Anchorage bicycle law about to be rewritten to be more stupid.

The Municipality of Anchorage Traffic Code is being rewritten this year.  The rules governing the use of roads and sidewalks are all being reviewed with the intention of bringing them into sync with the driving conditions of our city.  This sounds like a neat idea, but dig this proposed addendum to Anchorage bicycle law:

9.38.060(c): C. Persons operating a bicycle upon a sidewalk, recreational trail or bike trail

must yield the right-of-way to traffic before crossing a roadway, street, or driveway.

The justification for this rule is practical-sounding and goes something like this.  The right-of-way given to pedestrians crossing streets is based on the idea that the rider is going slowly enough to be seen by drivers.  But since bikes can go really fast, they are harder to anticipate, and so drivers shouldn't be held responsible for making sure they don't run them over.  This is a leading cause of accidents, and so by changing the law, we can make riders more responsible, and so avoid accidents.

The problem with that idea is that it's based on the faulty reasoning that bicycles are darting into the roadway in front of vehicles because they have the right of way and so causing accidents.  That's not actually what happens.  What actually happens is that bikers, and walkers for that matter, often travel on the left sidewalk of a road, facing oncoming traffic.  If you drive a car, you know that when turning right onto a street, the cars you are merging with are all coming from the left.  Thus, cars merging on to the street who want to avoid getting into vehicle collisions will generally be looking left while they are turning right. These people are engaging in what I refer to as Backwards-Looking, Oppositely-Oriented Driving (BLOOD).  They are actually the leading cause of vehicle/pedestrian accidents, since they aren't looking where they're going.

Nearly everybody who drives a car does this.  It's not rare in the slightest.  It's the most practical way to merge a vehicle into traffic.  The problem is, and this really should be the problem of the driver, that pedestrians can be coming from the other direction.  They usually aren't coming, because there aren't many pedestrians on most Anchorage roads.  That doesn't change the fact that people driving big machines around should be aware of where they are putting them at all times.  Giving them the right-of-way over pedestrians is definitely not going to make this happen.

Personally, I've been hit by cars on two occasions.  They were both caused in the same way:  I was crossing a street and the driver was turning right.  The first time, I was on the left sidewalk and they didn't see me until shortly after they hit me. They just looked at me and kept going, since I didn't appear to be hurt.  They didn't even stop.   

Here's a little thought experiment:  cars merging cause a large number of accidents.  So here's what we can do about it: give them the right-of-way.  That way, cars going straight on a roadway know that they have to yield to cars turning on to the roadway.  It's flawless, right?  That ought to prevent tons of vehicle collisions.  Write your assembly member.

I have a friend, let's call him Manfred, who is a regular bicycle commuter.  Prior to becoming one, he was a regular rollerblader.  When Manfred and I first started hanging out, we were riding somewhere up the left sidewalk. A car waiting to turn right pulled out in front of us in the crosswalk, causing us to stop riding so that we didn't get run over.  The driver then proceeded to turn onto the road, and never at any point did they so much as glance in our direction.  So my friend spat right on their passenger side window.  The driver didn't notice.  Manfred said he used to do that all the time back in his rollerblading days.  If they didn't notice getting a loogie on their window, they wouldn't have noticed running us over till it had already happened.   

To prevent both accidents and window loogies, I recommend the following addendum to the Anchorage Traffic Code:

9.22.010: A (continued). Drivers turning right shall turn their fucking neck and see if they're about to drive into something before they begin their turn.

 To sum up, giving cars the right of way isn't going to prevent vehicle/bicycle collisions.  However, it may increase the number of bewildered drivers trying to figure out who spit on their windshield.