Why We Should Never Fine Cyclists

B’ Spokes: Another reaction to Sarah Goodyear’s article by Henry Grabar, The Atlantic Cities: https://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/05/why-we-should-never-fine-cyclists/5571/
Some of my thoughts; We typically punish behavior that is a danger to others but what about a danger to the individual, like attempted suicide by overdose? Would a several hundred dollar fine be appropriate and discourage that behavior? And even closer to the point I am trying to make, would a fine be appropriate every time you bought medicine you *could* overdose on? After all we are trying to prevent unsafe behavior, right? (Isn’t that like ticketing a red light running cyclist when no traffic is present because if the details of the circumstances were radically different then for sure that would be unsafe behavior.)
You see I like to bike on bike friendly streets, or a more appropriate label would be car friendly streets, you know streets where motorists can easily pass me. These typically are not major streets and when you do have to cross a major street you often have to do so without aid of a traffic light. If it really was so dangerous crossing a major street without a green light every single intersection would have a light but as Henry points out we are expected to take advantages of gaps in traffic on a fairly routine basses.
But cyclist must be suicidal, right? Just look no helmets, running red lights, riding in heavy traffic and so on. But just ask any suicidal cyclists and you’ll find it is not a very effective way to go.
This gets to the heart of the problem, while I will strongly assert we are not suicidal but just trying to make the best use of car centric road designs we still have to deal with those in authority who think we are crazy or suicidal and something must be done to stop us (That kind of thinking needs to stop as well.) So just as attempted suicide is treated more as a medical problem than a criminal one. We need to stress bike infrastructure is our "medical" cure and fining cyclists for a legal technicality is as inappropriate as fining attempted suicide.
[A few more thoughts after the fold. (Read more)]

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For me personally…
If I never had a light fail to detect my presence, I never would have ran that light.
If I never had the experience of being at a light being exactly the same as being in the middle of stampeding buffalos, I never would have ran that light.
We need more undercover cops on bikes ticketing motorist that harass and unsafely pass cyclists.
Those police can ticket all the cyclists they want because they know what’s it like on the streets for cyclists. But for a police officer who only drives a patrol car, they are in no position to say what is and is not safe for cyclists.
My two cents.
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