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<DIV>I've been biking in this town for over 25 years, and working in the transportation industry.</DIV>
<DIV>I drive a taxi. One thing we should not lose sight of is that these "traffic laws " are made for motor vehicles.</DIV>
<DIV>Traffic lights to be effective must be obeyed, by cars for cars. The most important law for peds and cyclists has to be the law of physics, when interacting with motor vehicles be aware that 116.8 people die</DIV>
<DIV>on American roadways everyday. Cars are the leading cause of death for all age groups up to age 55.</DIV>
<DIV>The statistics are staggering, leading to certain conclusions, 1) the larger the car the safer you will be even if you are the one at fault, thus leading to the rise in SUV sales. 2) Driving a car is an easy thing to do</DIV>
<DIV>automatic cars are especially simple, so simple that people are able to drive after consuming vast amounts of alcohol. 3) There has been a great amount of lobbying done by the auto dealers to convince us that cars are safe, this has never been true,...R.Nader's <U>Unsafe at Any Speed </U> finally persuaded legislators to require that seatbelts standard issue in new cars. The cities love cars it's win/win, in theory they provide proof</DIV>
<DIV>of economic eligibility, that is cars carry consumers. Then the city taxes them tows them levy's parking fines on these lienable portable real estate and rakes the in $.</DIV>
<DIV> Meanwhile the social costs escalate, Boston has one of the highest asthma rates in the country,</DIV>
<DIV>our system of 1 car 1 person leads to massive congestion, time wasted and even has America</DIV>
<DIV>mired in a dirty questionable war that can only be about our right to sit in traffic and burn fossil fuels.</DIV>
<DIV>The very action of driving poses a philosophical dilemma as we race against one another to occupy the paved real estate, I could go on, I often do but for me I stop at redlights and green lights as well because I have noticed that no matter how strong a red light is it does nothing to halt 2 tons of metal. I feel that I have an inalienable right to stay alive and that includes responsibly crossing intersections.</DIV>
<DIV> In 1984 I was a bike courier for about 8 months, I quit the day a fellow courier was run over, she was stopped at a red light, the truck didn't stop and ran her over she died in the hospital 2 days later.</DIV>
<DIV> Remember roads were built for cars and trucks not for anything else, use them at your wise discretion</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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