from r by Driver
What needs to happen? Maryland drivers must decide to share the road in a safe manner with everyone else. I have years of experience bicycling on California’s back roads from the San Francisco Bay Area to Lake Tahoe to Mendocino County. There are far more bicyclists per mile there than in Maryland and I felt reasonable safe. One major reason for the difference is not the roads but the drivers who use Maryland’s back roads. The driving culture in Maryland blames everyone and everything but the proximate cause – the aggressive reckless driver.
Slowing and passing a bicyclist is a safe, easy, and polite maneuver. You look for on-coming traffic in the opposing lane, judge the traffic behind you, slow down and wait for a safe opportunity to pass with adequate clearance. Total precious driver time wasted insignificant to the number of lives saved.
The law requires an adequate clearance. I agree, that in a perfect world, such a law would not be required because everyone would have a modicum of common sense. That is unfortunately lacking in Maryland today. Most of our roads in Southern Maryland are of the two-lane country variety. Where are bicyclists supposed to enjoy their hobby if not our quiet6 bay-view country roads?
Until you have been on a bicycle and encountered a rude, reckless, thoughtless driver you do not have an adequate appreciation of the problem. The editorial staff of the Sun needs to get a group together and go bicycling.
I’d guess that one reason we have so many school buses in the country is because drivers have made use of our roads impossible for children. At first it befuddled me why Maryland kids didn’t get themselves to school and then I drove here. It is not safe on the road in front of my own home in a neighborhood with one road in and one road out. The straight away begins at my front door and the race out of the area begins. Drivers are OBLIVIOUS. Our culture of reckless abandon guarantees unsafe roads.
This is a problem solved at the grass roots level. Citizens of Maryland must DECIDE to drive safely. There are too many bad drivers to ticket. This does not however limit the need for enforcement and awareness building that expensive citations provide.
The answer is that all of the Maryland road killers need to slow down and enjoy the ride. Be safe, be happy, arrive alive.
https://feedproxy.google.com/~r/StopTheMarylandUnsafeDriver/~3/4E9UMNo_MtY/oldId.20100423212732449
Biking in Baltimore