Bicyclists sharing the road?

The Editor

The San Jose Mercury News

San Jose, CA

To the Editor:

Your recent article entitled, "Sharing the road,"

(The Mercury News, August 30) was very interesting.

Having been a car-free bicyclist for nineteen years

(1967 - 1986) has given me some perspective,

hopefully. That being said, I find that the

self-righteous attitudes of many East Bay bicyclists

to be quite hard to stomach. Many bicyclists here

pedal right through stop signs and red lights with

nary a slow down or even a glance at oncoming traffic.

Even the local police seem look the other way at these

serious and dangerous violations of the traffic laws.

This scofflaw juvenile attitude does not help in

motorist-bicyclist relations. Another dumb bicyclist

trick is to ride to the left of the marked bicycle

lane, thus infringing in the car/truck/SUV lane of the

road. Why do this? Several months ago, I submitted a

letter to a local East Bay free paper; after my letter

decrying these rude bicyclists attitudes was

published, there was a reply letter the next day

asserting that I was a "bigot." I guess that pointing

out the truth about self-righteous bicyclists in the

politically-correct East Bay can make one a "bigot."

Grow up, bicyclists. Act like adults and you will

have a much better change of being treated like adults

and your rides will be safer to boot.

Yours truly,

James K. Sayre

2002