I doubt that, maybe in burst/sprint but not sustained...Hell, the average top speeds in the Tour de France during the sprints is barely 25mph and those are top athletes.
>but the last thing we need if we want to encourage bicycling is nanny-state policing of proper signaling and such.
So we should enforce traffic laws on cars but not on bicycles? That's fairly myopic...
I don't think that's true. I haven't personally witnessed any accidents, and I admittedly don't have any data to cite, but I have witnessed many bicyclists cause complete chaos in busy traffic.
So we should enforce traffic laws on cars but not on
bicycles? That's fairly myopic...
According to this site [1], biking accounts for 1% of trips, but 2% of traffic fatalities.
UK figures show that it takes at least 8000 years of
average cycling to produce one clinically severe head
injury and 22,000 years for one death.
You might argue that cycling is safe. You can't argue that it is safer. It simply isn't.
Tell that to Michael Hastings, I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear the news.
Fewer than 2000 people die in plane crashes every year, despite the millions who fly. So I suppose we shouldn't make them follow any rules or safety procedures either, I mean it isn't as if those rules have prevented any deaths. Right?
Why should I have to respect you more than a car
You should respect me because I am exposed, riding a machine with few to no safety devices. It's the same reason I drive particularly carefully around motorcyclists. I do respect them more, so to speak, because they are at far greater risk on the road than car drivers. I want to see that they reach their destination safely, and I know the odds are stacked against them by distracted or arrogant drivers.
Most cyclists in the TdF, maybe. 25 mph is quite fast on a bicycle.
In fact, just this morning a lady got hit and put in the ICU at the corner of King St and 3rd in San Francisco, right near the ballpark. Yolanda, the lady who manages the front desk, was reviewing the tapes with the police after the accident. That's the second serious accident involving a pedestrian or bicyclist at that intersection since the beginning of the year. TBH, the speed limit in SoMa needs to be dropped to 25 mph. People drive far too fast in this neighborhood for it to be safe for either bicyclists or pedestrians.
This is completely untrue, at least in NYC.
"Historically, nearly half of motorists who kill a New York City pedestrian or cyclist do not receive so much as a citation for careless driving."
http://www.streetsblog.org/2012/08/03/nypd-7371-pedestrians-...
As for "police routinely pull video ... to establish fault" -- this is just one example, but recently in DC there was a bike-and-car crash in which a surveillance video proved the cyclist was not at fault, but the police refused to even look at it: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/19284/it-must-have-...
> Most cyclists have no trouble traveling at a speed greater than 25mph, even uphill.
The average speed of the tour de france winners now is only about 25mph and that is very heavily drug assisted;)
http://bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdfstats.html
Given this I can't really take your statement as a serious one:)
Your idea of banning cycle traffic on >25mph roads is misguided. Most cyclists have no trouble traveling at a speed greater than 25mph, even uphill.