[lbo-talk] The criminalization of the poor

[Mark DeLucas]

So have I.  And once I quite violently plowed a pedestrian as he crossed the
street, *against the red*.  But I didn't begrudge him, because as a
pedestrian, and as a biker, I too come under the inexorable urge to "go" --
whatever the light.  And that I think explains the commons sense -- and by
that I mean, there's few people who don't hold to it -- that a bike isn't a
car, and that if there's nothing oncoming, then a biker should be free to
transgress the light.  I'm writing self-interestedly, but I think the
sensible thing to do would be to judge these things on a case by case basis
-- did the biker yield to the cars or pedestrians in his way? Did he put
lives at risk? -- rather than enforce the law blindly.  Either that or
outlaw bicycle messaging.

On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


>
> On Aug 11, 2011, at 11:38 AM, Mark DeLucas wrote:
>
> > You might wish to avoid bicycling too, unless you have the internal
> > fortitude to stop and wait at every red light that you come to.  Because
> I
> > don't (and because as a bike messenger I was spending 9-10 hours per
> riding
> > a bike), I received in 5 months 4 tickets, valued at $190 each -- a bit
> more
> > than a week's wages.
>
> Good. I'm tired of the way bicyclists ignore traffic laws. They're
> dangerous to pedestrians, drivers, and themselves. I've nearly been run over
> several times by jackasses on bikes running red lights going the wrong way
> on one-way streets.
>
> Doug
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>