1) A clear concerted education campaign explaining to people including the police the rights and responsibilities of cyclists.

2) Then Plain clothed police with helmet cameras gathering evidence with helmet camera’s and finning or prosecuting anyone who breaks the law. As long as they fine or prosecute all road users equally, the roads will be safer for all.

I would like to say that I think in the main, that if the law was applied properly the motorists would suffer more under such a scheme because they dont know the rules of the road.

As for the stereotype of bikes being slow though, this morning my trip to work, for the most part on the hard shoulder of a 100kph highway, included a friendly honk from a bus driver I know…contiuing on my pathetically slow and yet amazingly law-abiding way I passed him stuck in traffic….a mere 12km further on.

The bus service runs non-stop. If I had to get that bus I’d have to leave home 10 minutes earlier, the trip time would be about the same, and with the lack of flexibility the bus has if I missed it I’d be late for work.

So I’m cycling 45km a day just going to and from work, am healthy though frequently hungry, losing weight all the time, superfit, have a low level of stress and hopefully will live an extra 10 years and see my daughter be married with children.

As for the slander of “certain bike riders have to realise that they will never be treated with respect on the road so long as they choose to break basic road rules”, which ones are you referring to, because along with “I ride bikes and love to do so” it sounds a lot like saying “some of my best friends are jewish/black/asian, but…”

Try being a pedestrian, like me, who lives and works in a major city and has little use for bikes or cars. I have to say the rudeness and arrogance of cyclists – who insist on needlessly riding on my footpath – is my main concern.

The last words should read ‘IS a myth.’

To add to the 3rd to last paragraph with the ending sentence reading ‘Power trips exist’, I would like to remind readers of the reality of road rage. How do you explain road rage? Why do people become so violent in response to minor incidences such as forgetting to use a turning signal or towards a person who sits for over 3 seconds at an intersection light turned from red to green?
Is this because of the extreme impersonalization of the experience of driving a car and sitting behind a windshield of glass and metal? A “windshield perspective” of the world can be a dangerous and unhappy place where someone who yields to a pedestrian at an intersection instantly becomes your enemy and inspires violence and aggression. Pedestrians don’t flip out and go crazy like this when walking down the sidewalk. People on foot (without cars) tend to be more courteous.
For many people, as soon as they’re in control of 3,000lbs of high-speed tank-like metal they become corrupted, selfish, greedy, impatient, rude, violent, and dangerous; the term ‘animal’ does not describe the behavior of these people, such as the person, caught on camera, who harassed and assaulted a cyclist for riding down the road.

And finally, a question for JG:
In regards to my statement, ‘Motorist aggression and disrespect towards cyclists is a more complex process. You make it seem as if its a calculated form of revenge on cyclists that ‘break basic road rules’’, I’d like to ask you a question.
When you or another motorist acts disrespectful towards a cyclist are you holding that cyclist accountable for the ‘basic road rule’ breaking that others cyclists, in your opinion, have committed?
To me it sounds like you’re justifying motorist bullying of cyclists because some cyclists in the past have broken ‘basic road rules.’

As a cyclist are you suggesting that I should be subject to aggression, bullying, and disrespect because a different cyclist in the past rolled a stop sign near you?
Sounds like a dangerous and violent form of stereotyping.

In this Global Warming Era its time for all of us, especially those in comfortable Western states, to re-adjust our lifestyles and re-define our priorities.
Motorist aggression, hegemony, and domination over cyclists, inspired by gross impatience, scares and prevents people from becoming cyclists.
Instead of losing your patience over a cyclist being sustainable why don’t you leave your house to commute or go to the store a little earlier so that you’re not put in a position where a cyclist riding down the road will make you a late (by 15 seconds to 2 minutes).

…”he continues to slow traffic up.”
Cyclists ARE traffic. By ‘traffic’ you must be referring to automobile traffic.

“certain bike riders have to realise that they will never be treated with respect on the road so long as they choose to break basic road rules.”
I believe this may be partially true at most.
First of all,
while cyclists in California are legally entitled to full use of the lane and are regularly denied that right in practice by motorists, the legal system and the urban design of cities does not faciliate a culture of equal rights for motorists and cyclists. For example, we’re not allowed to use freeways and we don’t have any bike-only freeways of our own. If we did there would be alot more cyclists in our society.

While cyclists and motorists should have some equal rights (such as legal entitlement to full use of the lane, at the very least) it’s not really possible to have complete equal rights since bikes and cars are dramatically different vehicles.
Automobiles are 3,000lb vehicles with an incredible physical power to kill others. Bikes are 26lb vehicles that do not have the ability to kill others on impact, with the exception of extremely rare circumstances.

In California, a cyclist that runs a stop sign is fined the same as a motorist that runs a stop sign. But what really poses a greater physical and fatal threat to society?

I believe there should be a third way or a third class; (The first being pedestrians, the second being motorists, and the third being cyclists). If we had a bike only lane (similar to the many freeways built for motorists) as they do in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver B.C. then that cyclist would never have to run that stop sign because he/she wouldn’t need to be on that road in the first place.
Until then, i believe, in this global warming era, cyclists should be given leniency in such circumstances. We need to create incentives for cyclists and not expect them to uphold every vehicle code and regulation that was designed with the motorist in mind.

Most importantly, as long as a culture of impatience exists some motorists will continue to deny cyclists respect. The psychological state that comes to a person when behind the wheel of a 3,000lb vehicle that can be quickly turned into a weapon is a whole other story. When driving a car on the road motorists temporarily have more power than they normally do in society. Power trips exist. This is not a myth.

The logic behind your statement ([cyclists] “will never be treated with respect on the road so long as they choose to break basic road rules”) IS not a myth.

Motorist aggression and disrespect towards cyclists is a more complex process. You make it seem as if its a calculated form of revenge on cyclists that ‘break basic road rules.’

I ride bikes and love to do so, however certain bike riders have to realise that they will never be treated with respect on the road so long as they choose to break basic road rules.

If I thought some bike rider or anyone else for that matter, spat on my car (whether pretending to or not) then I would react the same way.
A lot of this rage against bikes would stop if bike riders abided by the road rules when on the roads.