Yo Keith,

Sorry for not catching this friend request sooner...like within a year of it posting...

I am an avid Vehicular Cycling believer. The concept of bikes as vehicles is so basic and straightforward I find it difficult to believe there is such a backlash to the idea. It is not until one looks at the inability of automobile traffic science to be spread and regulated and taught and ENFORCED that it becomes apparent it is not the concept but the application that is at fault.

Our roads have reached the point where driving an intellegent vehicle of decent mileage and effective size, weight and height in a manner consistent with the rules and laws of the road is tantamount to commiting suicide. Regulations are flaunted with such regularity that safety and effective traffic flow cannot keep our roads moving people and vehicles cleanly, safely and quickly. Traffic is slowed by scofflaws determined (and enabled) to flaunt the rules just because they can without regard to anyones safety or right to smooth traffic flow and our police are so undermanned, undertrained and poorly resourced that bad driving has become the norm and all of us pay the price in our insurance rates, stress on the road and wasted time getting from place to place.

Onto this weave of ineffectiveness the powers that be lay costly inefficient and counterproductive bike philosophy rather than forward thinking traffic functions and then they wonder why riders die and pedestrians hide.

But on a bright note...wait there ain't none. We have to awaken to several layers of social developement and personal responsibility to begin to mold our future to a brighter tomorrow.

OK so I know I'm a buzz kill but the 'edge' those beleifs put on my approach to daily life has kept me alive in my car, on my wheels and on foot. And the major player in defining (tho his approach is very off-putting...sorta like mine, ehh) these philosiphies is John Forester the only man I know of that was thrown in jail for riding in a Vehiclar Cycling style (I believe it was in Santa Barbra or one of those Santa's on the Pacific seaboard).

see:http://www.johnforester.com/

      http://www.wright.edu/~jeffrey.hiles/essays/listening/ch4.html

      http://www.bicyclinglife.com/PracticalCycling/VCIntro.htm

      http://bicycling.about.com/od/thebikelife/a/forester_2.htm