run stop signs.  We both
know that claim is absurd to the point of being loony.

> =v= So what you get is a population that's resuming use of what
> they may see as a toy they'd abandoned.  They're going to ride
> differently from, say, working-class kids and adults who've
> always used bikes for utility, middle-class city bike commuters
> or weekend warriors, etc.  While they may represent geographical
> diversity, they're not a representative sample.
> 
> > And as far as I'm concerned, anyone who denies that lots of
> > people in the U.S. who ride bicycles run stop signs and red
> > lights really must be a loon or otherwise completely out of
> > touch with reality.
> 
> =v= Agreed.  However, anyone who thinks motorists as a group
> behave better is also completely out of touch with reality.

Yes, we know. :-(  Yesterday or the day before, while trying to
get into a left turn lane, some idiot driver passed me on my
left, crossing a double yellow line to do it, and I was in a
car.  He was in a hurry to get to the red light ahead and 
probably objected to my habit of slowing down using 'engine
breaking' when approaching red lights with lines of stopped
cars.  Doing that saves gas, reduces wear and tear on the brakes,
and is safer (less risk of being tail ended by someone powdering
his or her nose or being otherwise distracted.) :-)


-- 
My real name backwards: nemuaZ lliB