LeftieBiker said:
I too remember the 55MPH limit, and driving 60 was the practical limit before you got ticketed.
Out here it was 65, as the CHP hated the law as much as everyone else did, and acted accordingly.
LeftieBiker said:
You and all the other 80MPH dopes think the laws of physics get changed with the speed limits. They don't.
I can't speak for the other 'dopes', but I've never suffered from that delusion
I'm just willing to accept the risk, in a car that's far safer than the one I learned to drive in when the CA interstate speed limit was 65 (pre-1974).
Similarly, I've been willing to ride my bike in heavy street traffic for 51 years now. Can't say I enjoy it, but I've long since accepted the risk when it provides with a more direct if not the only route to get where I'm going.
(OT) OTOH, I've also been participating for the past couple of years in my city's surveys/focus groups etc. to update our bike/pedestrian plan, pointing out the absolute need to provide either separate bike paths or protected bike lanes if they ever hope to get the rider demographic described as "interested but concerned" to commute/do errands by bike. Every survey I've ever seen of this demographic group says they simply won't ride in the street with fast moving car traffic unless protected.
In fact, the only demographic group who will do so in numbers are adolescent males, and people like me who've been doing so since we started to as adolescent males.
The city has been listening, and yesterday I had the opportunity to ride along a section of a major arterial (35-50 mph speed limits) that had recently been modified to provide protected bike lanes; it used to just have painted lines, but now there are narrow traffic islands with raised curbs and plantings, with marked gaps every so often to allow cars to enter/exit driveways.
Although I never think about it normally, I'm always surprised at just how much less stressful it is to ride in a protected vice unprotected lane next to fast moving traffic. Next step is to extend it 3 miles to downtown. They'll probably have to use parking-protected lanes for that bit, as they'd have to forego too much on-street parking otherwise. (end OT)
