> I'm not sure about NYC, but when I took the League of American Bicyclist
> training which is based on the Uniform Vehicle Code for the nation, the UVC
> is built on the assumption that no road user is privileged due to the kind
> of vehicle they use - whether motorized or not.
Yes, that's the theory -- even-handedness. The practice is another matter of course. But at this point even the theory is bad.
(This is a question of policy rather than politics, which I usually shy away from, but thought experiments have their uses.)
So if I were making policy I would definitely privilege non-motorized peds users dramatically over motorized ones; and people without wheels dramatically over people with wheels. On the principle that he who creates the risk bears the burden of responsibility.
There are a million other reasons to penalize driving, of course -- not least among them the fact that it's a deeply antisocial and infantilizing activity. I'm convinced that spending so many of our waking hours in a car is one of the things that makes Americans so crazy.
-- --
Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com http://cars-suck.org
When one does a foolish thing, it is right to do it handsomely.