Re: Do bicycles and cars mix?

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Matthew Russotto wrote:

> Necessary.  A number of times I have driven miles through Philadelphia
> taking the same route as a bicyclist, and ended up about even or just
> behind him when we split paths -- when he ran all the lights.

I stop at every light and stop sign. Every time I have ridden the same
path as a motorized vehicle driver in heavier chicago traffic I've ended
up ahead of the driver. Now this is not true of the suburbs for the 
following reasons:

1) City of chicago streets have a wide curb lane. With on street
parking there is a small section of pavement that is safe to ride
(just outside the door zone) that is in a different lane that is 
unusable by autos, but still a regular, legal lane. (parking is 
often not allowed during some hours of the day where this wide curb
lane is used by auto traffic)

2) The city of chicago has a default 30mph speed limit that is often 
not achievable due to traffic density. This allows me to use the left
lane on a bicycle fairly often to pass slow motorists. In the suburbs
if I get stuck in a slow right lane and the left is moving at speed, 
it will moving at speeds I cannot achieve on the bicycle. This is not
case in chicago where I can sprint and get up to the moral minimum and
as fast as many drivers, thus allowing me to merge. 

3) Suburban conditions are more of stop and go that is rather tiring 
followed by clear periods where auto traffic hits 40-50mph speeds. 
Chicago city traffic is a more-or-less constant 20-30mph that is great
for bicycling. And because of 1) I am not often forced into the 
stop-and-go that does exist. 

> The extra food you need to buy to run a bicycle ends up costing more than
> gas; people cost more to feed than cars.  The used bicycle really gets
> you in maintenance costs, unless you let it deteriorate to an unsafe
> condition. 

Let's see, I used my giant road bike from 1994 to 2002. I used up a 
couple sets of tires, a number of innertubes... ~$100. I broke a quick 
release, $10. And the crank and bearings wore out $6. So for 8 years
of use this bicycle cost me a wopping $116. I think the last set of 
tires I bought for my mustang were $118 EACH.  Like my autos I do almost 
all my own work with regards to maintaince and repair on the bicycles.

I've used my cannondale R600 for a year. Costs to date: $0.