"In general, people riding bicycles tend to be more law-abiding than people driving cars"
Bicycle advocacy organizations across the nation face a big PR problem: cyclists are perceived as 'self-righteous, spandex wearing law breakers'. But what are the actual statistics? Are people on bicycles more likely to break laws than people in cars? Dave Schlabowske from Wisconsin Bike Fed went to find out. His results might surprise some people.
"There seems to be an almost universal perception that as soon as someone puts a leg over a bicycle, they stop obeying traffic laws. I think this is because the laws that are easy to break and get away with on a bicycle are much more obvious. Having studied traffic safety for more than a decade, it is my contention that people break the traffic laws they can get away with, no matter what mode of travel they are using....
"I needed facts so we did studies to check for speeding and to see what percentage of people failed to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. I also did bicycle counts at intersections where I checked to see how many people obeyed the traffic signals.
"So what did these studies find? Get ready for a big shock, but my studies found that in general, people riding bicycles tend to be more law-abiding than people driving cars. The percentage of people riding bicycles that made illegal maneuvers (ran red lights, rode on sidewalks, or rode against traffic) through the intersections where we did the counts varied from 11% to 48%. To say it another way, the majority of people who ride bikes obey the law. This definitely runs counter common perceptions."
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