Re: The College Crowd Isn't Representative

Jym Dyer wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> =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.
>     <_Jym_>
> 

BZ is playing games by putting his post to follow up to "a" so I will 
post here:

Then I must be the one living in an unusual place. I talked to a man 
once who saw a cyclist blow through a red light. He gave the cyclist a 
ticket. But it was only once and he has been a cop here for over 15 years.

I guess people here don't ride their bicycles like NoCal college 
students. I know that when I when to college, I saw kids routinely walk 
out in front a cars, but they don't do that here.