Most drivers speed most of the time that they can. Most drivers roll stop signs when they think they can get away with it. Most drivers roll through right turn on red when they think they can get away with it. Most drivers won’t yield right of way to pedestrians at an uncontrolled intersection or even a crosswalk if that crosswalk doesn’t also have a red light or stop sign to make them stop. Most drivers don’t seem to know what a yield sign means. Every day I see drivers pushing yellow well past red. Every day I see drivers holding cell phones up to their ear even though that has been illegal here for a couple of years. Most drivers don’t signal all the times that they should. I regularly see drivers turn across multiple lanes. I regularly see news stories about DUI drivers.
Exactly how is it that anyone thinks that drivers are good about obeying the rules of the road? Drivers aren’t any better than bicyclists. Furthermore, in 2009 drivers killed an average of almost 90 people a day in the U.S. (including themselves a lot of the time). Bicyclists rarely kill anyone.
Bicyclists are not considered pedestrians in any state in the U.S. Bicycles are considered vehicles in most states and bicyclists have the same rights and responsibilities as vehicle operators even in the ones where they are not considered vehicles.
Bicycle safety and obeying the rules of the road are not mutually exclusive. You should never have to break the rules to be safe. If you take the Traffic Skills 101 course from the League of American Bicyclists, then you will learn about real bicycle safety. If you can’t take the class, at least read the booklet Bicycling Street Smarts which is available for free online.
Riding against traffic is one of the leading causes of collisions in which the bicyclist is at fault. People who do this try to claim that it’s because they can see traffic but the reality is that there usually is not time to do anything about an errant driver in this situation. There usually is no place to go and things happen very fast. Going against traffic also makes it go faster. If cars are going 35mph, and you are riding at 15mph with traffic, then the speed differential is 20mph. If you are riding 15mph against traffic, the speed differential is 50mph. How’s that for reducing reaction time? Most collisions with wrong way riders occur at driveways and intersections. This is because drivers making right turns into the road do not look to their right for bicyclists coming the wrong way. Why should they? They’re not supposed to be there. Actually, they should look to their right for pedestrians, but they usually don’t. Riding against traffic is monumentally stupid, not to mention illegal, and condemned by every bicycle safety expert around.
As far as acceleration, I’m 47 years old, have mild asthma and arthritis, and I commute on a cheap touring bike that weighs over 30 pounds and I beat most cars off the line across most intersections when the light turns green. Of course, they usually pass me not long after that. I’m pretty fast getting from 0–20mph but after that, my acceleration capability kind of levels off. A young rider in good shape with a fast bike will leave me in the dust.