This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Tom Boyce's letter ("Treat all cyclists as self-absorbed children," Aug. 24) will doubtless infuriate the cycling community, but it makes a serious point: cyclists in Salt Lake need to understand that they are using a vehicle on the public road, and this brings obligations.
I grew up a cyclist; in Europe during and after WWII there wasn't any choice! I cycled to school, to my first job, and throughout my college years (to keep the medieval city functional my university, Oxford, sensibly prevented undergraduates from using cars). So I appreciate that Salt Lake City is ideal for cyclists.
However, in Europe we had to obey all traffic rules (and at night had to have large lights front and rear). We could not zoom through stop signs and red lights, decide on a whim to become "pedestrians" using sidewalks at 20 mph, or squeeze between cars to get to the front of the line.
Here all these are common practices. As a result I am scared of cyclists: I know who will come off worse in a collision, and I don't want that death on my conscience for the rest of my life. It's time the mayor stopped pandering, and treated cycling as a serious traffic mode.
Richard Middleton
Salt Lake City